III
If we except Arthur, whose knowledge of the Adirondack woods and waterswas that of a naturalist, Lee and Gay were the sportsmen of the family.They had begun to learn the arts of fishing and hunting from excellentmasters at the tender age of five. They knew the deeps and shallows ofevery lake and brook within many miles as intimately as a good housewifeknows the shelves in her linen closet. They talked in terms of blazes,snags, spring holes, and runways. Each owned a guide boat, incomparablylight, which she could swing to her shoulders and carry for a quarter ofa mile without blowing. If Lee was the better shot, Gay could throw themore seductive fly.
There had been a guide in the girls' extreme youth, a Frenchman, PierreAmadis de Troissac, who had perhaps begun life as a gentleman. Whateverhis history, he had taught the precious pair the rudiments of French andthe higher mysteries of fishing.
He had made a special study of spring holes, an essential in Adirondacktrout-fishing, and whenever the Darlings wanted trout, it had only beennecessary to tell De Troissac how many they wanted and to wait a fewhours. On those occasions when he went fishing for the larder, Lee andGay, two little roly-polies with round, innocent eyes, often accompaniedhim. It never occurred to De Troissac that the children could mark downthe exact places from which he took fish, and, one by one and quiteunintentionally, he revealed to them the hard-won secrets of his springholes. The knowledge, however, went no further. They would have toldPhyllis, of course, if she had been a sport. But she wasn't. Sheresembled Lee and Gay almost exactly in all other ways; but the spiritof pursuit and capture was left out of her. Twice she had upset a boatbecause a newly landed bass had suddenly begun to flop in the bottom ofit, and once, coming accidentally upon a guide in the act ofdisembowelling a deer, she had gone into hysterics. She could row, carrya boat, swim, and find the more travelled trails; but, as Lee and Gaysaid: "Pill would starve in the woods directly the season was over."
She couldn't discharge even a twenty-two calibre rifle without shuttingher eyes; she couldn't throw a fly twenty feet without snarling herleader. The more peaceful arts of out-of-doors had excited herimagination and latent skill.
In the heart of the woods, back of The Camp, not to be seen or evensuspected until you came suddenly upon it, she had an acre of gardensunder exquisite cultivation, and not a little glass. She specialized innectarines, white muscats of Alexandria, new peas, and heaven-bluelarkspur. But, for the sake of others, she grew to perfection beets,sweet corn, the lilies in variety, and immense Japanese iris.
As The Camp was to be turned into an inn which should serve its guestswith delicious food, Phyllis and her garden became of immense importanceand she began to sit much apart, marking seed catalogues with one end ofa pencil and drumming on her beautiful teeth with the other.
Negotiations had been undertaken with a number of periodicals devoted tooutdoor life, and a hundred schemes for advertising had been boiled downto one, which even Arthur was willing to let stand. To embody Mary'sideas of a profitable proposition into a page of advertising withoutbeing too absurd or too "cheap," had proved extremely difficult.
"We will run The Inn," she said, "so that rich people will live verymuch as they would if they were doing the running. One big price mustcover all the luxuries of home. We must eliminate all extras--everythingwhich is a nuisance or a trouble. Except for the trifling fact that wereceive pay for it, we must treat them exactly as papa used to treat hisguests. He gave his guests splendid food of his own ordering. When theywanted cigars or cigarettes, they helped themselves. There was alwayschampagne for dinner, but if men preferred whiskey and soda, they toldthe butler, and he saw that they got it. What I'm driving at is this:There must be no difference in price for a guest who drinks champagneand one who doesn't drink anything. And more important still, we must doall the laundering without extra charge; guides, guide boats, guns, andfishing-tackle must be on tap--just as papa had everything for hisguests. The one big price must include absolutely everything."
Added to this general idea, it was further conveyed in the finaladvertisement that the shooting was over hundreds of thousands of acresand the fishing in countless lakes and streams. And the last line ofthe ad, as had been previously agreed, was this:
"PRICES RATHER HIGH."
And, as Gay said to Lee: "If that doesn't fetch 'em--you and I knowsomething that maybe will."
The full-page ad began and ended with a portrait of Uncas, the chipmunk,front view, sitting up, his cheeks puffed to the bursting point. Thecentre of the page was occupied by a rather large view of The Camp andmany of the charming little buildings which composed it, taken from thelake. Throughout the text were scattered reproductions--strings oftrout, a black bear, nine deer hanging in a row, and other seductions toan out-of-door life. For lovers of good food there was a tiny portraitof the chef and adjoining it a photograph of the largest bunch of whitemuscats that had ever matured in Phyllis's vinery.
A few days before the final proofs began to come in from the advertisingmanagers, there arrived, addressed to Gay, a package from a firm in NewYork which makes a specialty of developing and printing photographs foramateurs. Gay concealed the package, but Lee had noted its existence,and sighed with relief. A little later she found occasion to take Gayaside.
"Was the old film all right? Did they print well?"
Gay nodded. "It always was a wonderful picture," she said.
"Us for the tall timber," she said--"when they come out."
The final proofs being corrected and enveloped, Gay and Lee, innocentand bored of face, announced that, as there was nothing to do, theythought they would row the mail down to the village. It was a seven-milerow, but that was nothing out of the ordinary for them and it wasarranged that the _Streak_ should be sent after them in case they showedsigns of being late for lunch.
Gay rowed with leisurely strokes, while Lee, seated in the stern, busiedherself with a pair of scissors and a pot of paste. She was giving thefinally corrected proofs that still more final correcting which she andGay had agreed to be necessary.
They had decided that the centrepiece of the advertisement--a meregeneral view of The Camp--though very charming in its way, "meantnothing," and they had made up their unhallowed minds to substitute inits place one of those "fortunate snap-shots," the film of which Gayhad--happened to preserve.
In this photograph the six Darling sisters were seated in a row, on theedge of The Camp float. Their feet and ankles were immersed. They woreblack bathing-dresses, exactly alike, and the bathing-dresses were ofrather thin material--and very, very wet.
The six exquisite heads perched on the six exquisite figures proved apicture which, as Lee and Gay admitted, might cause even a worthy youngman to leave home and mother.
It was not until they were half-way home that Lee suddenly cried aloudand hid her face in her hands.
"For Heaven's sake," exclaimed Gay, "trim boat, and what's the matteranyway?"
"Matter?" exclaimed Lee; "that picture of us sits right on top of theline _Prices Rather High_. And it's too late to do anything about it!"
Gay turned white and then red, and then she burst out laughing. "'Tisawful," she said, "but it will certainly fetch 'em."