"What do you mean?" inquired Joan, puzzled at the words.
"And what are _you_ looking for, Verny?" asked Betty, seeing the Captain going about examining various spots, then glance up at the trees overhead, or shade her eyes to gaze at the sky.
"Finding a suitable place for the cook-stove," said she.
"Cook-stove! Why, we didn"t bring any!" replied four girls.
"Oh, yes we did--I"ll show you a fine one to-morrow."
"Are we to have running water in our bedrooms, too?" laughed Joan.
"You can, if you are willing to do the plumbing," retorted Mrs. Vernon.
But evidently she found just the place she sought for; and now the girls were deeply interested in watching her build a camp-stove. "You see, I need a place where the smoke will not be driven into our tents, and also where the wind will act as a blower up the chimney and not a quencher of the fire.
"Julie, you can bring me some smooth flat stones for an oven, and Joan can find me a peck of small stones for a lining. Then Betty can cut a good strong young sapling about an inch through, cut off the twigs and leave a clean pole about five feet long; and Ruth can cut two shorter ones with crotches made by two limbs. The crotched limbs can be about three inches long and the poles cut to four feet high. Sharpen the ends to a point so we can drive them into the ground."
Each girl went to do the bidding of their Captain, and when they returned they found a pit had been scooped out of the sheltered nook at the base of a huge rock. This pit was lined with smooth small stones, and the flat oven-stones firmly fixed at the back. Then the two notched poles were planted one on each side of the fireplace, and the long pole placed across the top, the ends fitting securely into the notches.
"To-night we shall have hot soup for supper, girls, and there will be plenty of hot water to wash dishes in."
"Hadn"t we better heat some water now for the dishes?" asked Julie.
"Oh--haven"t you cleared away the lunch table and washed the dishes?"
asked Mrs. Vernon, seemingly surprised.
"Not yet--there wasn"t any hot water," said Ruth.
"Then we must heat some at once, for no good scout will postpone clearing away food and dishes after he has had a bountiful meal. It shows a lack of appreciation and grat.i.tude to the Provider when one is slack about cheerfully doing his part," said the Captain.
So Joan was sent for a pail of water, and the other girls were told to remove all signs of food from the rock and bring the dishes to the kitchen.
"Where is the kitchen?" giggled Ruth.
"For to-day, we will have it _below_ the pool in which we wish to bathe.
Then the brook can carry away the dish-water without having it seep into the ground and find its way to mingle with the pool."
The pail of water was hung upon the cross-pole, and fire was laid and lit in the fire-pit. The girls watched very closely as the Captain slowly placed the dry leaves, then the dried twigs, and lastly the dry wood that would burn quickly and start other wood burning in the stove.
While the water was heating, Mrs. Vernon showed the girls how to hitch and unhitch Hepsy. If either one needed to do it, she would understand just where all the pieces of harness fitted in. Hepsy was now given a drink and some oats, and turned out to graze about the plateau.
With five pairs of hands, the clearing away of the dishes did not take long. As they worked, the Captain planned the carpentry work.
"Don"t you think we ought to repair the old hut first?" asked she. "You see, we need some sort of protection for our dry groceries and other things."
"Well, we can do that to-day, and begin on Hepsy"s shed in the morning,"
suggested Julie.
"I doubt if we can complete all the work to be done on the old place in this afternoon"s few hours," returned Mrs. Vernon.
"It doesn"t look as if it would take more than two hours at most,"
argued Joan.
"We"ll begin now and then you can find out for yourselves," the Captain said in reply.
All the tools they had brought were now unpacked and placed ready for use. Mrs. Vernon then said: "Now we must weed up all the stubble and wild-growth that has filled the interior of the hut. We may find the floor beams good enough to use again when the undergrowth is cleared away."
"Why not let"s build the roof first?" asked Ruth.
"Because you have no flooring down, and every nail or tool you drop while working on the roof will have to be sought for in the rank growth."
The girls saw the logic of that, so they began pulling and working on the material that had to be eliminated before further work could be attended to.
"Why, this is as bad as weeding dandelions," grumbled Ruth.
"Say, Ruth, dandelions were easy in comparison," laughed Joan, standing up to wipe the perspiration from her face.
"Well, all I can say is, if this is the sort of fun the Girl Scouts rave about, I don"t want any more of it!" declared Ruth, throwing down her weeding fork and stepping over the beam to get out of the hut.
The other girls stopped work and looked impatiently at her, but Mrs.
Vernon said: "Perhaps you"d like to work at some other task. There are many things to be done before we can settle down in camp and enjoy our leisure."
"All right! Give me any old thing but that weeding!"
"Here"s the ax--see those trees growing so closely together over there?"
Ruth took the ax and signified by a nod that she saw the clump referred to.
"Start to cut down several of them, but do not chop too low or too high from the base. I mean, you ought to cut about eighteen inches above ground. When you have chopped through nearly half of the trunk, call me and I will show you what next to do."
"Hurrah! Now I"m going to do something different! I"m sorry for you poor girls with nothing but weeds to work on," called Ruth gaily, swinging the ax as she moved away.
The three girls watched for a few moments, but she had not yet reached the clump of trees before they were again working hard. The Captain was occupied in removing some boards from the packing cases already emptied of bedding and other things, so no one noticed Ruth.
She held the ax up over her head as she had seen others do, and brought it down with a swing. But it caught in the high bushes beside her and was yanked from her hands.
"Well! to think a little thing like that birch bush could do that!"
exclaimed Ruth to herself.
She picked up the ax and took a fresh start. This time she changed her position so the birch could not interfere again. The ax came down, but so wide was its swing, and Ruth had not allowed for any leeway in her stiff pose, hence the muscles in her arms were wrenched and her back suddenly turned with the force of the blow.
"O-oh" exclaimed she, dropping the ax and rubbing the flesh of her upper arms.
She glanced over at her companions to see if they had seen the awkward work she was making of the chopping, but they were laughing merrily as they worked inside the hut. Mrs. Vernon was not to be seen so the girl"s pride was spared. She picked up the ax again and looked at it carefully.
"What is there about you that hurt me like that?"
But the inanimate ax did not answer, and Ruth could not tell. So she lifted it again, slowly this time, and then made sure that no obstructions were in the way.