ON THE ROAD FROM ATLANTIS
"Would you like to come along?"
Agony, sitting alone on the pier, idly watching the river as it flowed endlessly around its great curve, looked up to see Mary Sylvester standing beside her. It was just after quiet hour and the rest of the camp had gone on the regular Wednesday afternoon trip to the village to buy picture postcards and elastic and Kodak films and all the various small wares which girls in camp are in constant need of; and also to regale themselves on ice-cream cones and root beer, the latter a traditionally favorite refreshment of the Camp Keewaydin girls, being a special home product of Mrs. Bayne, who kept the "trading post."
Agony had not joined the expedition this afternoon, because she needed nothing in the way of supplies, and for once had no craving for root beer, while she did want to finish a letter to her father that she had commenced during rest hour. But the hilarity of the others as they piled into the canoes to be towed up the river by the launch lured her down to the dock to see them off--Miss Judy standing at the wheel of the launch and Tiny Armstrong in the stern of the last canoe, as the head and tail of the procession respectively. Beside Miss Judy in the launch were all the Minnows, gazing longingly back at the ones who were allowed to tow in the canoes. Only those who had taken the swimming test might go into the canoes--towing or paddling or at any other time; this rule of the camp was as inviolable as the laws of the Medes and the Persians.
And of those who could swim, only the Sharks might take out a canoe without a councilor, and this privilege was also denied the Sharks if they failed to demonstrate their ability to handle a canoe skilfully.
Sahwah and Hinpoha were among the new girls who had qualified for the canoe privilege during the very first week; also Undine Girelle. The other Winnebagos had to content themselves thus far with the privilege of towing or paddling in a canoe that was in charge of a councilor or a qualified Water Witch; all except Oh-Pshaw, who had to ride in the launch.
Agony looked at Oh-Pshaw standing beside Miss Judy at the wheel, laughing with her at some joke; at Sahwah and Undine sitting together in the canoe right behind the launch, leaning luxuriously back against their paddles, which they were using as back rests; heard Jean Lawrence"s infectious laugh floating back on the breeze; and she began to regret that she had stayed at home. She found she was no longer in the mood to finish her letter; she lingered on the pier after the floating caravan had disappeared from view behind the trees on Whaleback.
She looked up in surprise at the sound of Mary Sylvester"s voice coming from behind her on the dock.
"I thought you had gone to the village with the others," she said. "I was almost sure I saw you in the boat with Pom-pom."
"No, I didn"t go, you see," replied Mary. "I am going off on an expedition of my own this afternoon. The woman who took care of me as a child lives not far from here in a little village called Atlantis--cla.s.sic name! Mother asked me to look her up, and Mrs. Grayson gave me permission to go over this afternoon. I"m going to row across the river to that landing place where we got out the other night, leave the boat in the bushes, and then follow the path through the woods. It"s about six miles to Atlantis--would you care to walk that far? It would be twelve miles there and back, you know. I"m just ripe for a long hike today, it"s so cool and clear, but it"s not nearly so pleasant going alone as it would be to have someone along to talk to on the way.
Wouldn"t you like to come along and keep me company? I can easily get permission from Mrs. Grayson for you."
Agony was a trifle daunted at the thought of walking twelve miles in one afternoon, but was so overwhelmed with secret gratification that the prominent Mary Sylvester had invited her that she never once thought of refusing.
"I"d love to go," she exclaimed animatedly, jumping up with alacrity. "I was beginning to feel a wee bit bored sitting here doing nothing; I feel ripe for a long hike myself."
"I"m so glad you do!" replied Mary Sylvester, with the utmost cordiality. "Come on with me until I tell Mrs. Grayson that you are coming with me."
Mrs. Grayson readily gave her permission for Agony to go with Mary.
There was very little that Mrs. Grayson would have refused Mary Sylvester, so high did this clear-eyed girl stand in the regard of all Camp directors, from the Doctor down. Mary was one of the few girls allowed to go away from camp without a councilor; in fact, she sometimes acted as councilor to the younger girls when a trip had to be made and no councilor was free. Mrs. Grayson would willingly have trusted any girl to Mary"s care--or the whole camp, for that matter, should occasion arise, knowing that her good sense and judgment could be relied upon. So Agony, under Mary"s wing, received the permission that otherwise would not have been given her.
"Yes, it will be all right for you to go in your bloomers," said Mrs.
Grayson, in answer to Agony"s question on the subject. "Our girls always wear them to the villages about here; the people are accustomed to seeing them. That green bloomer suit of yours is very pretty, Agony,"
she added, "even prettier than our regulation blue ones."
"I spilled syrup on my regular blue ones," replied Agony, "and had to wash them out this morning; that"s why I"m wearing these green ones. Do you mind if I break up the camp color scheme for one day?"
"Not at all, under the circ.u.mstances," replied Mrs. Grayson, with a smile. "If it"s going to be a choice of green bloomers or none at all--"
She waved the laughing girls away and returned to the knotty problem in accounts she had been working on when interrupted.
"Isn"t she lovely?" exclaimed Mary enthusiastically, as they came out of the bungalow and walked along the Alley path toward Gitchee-Gummee to get Agony"s hat. "She has such a way of trusting us girls that we just couldn"t disappoint her."
"She is lovely," echoed Agony, as they went up the steps of Gitchee-Gummee.
"I think I"ll leave a note for the girls telling them I won"t be back at supper time," said Agony, hastily pulling out her tablet. "They will be wondering what has become of me."
It gave her no small thrill of pleasure to write that note and tuck it under Hinpoha"s hairbrush on the table: "Gone on a long hike with Mary Sylvester; won"t be back until bed time." How delightfully important and prominent that sounded! The others admired Mary, too, but none of them had been invited to go on a long hike with her. She, Agony, was being drawn into that intimate inner circle of the Alley dwellers to which she had hitherto aspired in vain.
They were soon across the river, with the boat fastened in the bushes, and, leaving the sh.o.r.e, struck straight into the woods, following a path that curved and twisted, but carried them ever toward the north, in the direction where Atlantis lay. The way was cool and shady, the whiff of the pines invigorating, and the distance uncoiled rapidly beneath the feet of the two girls as they fared on with vigorous, springy footsteps along the pleasant way. Ferns and wild flowers bordered the path; there were brilliant cardinal flowers, pale forget-me-nots, slender blossomed blue vervain, cheerful red lilies. In places where the woods were so thick that the sun never penetrated, great logs lay about completely covered with moss, looking like sofas upholstered in green, while the round stones scattered about everywhere looked like ha.s.socks and footstools which belonged to the same set as the green sofas.
Once Mary stopped and crushed something under her foot, something white that grew up beside the path.
"What was that?" asked Agony curiously.
"Deadly amanita," replied Mary. "It"s a toadstool--a poisonous one."
"How can you tell a poisonous toadstool from a harmless one?" asked Agony. "They all look alike to me."
"A poisonous one has a ring around the stem, and it grows up out of a "poison cup,"" explained Mary. "See, here are some more."
Agony drew back as Mary pointed out another clump of the pale spores, innocent enough looking in their resemblance to the edible mushroom, but base villians at heart; veritable Borgias of the woods.
"Aren"t you afraid to touch it?" asked Agony, as Mary tilted over a sickly looking head and indicated the identifying ring and the poison cup.
"No danger," replied Mary. "They"re only poisonous if you eat them."
"You know a great deal about the woods, don"t you?" Agony said respectfully.
"I ought to," replied Mary. "I"ve camped in the woods for five summers.
You can"t help finding out a few things, you know, even if you"re as stupid as I."
"You"re not stupid!" said Agony emphatically, glad of the opportunity to pay a compliment. "I"m the stupid one about things like that. I never could remember all those things you call woodcraft. I declare, I"ve forgotten already whether it"s the poisonous ones that have the rings, or the other kind."
Mary laughed and stood unconcernedly while a small snake ran over her foot. "It"s a good thing Miss Peckham isn"t here," she remarked. "Did you ever see anything so funny as that coral snake business of hers?"
she added, laughing good naturedly. "Poor Miss Peckham won"t be allowed to forget that episode all summer. It"s too bad she resents it so. She could get no end of fun out of it if she could only see the funny side."
"Yes, it"s too bad," agreed Agony. "The more she resents it the more the girls will tease her about it."
"I"m sorry for her," continued Mary. "She"s never had any experience being a councilor and it"s all new to her. She"s never been teased before. She"ll soon see that it happens to everybody else, too, and then she"ll feel differently about it. Look at the way everybody makes fun of Tiny Armstrong"s blanket, and her red bathing suit, and her gaudy stockings; but she never gets cross about it. Tiny"s a wonder," she added enthusiastically. "Did you see her demonstrating the Australian Crawl yesterday in swimming hour? She has a stroke like the propeller of a boat. I never saw anything so powerful."
"If Tiny ever a.s.saulted anyone in earnest there wouldn"t be anything left of them," said Agony. "She"s a regular Amazon. They ought to call her Hypolita instead of Tiny."
"And yet, she"s just as gentle as she is powerful," replied Mary. "She wouldn"t hurt a fly if she could help it. Neither would she do anything mean to anybody, or show partiality in the swimming tests. She"s absolutely fair and square; that"s why all the girls accept her decisions without a complaint, even when they"re disappointed. Everybody says she is the best swimming teacher they"ve ever had here at camp.
Once they had an instructor who had a special liking for a certain girl who couldn"t manage to learn to swim, and because that girl was wild to go in a canoe on one of the trips the instructor pretended that she had given her an individual test on the afternoon before the trip, and told Mrs. Grayson the girl had pa.s.sed it. The girl was allowed to go in a canoe and on the trip it upset and she was very nearly drowned before the others realized that she could not swim. Tiny isn"t like that," she continued. "She would lose her best friend rather than tell a lie to get her a favor that she didn"t deserve. I hate cheats!" she burst out vehemently, her fine eyes flashing. "If girls can"t win honors fairly they ought to go without them."
This random conversation upon one and another of the phases of camp life, ill.u.s.trating as it did Mary"s rigid code of honor, was destined to recur many times to Agony in the weeks that followed, with a poignant force that etched every one of Mary"s speeches ineradicably upon her brain. Just now it was nothing more to her than small talk to which she replied in kind.
They stopped after a bit to drink from a clear spring that bubbled up in the path, and sat down to rest awhile under a huge tree. Mary leaned her head back against the trunk and drawing a small book from her sweater pocket she opened it upon her knee.
"What is the book?" asked Agony.
"_The Desert Garden_, by Edwin Langham," replied Mary.
"Oh, do you know _The Desert Garden_?" cried Agony in delighted wonder.
"I"ve actually lived on that book for the last two years. I"m wild about Edwin Langham. I"ve read every word he"s ever written. Have you read _The Silent Years_?"
Mary nodded.
"_The Lost Chord_? I think that"s the most wonderful book I"ve ever read, that and _The Desert Garden._ If I could ever see and speak to Edwin Langham I should die from happiness. I"ve never felt that way about any other author. When I read his books I feel reverent somehow, as if I were in church, although there isn"t a word of religion in them.
The things he writes are so fine and true and n.o.ble; he must be that way himself. Do you remember that part about the bird in _The Desert Garden, _ the bird with the broken wing, that would never fly again, singing to the lame man who would never walk? And the flower that was so determined to blossom that it grew in the desert and bloomed there?"