"But you might have been," said Hinpoha in an agitated voice. "I thought I should die until I saw you coming up. I never was so scared."
The Captain began to think it was worth while to go down in a suck hole to make Hinpoha feel so much concern about him.
"I"m sorry I scared you," he said, "but it really wasn"t so terrible after all. I wasn"t very much frightened." Boylike, he must begin to boast of his exploit in the presence of his feminine friends.
"Please be careful after this," begged Hinpoha. "Those suck holes are dreadful things. Why, once my cousin----"
But the incident she intended to relate was never told, for just then a cascade of earth shot by the group on the beach like an express train, carrying with it something that looked like a pinwheel of waving hands and feet, all of which grew out of the head of a donkey. The cascade landed in the water with a mighty splash and from it emerged the forms of Slim, Katherine and Sandhelo, all looking decidedly astonished and not quite sure yet what had happened. A fresh hollow at the top of the hill and a ploughed-up trail of sand all the way down told the story.
The earth had given way up there just as it had with the moose in the woods, and the three had tobogganed down the steep hillside into the lake.
"I was sitting up there under that tree, just as politely," explained Katherine, her cracked voice shattered utterly by the tumble, "feeding Sandhelo long blades of gra.s.s, when Slim came up the path, puffing the way he always does when he climbs the hill, and sat down beside me to get his breath before going on to his tent. Pretty soon a spider ran across his neck and he jumped up and sat down again hard and that time when he sat down he broke through to China and we all went with him."
"And down there came rockabye baby and all," sang Migwan, amid the general laughter.
"Such a peaceful day," said Hinpoha.
n.o.body was hurt by the fall, as the sand was soft and the last landing had been in the water, and, as they had all been so frightened at the Captain"s adventure a moment before, they became hysterical in their laughter over this last ridiculous accident.
"That soft sand track down the hillside looks as if it would make a fine toboggan," remarked the Captain. "Believe I"ll try coasting down into the lake."
And, suiting the action to the word, he climbed the hill and slid down the sandy cut, landing with a fine splash. The others immediately swarmed up the hill to try the new sport, which was as good as the chute-the-chutes at the big amus.e.m.e.nt park at home.
That was the sight which greeted Sahwah when she came back with Mr.
Evans from St. Pierre, bringing the mail. She was sitting out on the very peak of the launch"s bow, her feet almost dragging the water, waving the packet of home letters over her head. At the sight of her there was a general scattering in the direction of the tents, for the sliders suddenly remembered that it was dinner time and the mail would be distributed at the table.
That night was Council Meeting on the big rock on the bluff. It was the end of Uncle Teddy"s and Aunt Clara"s Chiefhood, and the reins of government were to fall into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Evans. After much beating of the tom-tom, Uncle Teddy presented Mr. Evans with a pine branch and Aunt Clara gave Mrs. Evans one, to hang over the door of their tents as a symbol of Chiefhood, "because pine was the _chief_ thing to be found on Ellen"s Isle." Mr. and Mrs. Evans accepted the branches gravely, and took their places at the end of the rock reserved for the Chiefs.
Then Mr. Evans announced that there was something special to be brought before the Council. He held a letter in his hand and the giggles and whispers came to an abrupt end, and all eyes were turned inquiringly toward him.
"It is the power and the pleasure of this Council," he began in a businesslike tone, "to decide all questions regarding the life here at camp. Something has come up now which will require a frank expression of opinion from each one in order to reach a decision. I have here,"
indicating the sheet in his hand, "a letter from our recent acquaintance, Judge Dalrymple. The judge thanks us profusely for our entertainment of him and his children, and does us the honor to say that he never saw a group of people living together in such perfect harmony, or getting so much pleasure out of life. Then he makes a proposal. He has, among his goods and chattels, a pair of twins, which, as we have reason to suspect, are rather a handful for him to manage. He finds that business calls him back to the city for the entire summer, and as his wife has gone to a sanitarium to recover from nervous prostration, he is at a loss to know what to do with the aforesaid twins. He wants to keep them outdoors all summer, because neither are as strong as they should be.
He has a fancy that Ellen"s Isle is a good atmosphere in which to make spindly plants grow into hardy ones, and, in short, he asks us, nay, begs and beseeches us, if we will take the twins off his hands for the summer. What does the Council say to acquiring a good pair of twins at a reasonable price?"
From all sides there rose a storm of protest. "We wouldn"t have those twins up here for anything," said Gladys emphatically. "We had just as much as we could stand of them in two days. Have you forgotten what a cry-baby Antha was?"
"And what a sn.o.b Anthony was?" said the Captain. ""I guess you didn"t get much of a war canoe, did you?" "I guess your papa can"t be very rich, is he?"" The Captain mimicked Anthony"s patronizing tone to perfection and recalled the scene vividly to the others.
"Our whole summer up here would be ruined," continued Gladys. "Why can"t we let well enough alone? This isn"t a reform camp for spoiled children.
We came up here to rest and play; not to wear ourselves out with people of that kind."
Everywhere her sentiments were echoed. Mr. Evans gave no sign of his secret wish that the Council would take the twins. The others did not know the details of the failure of the spring water company, nor the judge"s connection with it.
"Then the Council decides that we shall turn down the judge"s proposition?" asked Mr. Evans. "Let each one register his or her vote, for or against. If you want them to come, say yes, if not, no. Gladys."
"No."
"Slim."
"No."
"Migwan."
"No."
"Dan."
"No."
"Sahwah."
"Nosiree!"
"Peter."
"No."
"Katherine."
"May I say something?" asked Katherine, instead of replying directly yes or no.
"Certainly," said Mr. Evans, leaning forward a little.
Katherine rose and stood in her favorite att.i.tude, with her toes turned in and her shoulders drooped forward. "When the twins were here," she began, "I disliked them as much as the rest of you, and when the Council was asked to decide whether or not they should come I decided to vote no. But I just happened to think what Nyoda said to us at our last Winnebago Council Meeting up in the House of the Open Door, the night she went away forever. She gave the Winnebago fire into our keeping, and said that from it we must light new fires, and that we must begin in earnest to "pa.s.s on the light that has been given us." She said we should gain an influence over younger girls and show them how to have a good time as we had learned so well ourselves. Now I think the time has come. I think that Antha has been dropped at our door as a special opportunity, and I think that we should take it.
"If you folks decide that Antha and her brother may come I will appoint myself her special "big sister," and will devote my time to her improvement. So instead of voting "no," I wish to vote "yes.""
"Your point is well taken, Miss Orator," said Mr. Evans with unexplained warmth. "You would make a famous criminal lawyer. You have a line of argument which admits of very little defense. Does anyone else speak for Antha? If three speak for her she may come, like Mowgli in the "Jungle Book.""
"I speak for her," said the quiet Nakwisi unexpectedly. Nakwisi admired Katherine intensely, and desired to follow her lead in all things.
"Two have spoken for her," said Mr. Evans judiciously. "Will there be another?"
"I will speak for her," said Hinpoha decidedly. Katherine"s words had brought back the scene in the House of the Open Door vividly, and again she heard Nyoda"s gentle voice urging them to "pa.s.s on the light."
Completely melted, she also promised to be a big sister to Antha. Then Gladys and Sahwah and Migwan all spoke up and wanted to know if they could not take back their "no," because they had reconsidered the matter and now agreed with Katherine.
"Does anyone speak for the boy, Anthony?" continued Mr. Evans.
"I do," said the Captain promptly, who was anxious to find favor in Hinpoha"s eyes.
Then there was a pause. None of the boys liked Anthony, and they could not honestly say they wanted him. They had no memory of a beloved guardian to influence them. But after a moment Slim spoke up. He generally followed whither the girls led.
"I"ll be a big sister, or a grandfather or a Dutch uncle to the kid if I have the right to punch his head when he gets too fresh," he said navely, and the solemn meeting was stirred by a ripple of laughter.
Then the Bottomless Pitt fell into line and said he felt the same about it as Slim did, and that settled the question. Of course, after that there was nothing for the Monkey and Peter and Dan to do but fall into line.
Then after their decision had been made entirely by themselves, Mr.
Evans rose and told them in a few words why he had been anxious to accommodate the judge, and how glad he was that they were honestly willing to do it. They all blushed under his praise, but all knew down in their hearts that if it hadn"t been for Katherine they never would have done it.
"How soon will they be here?" asked Gladys.