"Wouldn"t it float in by itself?" asked Sahwah.
Nyoda shook her head.
"It might float in all right," she said, "but it would be dashed to pieces on the rocks on the other side. You notice it is being carried farther away from us all the time. If we want that canoe for the rest of the summer we"ll have to go after it."
That was the most exciting launch ride the two girls had ever taken. The little boat rode up and down on the waves like an egg sh.e.l.l, the water going over her constantly, drenching the girls and threatening to swamp the engine. The wind whirled the rain against their faces. Nyoda stood up in the bow handling the wheel as calmly as if she were pouring tea at a reception.
Nyoda"s strong point was her composure; it was next thing to impossible to get her excited. They caught up with the canoe and Sahwah and Hinpoha managed to right it and fasten it to the launch with a rope. They got back to the dock without mishap and pulled the canoe high up where it could not be washed away a second time. Sahwah and Hinpoha returned to the tent red as roses from their exposure to the wind and rain and recounted their early morning adventure to Migwan and Gladys.
At breakfast time they had to put on their ponchos again and pick their way through the puddles to the shack, where they ate their breakfast. The "Mess Tent" was leaking merrily in a dozen places. By noon there was still no let up in the downpour. Rest hour was spent on the floor in the shack. When Nyoda came in in the middle of the afternoon from a tour of inspection she announced that both the Alpha and Omega tents were leaking badly and the bedding was getting wet. She made the girls bring their blankets, rolled up in their ponchos, into the shack and spread them out before the fire.
The shack was pretty well crowded before the afternoon was over.
Besides all the girls and the bedding and the partially painted paddles that stood around everywhere, Nyoda brought in a large supply of fire wood. It was all damp and had to be dried out before it would burn. The rain whirled against the windows, as if seeking entrance by force, but the girls inside, safe and dry, made merry before the fire. Nyoda taught them a new game, called "Johnny, Where Are You?" She blindfolded Hinpoha and Sahwah and set them on the floor. Then each one in turn had to call, "Johnny, where are you?" and upon the other one"s answering, "Here!" whacked in the direction of the voice with a rolled-up newspaper. Both had to keep one hand on a pie-tin on the floor between them. Sahwah and Hinpoha both gave and received some sounding whacks, and kept the watchers in a roar of laughter with their efforts to dodge each other. Towards the end Nyoda slipped up and removed the bandage from Hinpoha"s eyes and let her whack Sahwah with her eyes open, and poor Sahwah wondered why she could not dodge the attacks any better.
After supper Nyoda proposed playing "Aeroplane." She shooed all the girls but Hinpoha out into the kitchen. One by one they were blindfolded and led in. Sahwah was the first. She was led into the center of the room and there brought to a halt. "Step up,"
commanded some one. Sahwah did as she was told and her feet were planted on something that felt like a platform. "Now hang on!"
they ordered. She hung. It seemed to be hair she was hanging on to. "Up with her!" Sahwah felt herself rising, up, up. The hair sank out of her grasp. The board wobbled under her feet.
Straight up toward the ceiling she went, past the rafters and on up, until her head struck the roof. The board wobbled much worse. "Jump!" they shouted. Sahwah gathered her forces for a mighty leap, determining to strike the floor with knees bent so as to break the shock. She struck solid ground before she had fairly started. The bandage was taken from her eyes. She was standing on the floor in front of the fireplace. Beside her was the "Aeroplane." It was a plain wooden board. When she had stood on it they had lifted it up, and Hinpoha, whose head she had seized upon to support herself, had gradually stooped down, to enhance Sahwah"s sensation of going up. To complete illusion they hit her on the head with a book to make her think she had struck the ceiling. She had risen about six inches from the floor in all, although she was sure she had gone up six feet at least. Her mighty leap caused the "conductors" much merriment.
Gladys did still better. She fell off without jumping.
When bedtime came there was no thinking of going to the tents, so the beds were made up on the floor in a circle about the fireplace. "Does this count toward our honor for sleeping five nights on the ground?" asked Sahwah. "It ought to," said Hinpoha, "it"s harder than the ground."
Morning found the rain still unabated. "This is getting monotonous," said Migwan, looking out at the grey skies and the lake shrouded in mist.
"Can"t we take our dip even if it is raining?" asked Sahwah anxiously.
"I don"t see why not," said Nyoda. But when they were in their bathing suits and ready to start they found they could not open the porch door of the shack. "What"s the matter?" said Nyoda, lowering one of the windows and looking out. "Oh, look at the porch floor!" she cried. The flooring had warped up into a great hump before the door, preventing its being opened.
"It looks like a roller coaster," said Migwan. The girls were obliged to make their exit and re-entrance through the window.
"Hurray! No tent inspection to-day!" cried Hinpoha, picking up her blankets from the floor to make room for Craft work.
"It"ll take more than inspection to fix your tent up again," said Nyoda, looking out of the side window of the shack.
"Why?" said Hinpoha.
"Come here and look," said Nyoda.
"Why, it"s fallen down!" cried Hinpoha, looking over Nyoda"s shoulder. The girls pressed to the window to see the heap of canvas that had been the Omega tent.
"Is Alpha still standing?" asked the inhabitants of that tent, craning their necks.
"Yes," answered Nyoda, "which proves its superiority once for all." The Alphas swelled out their chests and made triumphant grimaces at the Omegas.
"I don"t care," declared Sahwah, "I"d rather be an Omega any day than an Alpha. We have a better view of the lake."
"But we keep our tent neater," said Chapa, "and so it looks better."
"Like fun you keep yours neater," returned Sahwah.
"We get higher marks than you right along," said Chapa, "and that goes to show."
"Well," flashed Sahwah, "we"d get higher marks if it wasn"t for--." Just in time she remembered her promise and broke off abruptly.
"If it wasn"t for what?" asked Chapa.
"For the wind blowing our things around so," she finished lamely, and fell to carving her wood block furiously.
"Let"s sing something," said Nyoda hastily.
"Migwan and Hinpoha, sing "The Owl and the p.u.s.s.y Cat,"" cried the girls in chorus. Thus urged, the two mounted the piano bench and acted out the romantic tale as they sang the words.
"Now let"s all sing something," said Nyoda, when the amorous owl and the impa.s.sioned p.u.s.s.y had danced themselves off the bench.
"What were some of those songs we sang on the hike?"
"Let"s sing Migwan"s latest song, "O We Are Winnebagos,"" said Hinpoha.
"That has a good swing to it," said Nyoda when they had sung it several times. "Sahwah, dear, follow the tune more closely with your tenor, you put us out."
"Well, I"m _willing_ to sing, anyhow," said Sahwah, "even if I can"t and that"s more than some people do." This last was a direct reference to Gladys. Although she was supposed to have a very good and well-trained voice and had done much solo singing in her time, Gladys steadfastly refused to sing along with the other girls in chorus. Once or twice, after much coaxing on Nyoda"s part, she had consented to sing a "solo" on Sunday morning or on "stunt night," but sing mornings in the shack with the others she would not. They laid it to the fact that she considered herself better than themselves and did not want to mix in their doings, and it put a damper on their own, singing because they thought she was criticising them. This was not exactly the case. Once an enthusiastic teacher of hers had p.r.o.nounced her voice "different" from others and told her that chorus singing would spoil it, so from then on she refused to blend her voice with others. She knew well enough that this was ridiculous, but it pleased her vanity and she kept it up. She would not come right out and tell why, however, but simply said she "didn"t feel like singing." Naturally the girls thought her reason a personal one and it made bad feeling all around. Her refusal to sing puzzled and grieved Nyoda more than anything else she did. The Winnebagos were known as a "singing group," and the addition of a trained voice was very welcome. Nyoda thought of course that Gladys would lead the singing in great shape and her disappointment at her att.i.tude was very keen.
"Yes, Sahwah," said Nyoda warmly, "your willingness to use the talents you have is one of the reasons why we love you so."
"I think that any one who can sing and won"t isn"t--isn"t a sport," said Hinpoha emphatically.
"Maybe I have a reason for not singing," said Gladys in a lofty manner.
"Well, what is it?" said Sahwah, exasperated into sharp speech.
Gladys pursed up her lips but did not reply.
Nyoda saw that a storm was brewing. It was the inevitable result of the girls having been pent up so close together for over two days. She pulled out her watch. "It"s time for folk dancing,"
she announced briskly. The girls looked out of the window. The rain was still teeming down. "Who"s game to put on her bathing suit and dance in the rain?" asked Nyoda.
"I, I," cried all the girls. They followed her to the tennis court, where they did such dances as they could without music and ended up with a lively game of "Three Deep," the water running down over their faces. "Let"s play "Stump the Leader,"" said Nyoda, when they had grown tired of "Three Deep."; "Follow me."
She led them a wild chase all over the camp, over rocks and stumps, around trees and through puddles, then down on the dock.
She dove into the lake, swam around the dock, climbed out on the rocks, out on the dock again and climbed the tower, from which she jumped, the girls keeping close behind her, all except Gladys. By the time swimming hour was over the girls had let off enough steam to dwell together again in peace and amity.
Late that afternoon the rain ceased and the sun peeped out, pale and wan from his long imprisonment. At the first beam that shone through the girls were out of the shack with a whoop and began putting up the Omega tent. "Let Hinpoha and me do it alone!"
shrieked Sahwah, pushing the others away, "if only two do it we get an honor, if more help we don"t!"
"Right-O," said Nyoda, stepping back, "do your worst, you two."
The tent was re-erected, and the girls scrambled around looking for their scattered possessions.
"And the looking gla.s.s didn"t even break!" said Migwan, picking it up from one of the beds where it had landed when the tent went down.
The next morning the sun shone in splendor and the sky was deep blue and cloudless, while a high wind did its best to dry up the ground. "Isn"t it fine to be dry again?" said Migwan, looking approvingly at her canvas shoes. "For the last three days I"ve felt like a water-soaked sponge."
"Goodness, but the lake is rough," said Nyoda, watching Sahwah out in a canoe, which was nearly standing on end. Her hair stood out straight behind her in the wind and she reminded Nyoda of the picture of the girl going over the falls in the "Legend of Niagara." "There! I knew she would tip! For goodness sake, what is she doing now?" For Sahwah had climbed on top of the overturned canoe and was trying to paddle it in wrong side up.