"It looks like a circus," said Dolly.
"It isn"t, though. I know what they are," said Bessie, promptly. "It"s a gypsy encampment. Do you mean you"ve never seen one, Dolly?"
"No; and oh dear, Bessie, I"ve always wanted to. Surely we could go a little nearer, couldn"t we? As long as we"re here?"
Bessie thought it over for a moment, and, as a matter of fact, really could see no harm in spending ten minutes or so in walking over toward the gypsy camp. She herself had seen a few gypsies near Hedgeville in her time, but in that part of the country those strange wanderers were not popular.
"All right," she said. "But if I do that will you promise to start for home as soon as we"ve had a look at them, and never to play such a trick on me again?"
"I certainly will. Bessie, you"re a darling. And I"ll tell you something else; too; you were so nice about the way I changed those signs that I"m really sorry I did it. And I just thought it would be a good joke. Usually I"m glad when people get angry at my jokes, it shows they were good ones."
Bessie smiled wisely to herself. Gradually she was learning that the way to rob Dolly"s jokes and teasing tricks of their sting, and the best way, at the same time, to cure Dolly herself of her fondness for them, was never to let the joker know that they had had the effect she planned.
Dolly, considerably relieved, as a matter of fact, when she found that Bessie was really not angry at her for the trick she had played with the sign post, chatted volubly as they turned to walk over toward the gypsy camp.
"I don"t see why they call this a pond and the one we"re on a lake," she said. "This is ever so much bigger than Long Lake. Why, it must; be four or five miles long, don"t you think, Bessie?"
"Yes. I guess they call it a pond because it looks just like a big, overgrown ice pond. See, it"s round. I think Long Lake is ever so much prettier, don"t you, even though it"s smaller?"
"I certainly do. This place isn"t like the woods at all, it"s more like, regular country, that you can find by just taking a trolley car and riding a few miles out from the city."
"It used to be just as it is now around Long Lake, I suppose," said Bessie. "But they"ve cut the trees down, and made room for tennis courts and all sorts of things like that, and then, I suppose, they needed wood to build the hotel, too. It"s quite a big place, isn"t it, Dolly?"
"Yes, and I"ve heard of it before, too," Dolly. "A friend of mine stayed up here for a month two or three years ago. She says they advertise that it"s wild and just like living right in the woods, but it isn"t at all. I guess it"s for people who like to think they"re roughing it when they"re really just as comfortable as they would be if they stayed at home. Comfortable the same way, I mean."
"Yes, that"s better, Dolly. Because I think we"re comfortable, though it"s very different from the way we would live in the city, or even from the way we lived at the farm. But we"re really roughing it, I guess."
"Yes, and it"s fine, too! Tell me, Bessie, did you ever see any gypsies like these when you lived in the country!"
"There were gypsies around Hedgeville two or three times, but the farmers all hated them, and used to try to drive them away, and Maw Hoover told me not to go near them when they were around. She usually gave me so many things to do that I couldn"t, anyhow. You know, the farmers say that they"ll steal anything, but I think one reason for that is that the farmers drove them into doing it, in the beginning, I mean. They wouldn"t let them act like other people, and they didn"t like to sell them things. So I think the poor gypsies wanted to get even, and that"s how they began to steal."
"What do you suppose they"re doing up here, Bessie?"
"They always go around to the summer places, and in the winter they go south, to where the people from the north go to get warm when it"s winter at home. They tell fortunes, and they make all sorts of queer things that people like to buy; lace, and bead things. And I suppose up here they sell all sorts of souvenirs, too; baskets, and things like that."
"Don"t they have any real homes, Bessie?"
"No; except in their wagons. They live in them all the time, and they always manage to be where it"s warm in the winter. They don"t care where they go, you see. One place is just like another to them. They never have settled in towns. They"ve been wanderers for ages and ages, and they have their own language. They know all sorts of things about the weather, and they can find their way anywhere."
"How do you know so much about them, Bessie, if you never saw anything of them when you were in Hedgeville?"
"I read a book about them once. It"s called "Lavengro," and it"s by a man who"s been dead a long time now; his name was Borrow."
"What a funny name! I never heard of that book, but I"ll get it and read it when I get home. It tells about the gypsies, you say?"
"Yes. But I guess not about the gypsies as they are now, but more as they used to be. We"re getting close, now. See all the babies! Aren"t they cute and brown?"
Two or three parties, evidently from the hotel, were looking about the camp, but they paid little attention to the two Camp Fire Girls, evidently recognizing that they did not come from the hotel. The gypsies, however, always on the alert when they see a chance to make money by selling their wares or by telling fortunes, flocked about them, particularly the women. Bessie, fair haired and blond, they seemed disposed to neglect, but Bessie noticed that several of the men looked admiringly at Dolly, whose dark hair and eyes, though she was, of course, much fairer than their own women, seemed to appeal to them.
"I"d like to have my fortune told!" Dolly whispered.
"I think we"d better not do that, Dolly, really; and you remember you said you"d stay just for a minute."
"I don"t see what harm it would do," Dolly pouted. But she gave in, nevertheless. They pa.s.sed the door of the strangely decorated tent inside of which the secrets of the future were supposed to be revealed, and, followed by a curious pack of children, walked on to a wagon where a pretty girl, who seemed no older than themselves; but was probably, because the gypsy women grow old so much more quickly than American girls, actually younger, was sitting. She was sewing beads to a jacket, and she looked up with a bright smile as they approached.
"You come from the hotel?" she said. "You live there?"
"No," said Dolly. "We come from a long way off. Are you going to wear that jacket?"
The gypsy girl laughed.
"No. I"m making that for my man, him over there by the tree, smoking, see? He"s my man; he"s goin" marry me when I get it done."
Bessie laughed.
"Marry you? Why, you"re only a girl like me!" she exclaimed.
"No, no; me woman," protested the gypsy, eagerly. "See, I"m so tall already!"
And she sprang up to show them how tall she was. But Bessie and Dolly only laughed the more, until Bessie saw that something like anger was coming into her black eyes, and checked Dolly"s laugh.
"I hope you"ll be very happy," she said. "Come on, Dolly, we really must be going."
Dolly was inclined to resist once more. She hadn"t seen half as much as she wanted to of the strange, exotic life of the gypsy caravan, so different from the things she was used to, but Bessie was firm, and they began to make their way back toward the trail. And, as they neared the spot from which they had had their first view of Loon Pond and the gypsy camp, Bessie was startled and frightened by the sudden appearance in their path of the good looking young gypsy for whom the girl they had been talking to was decorating the jacket.
His keen eyes devoured Dolly as he stood before her, and he put out his hand, gently enough, to bar their way.
"Will you marry me?" he said, in English much better than that of most of his tribe.
Dolly laughed, although Bessie looked serious.
"Oh, yes, of course," said Dolly. "I always marry the first man who asks me, every day; especially if he"s a gypsy and I"ve never seen him before."
"You"re too young now; you think you are, I suppose," said the gypsy, showing his white teeth. "You come back with me and wait; by and by we will get married."
"Nonsense," said Bessie, decisively. "He means it, Dolly, he"s not joking. Come, we must hurry."
"Wait, stay," said the gypsy, eagerly. And he put out his hand as if to hold Dolly. But she screamed before he could touch her, and darted past him. And in a moment both girls, running hard, were out of sight.
CHAPTER VI.
A SERIOUS JOKE.
Bessie, seriously alarmed, led the race through the woods and they had gone for nearly a quarter of a mile before she would even stop to listen. When she felt that if the gypsy were going to overtake them he would have done it, she stopped, and, breathing hard, listened eagerly for some sign that he was still behind them. But only the noises of the forest came to their ears, the rustling of the leaves in the trees, the call of a bird, the sudden sharp chattering of a squirrel or a chipmunk, and, of course, their own breathing.
"I guess we got away from him all right," she said. "Oh, Dolly, I was frightened!"
"What?" cried Dolly, amazed. "Do you mean to say that you let that silly gypsy frighten you? I thought you were braver than that, Bessie!"
"You don"t know anything about it, Dolly," said Bessie, a little irritated. "It really wasn"t your fault, but those people aren"t like our men. He probably meant just what he said, and if he thought you were laughing at him, it would have made him furious. When you said you would marry him, of course I knew you were joking, and so would anyone like us, but I think he took you seriously. He thought you meant it!"
"Bessie! How absurd! He couldn"t! Why, I won"t marry anyone for ever so long, and he surely doesn"t think an American girl would ever marry one of his nasty tribe! You"re joking, aren"t you! He couldn"t ever have really thought anything so perfectly absurd?"
"I only hope we won"t find out that he was serious, Dolly. You couldn"t be expected to understand, but people like that are very different from ourselves. They haven"t got a lot of civilized ideas to hold them in check, the way we have, and when they want something they come right out and say so, and if they can"t get what they want by asking for it, they"re apt to take it."
"But I didn"t think anyone ever acted like that! And he is going to marry that pretty gypsy girl who is putting the beads and b.u.t.tons on a jacket for him, anyhow. She said so; she said they were engaged."
"Men have changed their minds about the women they were going to marry, Dolly, even American men. And that"s another thing that bothers me. I think that girl"s very much in love with him, and if she thought he was fond of you, she"d be furious. There"s no telling what a gypsy girl might do if she was jealous. You see, she"d blame you, instead of him. She"d say you had turned his head."
"Oh, Bessie, what a dreadful mess. Oh, dear! I seem to be getting into trouble all the time! I think I"m just going to have a little harmless fun, and then I find that I"ve started all sorts of trouble that I couldn"t foresee at all."
"Never mind, Dolly. You didn"t mean to do it, and, of course, I may be exaggerating it anyhow. I"ll admit I"m frightened, but it"s of what I know about the gypsies. They"re strange people and they carry a grudge a long time. If they think anyone has hurt them, or offended them, they"re never satisfied until they have had their revenge. But, after all, he may not do anything at all. He may have been joking. Perhaps he just wanted to frighten you."
"Oh, I really do think that must have been it, Bessie. Don"t you remember that he was different from the others! He spoke just as well as we do, as if he"d been to school, and he must know more about our customs."
Bessie shook her head.
"That doesn"t mean that he isn"t just as wild and untamed as the others down at bottom, Dolly. I"ve heard the same thing about Indians; that some of those who make the most trouble are the very ones who"ve been to Carlisle. It isn"t because they"re educated, because they would have been wild and wicked anyhow, but the very fact that they are educated seems to make them more dangerous. I hope it isn"t the same with this gypsy; but we"ve got to be careful."
"Oh, I"ll be careful, Bessie," said Dolly, with a shudder. "I"ll do whatever I"m told. You needn"t worry about that."
"That"s good, Dolly. The first thing, of course, is never to get far away from the camp alone. We mustn"t come over this way at all, or go anywhere near Loon Pond as long as those gypsies are still there."
"Oh, Bessie, do you think we"ll have to tell Miss Eleanor about this?"
"I"m afraid so, Dolly. But there"s no reason why you should mind doing that. She won"t blame you, it really wasn"t your fault."
"Yes, it was, Bessie. Don"t you remember the way I changed the signs! If I hadn"t done that we wouldn"t have gone to Loon Pond, and if we hadn"t gone there--"
"We wouldn"t have seen the gypsies? Yes I know, Dolly. But Miss Eleanor is fair, you know that. And she may scold you for playing trick with the signs, but that"s all. She won"t blame you for having misunderstood that gypsy."
Then they came to the crossing of the trails, and Dolly replaced the signs as they had been before she had played her thoughtless prank.
"We must hurry along, Dolly," said Bessie. "It"s getting dark, and we don"t want to be out here when it"s too dark. I think it"s safe enough, but--"
"Oh, suppose that horrid gypsy followed us through the woods, Bessie? That"s what you mean, isn"t it! Let"s get back to the camp just as fast as ever we can."
"Bessie, I"m an awful coward, I"m afraid," Dolly said, as the camp was approached. "Will you tell Miss Eleanor what happened; everything! I"m afraid that if I told her myself I wouldn"t put in what I did with the signs."
"You wouldn"t tell her a story, Dolly?"
"No, but I might just not tell her that. You see, I wouldn"t have really to tell her a story, and, oh, Bessie, I want her to know all about it. Then if she scolds me, all right. Can"t you understand?"
"I"ll do it if you like, Dolly, but I"m quite sure you"d tell her everything yourself. You"re not a bit of a coward, Dolly, because when you"ve done something wrong you never try to pretend that it was the fault of someone else, or an accident."
"Do you think I ought to tell Miss Eleanor myself?" said Dolly, wistfully. "I will if you say so, Bessie, but I"d much rather not."
"No, I"ll tell her," Bessie decided. "I think you"re mistaken about yourself, Dolly, and the reason I"m going to tell her is because I think you"d make her think you were worse than you were, instead of not telling her the whole thing. Do you see?"
"You"re ever so good, Bessie. Really, I"m going to try to stop worrying you so much after this. It seems to me that you"re always having things to bother you on account of me."
Miss Eleanor, at first, like Dolly, was inclined to laugh at what Bessie told her of the gypsy and his absurd suggestion that Dolly should stay with his tribe until she was old enough to be married to him.
"Why, he must have been joking, Bessie," she said. "You say he talked well; as if he were educated? Then he surely knows that no American girl would take such an idea seriously for a moment."
"But American girls do live with the gypsies and marry them, Miss Eleanor. Often, I"ve heard of that. And if you"d seen him when he got in our way on the trail you"d know why he frightened me. His face was perfectly black, he was so angry. And when Dolly laughed at him he looked as if he would like to beat her."
"I can understand that," laughed Miss Eleanor. "I"ve wanted to beat Dolly myself sometimes when she laughed when she was being scolded for something!"
"Oh, but this was different," said Bessie, earnestly. "Really, Miss Eleanor, you"d have been frightened too, if you"d seen him. And I do think Dolly ought to be very careful until they"ve gone away from Loon Pond."
Bessie was so serious that Miss Eleanor was impressed, almost despite herself.
"Well, yes, she must be careful, of course. I don"t want the girls going over to Loon Pond, anyway. I want them to have this time in the woods, and live in a natural way, and the Loon Pond people at the hotel just spoil the woods for me. But I don"t believe there"s any reason for being really frightened, Bessie."
"Suppose that man tried to carry her off?"
"Oh, he wouldn"t dare to try anything like that, Bessie. I don"t believe the gypsies are half as bad as they are painted, anyhow, but, even if he would be willing to do it, he"d be afraid. The guides would soon run him out of the preserve if they found him here; no one is supposed to be on it, without permission. And a gypsy couldn"t get that, I know."
"But it"s a pretty big place, and there aren"t so very many guides. We didn"t see one today, and we really took quite a long walk."
"But, Bessie, what would he do with her if he did carry her off? Those people travel along the roads, and they travel slowly. He must know that if anything happened to Dolly, or if she disappeared, he"d be suspected right away, and he"d be chased everywhere he went."
"I think it would be easy to hide someone in their caravans, though, Miss Eleanor. And those people stick together, so that no one would betray him if he did anything like that. We might be perfectly sure that he had done it, but we wouldn"t be able to prove it."
"I"ll speak to the guides and have them keep a good watch in the direction of Loon Pond, Bessie. There, will that make you feel any better? And those gypsies won"t stay over there very long. They never do."
"Have they been here before, Miss Eleanor?"
"Oh, yes; every year when I"ve been here."
"Well, I"ll feel better when they"ve gone, Miss Eleanor."
"So will I. You"ve made me quite nervous, Bessie. I think you"d better tell Dolly, and be careful yourself, not to tell the other girls anything about this. There"s no use in scaring them, and making them feel nervous, too."
"No. I thought of that, too. Some of them would be frightened, I"m sure. I think Zara would be. She"s been very nervous, anyhow, ever since we got her away from that awful house where Mr. Holmes had hidden her away from us."
"I don"t blame her a bit; I would be, too. It was really a dreadful experience, Bessie, and particularly because she knew it was, in a way, her own fault."
"You mean because she believed what they said about being her friends, and that she would get you and me into trouble unless she went with them that night when they came for her?"
"Yes. Poor Zara! I"m afraid she guessed, somehow, that I had been angry with her, at first. She"s terribly sensitive, and she seems to be able to guess what"s in your mind when you"ve really scarcely thought the things yourself."