CHAPTER VII: POLLY"S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE.
""O frabjous day! Calooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy."
Polly"s birthday dawned auspiciously. At six o"clock she was kissed out of a sound sleep by Bell and Margery, and the three girls slipped on their wrappers, and prepared to run through the trees for a morning plunge in Mirror Pool. Although it was August there was still water enough in Minnehaha Brook to give one a refreshing dip.
Mirror Pool was a quarter of a mile distant and well guarded with rocks and deep hidden in trees; but a little pathway had been made to the water"s edge, and thus the girls had easy access to what they called The Mermaid"s Bath. A bay-tree was adorned with a little redwood sign, which bore a picture of a mermaid, drawn by Margery, and below the name these lines in rustic letters:-
"A hidden brook, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune."
Laura had not lived long enough in the woods to enjoy these cold plunges; and, as her ideal was a marble tub, with scented water, and a French maid to apply the same with a velvet sponge, it is not much wonder. She insisted that, though it was doubtless a very romantic proceeding, the bottom and sides of the natural tub were quite too rocky and rough for her taste, and that she should be in constant terror of snakes curling round her toes.
"I"ve a great mind to wake Laura, just for once," said Bell, opening the tent door. "There never was such a morning! (I believe I"ve said that regularly every day; but I simply never can get used to it.) There must have been a wonderful sunrise, dears, for the glow hasn"t faded yet. Not a bit of morning fog--that"s good for Elsie.
And what a lovely day for a birthday! Did they use to give you anything like this in Vermont, Polly?"
"Hardly," said Polly, peering over Bell"s shoulder. "Let"s see.
What did they give us in Vermont this month? Why, I can"t think of anything but dog-days, hot nights, and hay fever; but that sounds ungrateful. Why, Geoff"s up already! There"s Elsie"s bunch of vines, and twigs, and pretty things hanging on her tent-door. He"s been off on horseback. Just my luck to have him get up first. Jack always does, you know; and last night I sewed up the tent-opening with carpet-thread, good and tight, overhand--st.i.tches I wouldn"t be ashamed of at a sewing-school."
"Oh you naughty girl!" laughed Bell. "The boys could rip it open with a knife in half the time it took you to sew it."
"Certainly. I didn"t mean to keep them sewed up all day; but I thought I"d like Jack to remember me the first thing this morning."
"Girls," whispered Margery, excitedly, "don"t stand there mooning--or sunning--for ever! I thought there was a gopher in this tent last night. I heard something scratching, and I thought it was the dog outside; but just look at these two holes almost under Laura"s pillow!"
"Let"s fill them up, cover them over--anything!" gasped Bell. "Laura will never sleep here another night if she sees them."
"n.o.body insured Laura against gophers," said Polly. "She must take the fortunes of war."
"I wouldn"t wake her," said Margery. "She didn"t sleep well, and her face is flushed. Come, or we shall be late for breakfast."
When they returned, fresh and rosy, from their bath, there was a stir of life in all the tents. Pancho had come from the stage-station with mail; an odour of breakfast issued from the kitchen, where Hop Yet was humming a fragment of Chinese song, that ran something like this,--not loud, but unearthly enough, as Bell used to say, to spoil almost any cooking:-
[Music follows]
Fong fong mongmong tiu he sun yi-u sow chong how ki-u me yun tan-tar che ku choi song!
d.i.c.ky was abroad, radiant in a new suit of clothes, and Elsie pushed her golden head out between the curtains, and proclaimed herself strong enough for a wrestling-match with any boy or man about the camp.
But they found Laura sitting on the edge of her straw bed, directly over the concealed gopher-holes, a mirror in her hand and an expression of abject misery on her countenance.
"What"s the matter?" cried the girls in one breath. But they needed no answer, as she turned her face towards the light, for it was plainly a case of poison-oak--one eye almost closed, and the cheek scarlet and swollen.
"Where do you suppose you got it?" asked Bell.
"Oh, I don"t know. It"s everywhere; so I don"t see how I ever hoped to escape it. Yet I"ve worn gloves every minute. I think I must have touched it when I went up the mountain trail with Jack. I"m a perfect fright already, and I suppose it has only begun."
"Is it very painful?" asked Polly, sympathetically. "Oh, you do look so funny, I can hardly help laughing, but I"m as sorry as I can be."
"I should expect you to laugh--you generally do," retorted Laura.
"No, it"s not painful yet; but I don"t care about that--it"s looking so ridiculous. I wonder if Dr. Winship could send me home. I wish now that I had gone with Scott, for I can"t be penned up in this tent a week."
"Oh, it won"t hurt you to go out," said Bell, "and you can lie in the sitting-room. Just wait, and let mamma try and cure you. She"s a famous doctor." And Bell finished dressing hurriedly, and went to her mother"s tent, while Polly and Margery smoothed the bed with a furtive kick of straw over the offending gopher-holes, and hung a dark shawl so as to shield Laura"s eyes.
Aunt Truth entered speedily, with a family medical guide under one arm, and a box of remedies under the other.
"The doctor has told me just what to do, and he will see you after breakfast himself. It doesn"t look so very bad a case, dear; don"t run about in the sun for a day or two, and we"ll bring you out all right. The doctor has had us all under treatment at some time or other, because of that troublesome little plant."
"I don"t want to get up to breakfast," moaned Laura.
"Just as you like. But it is Polly"s birthday, you know (many happy returns, my sweet Pollykins), and there are great preparations going on."
"I can"t help it, Mrs. Winship. The boys would make fun of my looks; and I shouldn"t blame them."
"Appear as the Veiled Lady," suggested Margery, as Mrs. Winship went out.
"I won"t come, and that"s the end of it," said Laura. "Perhaps if I bathe my face all the morning I can come to dinner."
After breakfast was cleared away, Hop Yet and Mrs. Howard"s little China boy Gin were given a half-holiday, and allowed to go to a-- neighbouring ranch to see a "flend" of Hop Yet"s; for it was a part of the birthday scheme that Bell and Geoffrey should cook the festival dinner.
Jack was so delighted at the failure of Polly"s scheme to sew him in his tent, that he simply radiated amiability, and spent the whole morning helping Elsie and Margery with a set of elaborate dinner- cards, executed on half-sheets of note-paper.
The dinner itself was a grand success. Half of the cards bore a caricature of Polly in the shape of a parrot, with the inscription "Polly want a cracker?" The rest were adorned with pretty sketches of her in her camping-dress, a kettle in one hand, and underneath,
"Polly, put the kettle on, We"ll all have tea."
This was the bill of fare arranged by Bell and Geoffrey, and written on the reverse side of the dinner-cards
DINNER A LA MOTHER GOOSE.
CAMP CHAPARRAL.
August 15, 18-.
"Come with a whoop, come with a call; Come with a good will, or not at all."
"VICTUALS AND DRINK."
BEAN SOUP.
"She gave them some broth, she gave them some bread."
SALT CODFISH.
"You shall have a fishy In a little dishy."
ROAST MUTTON A LA VENISON.