Great interest was shown as Elena opened the package and showed a small box of French pastels.
"Oh!" sighed she in ecstasy, "I"ve wanted one of these ever since I was born!"
Everyone laughed and Zan added: "I bet you daubed and designed through many incarnations before this present one."
"Come ahead, girls! I want to see if Miss Miller gave me a new riding-habit-I want one badly!" called Jane.
So with laughing and merriment, the second whirl began.
It happened to be Edith Remington"s name that was chosen, and the package stopped directly opposite the child, so with trembling fingers she untied the string and found a box of water-colours and all the accessories to work with.
"Oh, Miss Miller, I"m so much obliged to you!" exclaimed the delighted little girl, making a quaint curtsey.
The game continued, some claimants having to pay forfeits and some winning the award, until all were called out. The gifts were very appropriate for each one and afforded much pleasure; but Zan had a grievance.
"Miss Miller, I think you"re real mean not to give us a chance to have something on the umbrella for you, too."
"That wasn"t my fault, Zan. I thought of the umbrella and made it, but your mother insisted upon buying the gifts. She brought them to the farm all wrapped and ready to distribute."
"It isn"t like mother to forget anyone-Mumsie, where is Miss Miller"s gift?" shouted Zan, as she saw her mother returning from the cabin.
"Right here! It was so heavy it would have broken down the carefully built up umbrella, so I left it for the last gift."
The large flat package was handed to the Guide, who took it with amazement in her eyes, for she had not expected anything. Midst the laughter of her girls, the Guide carried the heavy parcel to the rustic table and began opening the outside paper.
She found another well-tied paper covering within and tried to unknot the string. But it had to be cut, as it was so twisted and bound about the package.
Inside this wrapper was still another, and Mrs. Baker cried: "That Fiji!
I told him to wrap the box up carefully and I shouldn"t wonder but what he used as many papers as he does on April Fool"s Day!"
After more than a dozen wrappers, each tied well and knotted with heavy twine, had been removed, the last paper was cut away. The Guide took out a j.a.panned-tin box and upon opening it the Woodcrafters all said "Ah!"
There was a complete set of pyrography tools, a roll of stencilled Woodcraft designs (made by Elizabeth Remington), and transfer paper, copying inks, etc.
"Not an item forgotten-even a bottle of alcohol for the fuel!" cried Miss Miller, too surprised to remember to thank Mrs. Baker.
The girls watched and smiled in sympathy, and suddenly, as the Guide remembered she had not expressed her grat.i.tude, they all burst out laughing at her expense.
After many apologies and profuse thanks, she added: "Such a teacher of morals and manners to these girls!"
As usual, Nita was called upon to dance and the Storm Cloud was done so gracefully by her that the audience said she should be given an extra dish of ice-cream for dessert that night.
When the forfeits had been paid off it was time to cook camp-supper.
Before they were ready to sit and sup, however, the boys were heard shouting in the woods, and Miss Miller said:
"Suppose we invite the boys to supper, as we are going to be their guests to-night at the house?"
A merry group sat about the great flat rock that evening while Mrs.
Baker and the Guide waited on the hungry Woodcrafters. The girls told about the umbrella and the boys of their mountain hike.
The dishes cleared away, they all marched through the woods in the gloaming, and reached the house ready for more sport. Many exclamations of surprise and admiration came from the girls as they saw the way the boys had spent their afternoon.
Brightly coloured foliage festooned the doors, window-casings, and pictures of the large living-room. Pumpkins shed subdued light from the candles within their grinning faces. Red peppers, golden corn on stalks, and tall gra.s.ses formed decorations in the corners of the room. Black paper witches, bats, and yowling cats swung from invisible threads from the beams of the ceiling, and many other Hallow E"en ideas were carried out.
Regular Hallow E"en games were played at first, then Fred called for the Jack Horner Pie he had spied in the kitchen.
"Well, then, help me carry it in," laughed Mrs. Baker.
Shortly they were seen carrying in the galvanized wash-tub that had been used for the pie-tin. A brown pie-crust fitted over the top of it, but no one knew what was under the crust. "How under the sun did you bake it?" wondered Zan.
"That"s a culinary secret!" laughed Mrs. Baker.
"Tell us, so we can enter the recipe in the Tally," replied Elena, also laughing.
"I made the pastry rather moist and rolled it out into a great sheet and placed it on the wooden bread-board. The oven was very hot and after the sheet of dough had been in it a few moments it baked and browned enough to spread it over the tub. I pinched down the edges to the tin, and there you are! Not to be eaten, however, for you will find it too pasty."
The strings that came up through the pie-crust led to objects hidden in the tub of flour. And as each player took a string to hold as his prize, every string was soon claimed. When the crust was broken and the prizes drawn from the flour, the players found many funny gifts. Great was the Bedlam when tin horns, rattles, and "crackers" began sounding everywhere.
The young folks then played other games and ended with a peanut hunt that led and misled many hunters to every corner of the house in search of a hidden peanut.
"It must be time for refreshments, Mumsie," said Bob, at last.
"All right, Son, call them all to the feast," laughed Mrs. Baker.
As the group of merry-makers sat about the room munching sandwiches, Jane said, "Mrs. Baker, tell us how you made these delicious fillings.
We"ll write it down and make some too."
"I took a can of salmon and chopped it well with soft cream cheese. This I did at home and brought it here in a gla.s.s jar. It is very good on b.u.t.ter-thins, as you just said.
"The speckled sandwich-fillings are made of cream cheese, chopped olives, a bit of pimento, and seasoning. Thin slices of dark rye bread are best for this filling.
"Of course, you all know the walnut and fig filling-you simply chop nuts with cream cheese for the first kind, and chop figs, peanut b.u.t.ter, and a bit of rich cream for the second kind." As Mrs. Baker concluded, another girl called out:
"Tell us how you made this lemonade! I never tasted better."
"I ran the lemon peel through a meat-chopper with the lemon pulp. I use about one-quarter peel and the pulp of one lemon to the juice of every three lemons. If the juice of one orange and a lime is added to every ten lemons, it flavours the product much better. Sometimes a bit of Maraschino adds a peculiar flavour, but we never use it for the children."
The party ended with fortune-telling, with apple-parings, sailing walnut sh.e.l.ls across the tub of water, risking noses and teeth at biting on swinging apples, and other familiar games.
The next day being Sunday, the boys and girls hiked over the mountain-side and Zan pointed out to the others the place where the snake frightened the girls that Summer, and the road where Nita was caught in a thunder-storm.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN-INDOOR WOODCRAFT ENTERTAINMENT
November ushered itself in with cold and penetrating fogs, so that the girls found it pleasanter to hold meetings at each other"s houses or in the gymnasium, instead of out-of-doors. At the indoor meetings they learned the application of Woodcraft ideas and principles to meet their needs of everyday life.