CHAPTER VIII
GLOW OF THE CAMPFIRE'S GLEAM
"And so the mystery of the 'Pocket In Black Rock' was finally clearedup," ended the story teller, as the big smoldering log fell into theblaze and sent up a "fire-works" of spluttering embers.
The Bobbies hugged the line of waists that sat squat in front of thecampfire. Peg had been accorded a seat of honor directly in front ofthe biggest blaze, and it was not possible to escape her sighs andgasps of rapt attention, as the thrills of the story were unwound, andshe jumped up now and smiled so frankly into the face of the directorthat no shadow of doubt remained as to this strange girl's sincerity.
"I have never had such a lovely time!" she declared with something ofthe social habit, "and I'm ever--so thankful to you and the girls."
The Bobbies were all delighted. Somehow this little woods-girl was sopicturesque and fitted in the scene so perfectly now, when the blazelit up her entire form, as she stood outlined against the night--it washard to imagine she was in any way queer!
But the next moment she had flung her cape over her shoulders, thrusther fingers into her mouth to make shriller the whistle she emitted,and when Shag leaped "into the ring" she said good-night, repeated itto each section of the group, and then was off with her dog, beforethe others could offer "to go with her over the hill" or even to askher to come again.
Her abrupt departure left a sort of "hole in the group." While she wasthere the others felt a fascination, that usually accorded to mystery,and perhaps she as much as Miss Mackin's thrilling story had furnishedthe evening's interest. But during all the time she exchanged no wordeven of comment, and some of the girls suspected that the "kidnapping"perpetrated by Grace and Cleo had been more real than imagined.
"What joy!" enthused Margaret, looking up to see if she could find thestars blinking after having her eyes glare-shot by the fire. "To thinkwe are going to sleep out here in the woods!"
"And we must make our inspection now," announced the careful director."Corene, you are leader; get the lantern, please."
Willingly the Scout mentioned sprang to obey, when the"plink-plink-plink" of Ukes, and a soft hum of voices stole down totheir grounds.
"A serenade!" exclaimed Louise.
"Oh, goody! We will have more campfire!"
Presently the music filled the clearance, and, as suspected, theserenaders were upon the scene.
"The girls from Norm!" cried Julia. "Isn't this just too lovely!"
Then sang the singers:
"There are girls that make us happy, There are girls who make us sad, There are girls who never can stop gig'ling And they're girls who make you awful mad! But the girls we serenade this evening With this ukeleled sing-a-song, Are the Bobbies with our stolen Mackey, In the lovely new Camp Comalong!'
The tune was borrowed from "Smiles" and the words, though a littlerough on the edges, fitted in pretty well. And this was the beginningof the campfire concert. Two ukes and two mandolins, besides a realmelodious banjo, composed the orchestra, and the Norms sang everythingcampy and collegiate, until Mackey declared she would simply have toput her Bobbies to bed.
Regret as real and keen as that usually expressed in a nursery at thesame order, answered the summons, but the director was inexorable, andthe Norms finally left in a path of complimentary protestations.
The inspection finished (nothing was found out of order on this, thevery first night), the little campers presently found themselves intheir "bunks."
Such tittering, giggling and whispering!
Someone's bed "sagged like a hammock" while another someone's "humpedlike a hill."
"I'm going to try to grow tall," whispered Louise to Julia, hernearest neighbor. "Do you suppose the pines and tamaracks can stretchone out?" and she thrust her feet beyond the blanket confines.
Julia didn't care if she shrank, and she whispered that secret; and soit went around from cot to cot until Miss Mackin called a finalwarning. Then things settled down at last, and only the trusty lanternthat hung behind a screen in a sheltered spot outside the door, stoodsentinel over the sleepers.
And they slept. Little gasps and sighs told of girlish dreams, and ifLouise kicked her feet down too decidedly perhaps she was trying togrow; also when Julia humped up her knees and spoiled the entireeffect of her pretty blanket, perhaps she was trying to shrink.
Then the inevitable happened. As it couldn't be avoided it has to betold, in spite of the usual first night scare banality.
Cleo had just said something unintelligible and Corene answered withan alto groan, when there was a scream! It came from the end cot whereMargaret slept.
Every one sat up as if a spring had been touched.
"Oh, mercy, look!" yelled a chorus.
They looked, and between the curtain blazed two immense eyes! Alsothere was a snorting sound!
"A bear!" cried Madaline. "See how tall he is!"
"Yes, look!" exclaimed Cleo, "his head is in--the trees!"
Miss Mackin's flashlight had slipped from her hand, and it was whileshe fumbled in the dark for it that this dialogue was snapped off.
"Just wait a minute, and don't get excited," she begged soinadequately that Corene repeated:
"Excited!"
Her light recovered, she quickly turned the flash on the thing thatwas somehow fixed in the joining of the rear flaps of the tent.
"Oh, h-h-h!" screamed the chorus again.
"Nothing--but--a----" Miss Mackin stopped.
She was not sure just what it was, for an immense animal head wasframed in the curtains it had poked itself between.
There was a continued volley of subdued shrieks from everyone untilCleo took aim with her shoe. She proved a first rate shot, for theanimal blinked once and promptly withdrew.
"A cow! I heard him chew!" declared the little fat Madaline.
"But he has no horns," argued Julia, trembling still, and trying totalk with a head covered in the blankets.
"It is a cow," declared Miss Mackin. She was on her feet now, and hadthe tent flaps open. She had taken down the pole light from the frontdoor, and now swung the lantern through the curtains in the rear."See, there she goes! Poor Bossy just wanted to pay us a call. Ididn't know we had any cows around here."
"All right there?" called a man's voice, next.
"The officer!" declared Cleo not without a little squeak of joy."That's Dick Porter's voice."
"Yes, that's the watchman," agreed Miss Mackin, who had slipped on herheavy robe.
"All right, officer!" she called back. "But please drive the cowaway."
"Certainly," came the reply through the night's silence. "That cow hasa habit of walking in her sleep," and he laughed so good-naturedlythat the Bobbies took the cue and laughed heartily themselves.
The director feared she would not get them quiet again in time to haveeven a reasonable amount of sleep, for what one didn't think of theother suggested, until night was turned into a medley of utternonsense, set off by such laughter as can only be enjoyed when she wholaughs knows it's against the rules to do so.
"Now, girls, no campfire to-morrow night if you do not stop withinfive minutes," threatened Miss Mackin in desperation.
"All right, Mackey dear," replied Cleo. "I'll throw my other shoe atthe first one that laughs."
Then she yelled again. It was such a sudden outburst no one couldquestion the humor that provoked it.
"Oh, Mackey dear," she gulped between her spasms. "Do you think Bossieswallowed my new shoe?"
"We'll chip in and buy you a new pair if you only will go to sleep,Bobbie dear," begged the distracted director, and this time her appealbore results.
But over the bend on Tamarack Hill another girl slept fitfully. Peghad broken her resolution to remain alone, and for that one beautifulevening she had been just like the others--a girl among girls!
And how overjoyed Aunt Carrie was! To have Peg run off and spend ahappy evening with the Girl Scouts. Upon her return to the cabin nolittle qu
een could have received more loving attention.
"Now at last, Peggie dear, you have found friends," the white-hairedwoman had declared. But Peg shook her bobbed head and refused topromise that she would keep up the friendship so auspiciously begun.
"You know, Carrie dear, I must not bring folks here yet," Peg hadprotested, "and I shall never accept things nor friendship that Icannot fully return."
So now Peg slept, dreaming of that magic campfire: hearing the storyagain of the pocket in the big black rock: now she felt Grace graspher hands in delight and ecstasy with a little squeal of joy, andafter it all she was alone again, with Shag sleeping at her door, withAunt Carrie's faithful night lamp making a little shaded starlightbeneath the beam ceiling.
And she had cried a little and laughed a little, but at last it wasall over, and now she would take Whirlwind out over the hills in theearly morning and forget, if she could, the Bobbies and their magiccampfire.