The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods; Or, The Winnebagos Go Camping

w graceful dancing steps back and forth in front of Sahwah. Sahwah did her best to imitate her. "There, that's a little better," said Gladys, "but there is lots of room for improvement still. Now,

ully grinned from ear to ear, and Gladys shook her head again. "No, not like that, it makes you look like a clown. Just smile slightly and naturally; act as if you were enjoying yourself." Thus the lesson proceeded. Gladys had undertaken the task of teaching Sahwah fancy dancing, and drilled her every morning in t

eally well, and it was the little fine touches and graces that Gladys was teaching them-lightness of foot, stateliness of carriage, graceful disposing of arms and hands. Gladys had taken charge of the entire dancing hour now, and it was the most popular class

le to bring herself to make the leap. "Shall I hold your hand the first time?" said Nyoda. Holding tightly to Nyoda's hand, Gladys jumped from the board, and sank down, down through the glassy, translucent depths, holding her breath and trying to keep her eyes open as she had

ement. All the girls laughed at t

She could not overcome her astonishment at the feats she was able to perform in the water, now that she had lost her fear of it. She became bolder and bolder with each new trial and finally took every one's breath away by announcing that she was going off the top of the tower. And she did it, too, without a moment's hesit

anner, he talked a long time about Heinrich, told her little incidents of his school days, and dwelt with pride on the record he had made in the class room, in the gymnasium, in the Klinik. When he spoke of the brave deed which had won him the Iron Cross his voice sank into a re

ool, and pronounced them badly. She reminded him of nothing in the Fatherland, and he was unlike any one she had ever associated with, and yet between these two there had sprung up the warmest kind of friendship. He opened up his cabinet and let her handle the instruments, a thing it would have been worth his housekeeper's life to have tried; he pulled out old pipes and pieces of pewter and told her thei

seven girls carried it down to the water's edge, its sides decorated with balsam boughs, saluted it by raising it th

e purple hills, Lovely Keewaydin! Swift as the seabird's wing, Light

Sahwah and Gladys got in and paddled out fro

t it was a knife, and Hinpoha, as his spouse, fiercely declared it was a scissors. Arguing hotly, they went out in a canoe, and soon came to blows about the point in question. The man threw his wife overboard, and hit her with a paddle every time she poked her head up. She kept coming up and saying,

have tasted good to the doctor, for he passed his plate three times for slumgullion and ate so many biscuits he lost count. Hinpoha, too, throwing her vow of abstinence to the winds, ate until she groaned, and while she was clearing away the dishes finished up all that was left of the fudge and the blueberries. The docto

oda, stopping in surprise as she met Migwan comin

p in the tree-hous

echoed Nyoda, "isn't ther

. I was lying awake the other night, listening to the wind singing through the treetops, and I thought

e sky," said Nyoda banteringly. "If I may intrude such a material question among you

ion on Migwan's face with keen amusement. This was the sort of thing she was always doing-her poetic fancy would be kindled to a certain idea without ever stopping to consider the practical side. But Migwan was resourceful as well as romantic. She took in the situation at a glance, laid her blankets at the foot of the tree, and repaired to the kitchen, whence she presently emerged with a long rope, made of sundry short ropes tied together and pieced out with strips of cloth. Windin

. In fact, it seemed as if she could put out her hand and grasp the Great Bear by the tail. Jupiter was just at her left

e-house swayed gently. It was too beautiful to sleep through, and Migwan lay awake hour after hour in wonder and delight, watching the moon steer her placid course across the

an turned over to get a look at the view on the other side and her pillow went overboard with a soft plop. She leaned over the edge to see where it ha

balanced himself on the limb. He had evidently been out all night and was sneaking home in the wee sma' hours, much the worse for dissipation. He teetered back and forth for a moment, then began unsteadily climbing the stairs up t

s with the blueberries. The fudge was a power unto itself and made war on all the rest. Hinpoha tried to get up and get something to relieve herself, but she was so dizzy she couldn't stand. A great monstrous biscuit was si

ezed a few times and then stopped dead still. Investigation revealed that the gasoline had given out. "Why didn't I think to fill her up before we left?" said Sahwah impatiently. "Here we are, out in the middle of the lake with never an oa

I'll swim ashore first. The girls are waiting for this milk. I

use for one?"

of some of the other campers along the lake. Besides waving the middy, both girls called and yodled until they were hoarse. At last they had the satisfaction of seeing a launch coming across the lake toward

ut of gasoline

p for boys. Boys of every age and size from six years up to eighteen were swarming around the dock, waiting to see who the distressed sailors were, and the girls became the center of interest. The two boys who had brought them in, and who had introduced themselves as "the Roberts brothers, Ed and Ned," called one of the senior Coun

g near. Sahwah and Gladys laughed outright at this version of the story. When Gladys announced that Sa

nd there, only she knew that such an exhibition would be entirely out of place, and so restrained herself. It began to rain while they were waiting f

s, the younger ones on one side of the camp and the older ones on the other. They were divided into three classes accord

ent grades in swimm

be

d at Gladys expressively and Sahwah read his meanin

rescued any more, even if I don't

l that they showed her. One of the Roberts boys, Ed, was quite taken with her and determined to see more of her before the summer was over. When they took their

over sometime," pro

ing the uniform of the Mountain Lake Camp came i

mp Winnebago and begs permission to send

rote in

Lake Camp's greetings and begs to say th

uch order as they had never known before; the shack was decorated with grasses and wild flowers; canoe cushions were brushed; songs were practised and lemons squeezed, that everything might be in readiness for the visito

ame the same wail. Not a girl there who had not gained from five to fifteen pounds, and the tight skirts, made to fit in their s

f us to wear our white linen skirts with our middies outside, so it won't show how much they gap. An

or campers. Ed Roberts looked around for Gladys the first thing, and his brother for Sahwah, while the rest paired off with the other girls as they went up the hill to the shack. Nyoda was not very fond of having her company sitting around in pairs and immediately started them to playing games whic

as lightly as a butterfly, she did some of her choicest dances-"The Dance of the Snowflake," "The Daffodil,"

Gladys. She was still in an agony of embarrassment and wished the floor would open and swallow her, but it was a rule of the Winnebagos that if they were called on to perform for the entertainment of visitors they must do the thing called for to the best of their ability, an

ask any one else to dance until a quiet word from his Counsellor sent him rather unwillingly on to the floor again. "Mayn't I have this one?" he pleaded every time after that, but Gladys smilingly declined, saying she had promised every one of the boys a dance and would not get aroun

dys and led her into his canoe before she had time to say a word. He pushed off before there was time to put any one else in with them, for some of the canoes had to carry four. As they paddled through th

noe with her, which remark, though merely an effort to start a conversation on Nyoda's part

so much lighter than the others they were continually getting ahead. She taught him the "silent" paddle of the Indians, which they used to hide their approach, twisting the paddle around under the surfa

them and the others. When they rounded one of the little islands he stopped so long that the first canoes got out of sight around the bend, leaving them hidden behind the i

and it's past our bed time already. T

go to bed on a night like this? Besides, you can tell Miss K

ipped it in the water. Gladys paddled so energetically that they soon came up with the others and landed at the dock with them, and as the rest had been so occupied with their own affair