The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle

Chapter 14

“There’s no use talking, we Winnebagos simply weren’t meant to be separated,” said Nyoda, smiling around at the circle of happy faces. “It seems that the very elements are in league to throw us into each other’s paths.”

They were all back on Ellen’s Isle. By noon of the day following the storm they were able to cross the end of the lake in a launch from St. Pierre and relieve the hearts of the anxious watchers on the island. Nyoda and Sherry were easily persuaded to stop and spend a few days on Ellen’s Isle now that their trip was interrupted, and the judge, having finished the business which brought him to St. Pierre, took occasion to run over and stay awhile with the twins.

Nyoda was dragged from one end of the island to the other and shown its wonders, from the innocent little spring which was the cause of their being there to the much enduring Eeny-Meeny on her pedestal. Over the adventures of the latter she laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks.

“Those are such typically Winnebago stunts,” she declared. “Who except one of us would have seen the tremendous possibilities in a wooden Indian, and who but a Winnebago could have thought up such a thing as the Dark of the Moon Society?”

The every-member-a-chief idea interested her mightily, and she was anxious to hear how it had worked out. “Fine,” said Sahwah, “but I guess Uncle Teddy was really the Big Chief after all, even if he did make us think we were doing everything by ourselves. The other Chiefs generally asked his advice about things–I know I did. But we did think out more things for ourselves this way than we would have if we thought he was looking out for everything.”

“And it was pretty exciting, sometimes, and full of surprises,” said Gladys. “Remember the morning Katherine got us up at half past three for crew practice? That never would have happened if Uncle Teddy had blown the rising horn all summer.”

“Come and see the war canoe,” said Sahwah, tugging at Nyoda to get her started in a new direction. “We named it after you. See the name painted on the bows?”

“What did I ever do that I should have a war canoe named after me?” asked Nyoda, overcome by the honor.

Somebody called Katherine away then, and Nyoda said to the others, “You were telling me about Katherine’s having such a tremendous fit of the blues some time ago. Tell me, is she having one now? She seems changed somehow since last June. Isn’t she feeling well?”

And then they told her how Katherine’s plans to go to college had been shipwrecked and that she was going back to her home on the farm when the summer was over. Nyoda listened sympathetically, and as soon as she could she sought out Katherine and led her away for a walk with her alone. In the long, intimate talk which followed she made her see that this disappointment was an opportunity and not a calamity; an opportunity to develop strength of character which would enable her to surmount whatever difficulties would lie in her path through life. She testified to her that the lives of most great people showed they had become great, not because of the opportunities which were strewn in their paths, but because of the obstacles they had overcome.

Katherine nodded dumbly. “But, how am I going to ‘pass on the light that has been given to me,’ if I am to be away from people?” she said sadly after a moment.

“By doing the duty that lies nearest you,” replied Nyoda, pressing her shoulder with a gentle hand. “You can be just as much of a Torch Bearer at home as anywhere. I know the prospect seems empty, even with the knowledge that you are doing your duty. By all the tokens, your place in life seems to be out in the busy world, rubbing elbows with people on all sides. Your great dream of social settlement work seemed one which was destined to be fulfilled with singular success. But, my dear, remember this, no success in life is worth as much as a happy home and a loving father and mother, and in taking over the task of home-making you have undertaken the greatest and noblest piece of work that any woman can do. If you succeed in making home happy your life will not be wasted and your torch will shine undimmed.”

“I hadn’t thought about it in that way before,” said Katherine slowly. “You see, I had spent my whole life waiting for the day when I could get away from home and get out among educated people. My one dream as long as I can remember has been college in the East, and I spent every minute studying. I never cared how the house looked or how anything went on the farm. I just lived in my books, and in day dreams of the future. That’s what makes it so hard to go back now. Oh, I was going back all right, I never thought for a moment of not going, but I don’t believe I was planning to be very happy about it. Now I see the meaning of the Camp Fire Girls’ law, ‘Be happy.’ It doesn’t mean be happy when everything is coming your way, but in spite of everything when things are going wrong. Just so when we learned to say, ‘For I will bring ... my joy and sorrow to the fire.’ There is more than one way to make a fire. If you haven’t a joyful match handy to scratch and make an instant blaze, you can start one with the slow rubbing sticks of sorrow. But either one will k****e the torch that you can pass on to others. I see it now!”

“You certainly have put it in a nutshell!” said Nyoda.

“So now I’m going home,” continued Katherine, “and tackle the housekeeping the way I used to go at my lessons. I’m going to make that old shack that was always a blot on the landscape such a marvel of beauty that it won’t know itself. I’m going to begin right there to seek beauty and give service and pursue knowledge and be trustworthy and glorify work, and above all, I’m going to Be Happy. Thank you so much, Nyoda, for telling me the things you did. You’ve straightened everything out for me, the way you always do.”

“Spoken like a true Winnebago!” said Nyoda, gripping her hand. “I knew you wouldn’t show the white feather. Now I must go. Don’t you hear Sherry calling me? Never get married, my dear, if you wish to be mistress of your own time!”

After that confidential talk with Nyoda Katherine’s soul was once more serene and the old spring was back in her step and the characteristic air of enthusiasm about everything she did. Once more the future seemed full of possibilities.

That night Nyoda gathered the Winnebagos together for a confidential council meeting. “Well, Torch Bearer,” she asked, “how goes the torch bearing?”

“We haven’t had a chance to try it on anybody yet,” said Hinpoha, “except Antha. We really and truly didn’t want her here this summer at all until Katherine said she would be an opportunity instead of a nuisance.” Here Nyoda smiled radiantly in Katherine’s direction in the darkness. What a faculty that girl had for seeing possibilities, whether in wooden Indians or spoiled children!

“And so you found out that it was worth while to have her here after all,” said Nyoda, beaming upon them when they had finished. “Well, I should say you had been making very fair headway, indeed. So far only one opportunity has presented itself and you have made the most of that. You’re one hundred per cent efficient on that basis. I’m proud of you.”

How glad they were then that they had “put up” with Antha! Somewhere in the back of each one’s head there lurked the suspicion that Nyoda must have “put up” with them considerably, back in the days when she first became their Guardian.

“I think we ought to set our seal on all our ‘little sisters,’” said Katherine, speaking with her old animation. “Why not make Antha an ‘associate member’ of the Winnebagos? Then we’d never lose interest in her.”

“Good idea,” said Nyoda heartily. “Let’s have a ceremonial meeting right away and make her officially one of us.”

No sooner said than done, and a council fire was kindled on the beach and in the presence of the whole company Antha was made a Winnebago with full ceremony–a thing they never would have dreamed of at the beginning of the summer.

“This is going to be our last week on Ellen’s Isle,” said Sahwah rather dolefully at the breakfast table the next morning. “We want to pack it as full of good times as we can.”

All the Winnebagos and Sandwiches set down their cups with a dismayed bang. While they were perfectly aware of the flight of time they had not begun to think seriously about going home. It seemed incredible, how near at hand the time actually was.

But when Sahwah had finished speaking Mr. Evans raised his voice. “I wasn’t going to tell you until council meeting tonight,” he said in a tone which betrayed a coming surprise. “But the way things have worked out I do not have to be back in the city until after the first week in September, so we can stay one week longer than we had planned.”

He tried to make some further remarks, but they were lost in the cheer that followed his announcement. To the enthusiastic campers that extra week seemed like an endless amount of time.

“You will stay with us, Nyoda?” pleaded Hinpoha, and Nyoda smilingly assured her that she and Sherry had already been invited to stay on and were going to accept because the business conference Sherry was to attend in Chicago had been postponed for a week. Judge Dalrymple also promised to stay until the twins went home.

“But who’ll be Chiefs that extra week?”

“Antha and Anthony,” said Katherine promptly. “They’ve both proven themselves responsible.”

And without waiting to go into formal meeting the family council approved the appointment, to the infinite amazement of the judge, who had never looked upon the twins as anything but very small and irresponsible children. He listened unbelievingly to the tale of Antha and the camera.

“She’s got grit!” he exclaimed exultingly to Mr. Evans and Uncle Teddy. “She’s got grit! I thought she hadn’t a speck. She’s a Dalrymple after all! Praise be, she’s got grit!” He seemed more pleased about the fact that she had grit than if she had possessed all the virtues of the saints.

“She’s learned to swim, too! How did you ever do it? I knew it would be the making of her to send her here for the summer. And Anthony, too, you’ve done something to him. Why, he calls me ‘sir’ every time he speaks to me! He actually says ‘sir!’ That’s something he never did in his life before. And where he used to choose the worst boys he could find for companions he seems to have learned to pick the best out of the lot. He thinks there’s no one in the world like that St. John boy; wants me to give him our old yacht. Seems to have stopped bragging, too; that used to be his besetting sin.”

Uncle Teddy smiled reminiscently at this, and then, acting upon a sudden impulse, he told the judge how the boys had cured Anthony of boasting by forcing him to make good his words.

“So it took a lesson like that to do it?” said the judge. “Well, I guess you’re right. He ought to have had it long ago, only I’ve never had a chance to do anything like that to him. His mother would have interfered. You know how it is.” He broke off with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I can’t thank you enough for taking care of them this summer,” he said earnestly.

Then Mr. Evans told him just how Katherine had influenced the Council to consent to the coming of the twins. “So it was Katherine that did it,” said the judge. “I am deeply in her debt. Do you happen to know of anything she would like to have particularly? I would like to show my appreciation in some way.”

“I don’t know of anything special she wants,” said Mr. Evans, “except―” And briefly he told the judge about Katherine’s home troubles.

“Do you suppose she would take the money to go to college?” asked the judge.

Mr. Evans shook his head. “I’m afraid she won’t. I offered it to her myself. It seems that her mother is sick and her father is much discouraged and they want her at home to look after things. It was her own decision to go; she is determined to make the sacrifice for their sakes. It is a noble one, you must admit, and I would feel delicate about influencing her to do otherwise.”

“Hm,” said the judge. “No use offering her money then. But, by the way–what did you say was the name of the company that her father sank his money in?”

“Pacific Refining Company,” said Mr. Evans.

“H-m-m-m,” said the judge. “I happen to know a little about that company. Peculiar case, very. Seemed sound as a rock, yet it failed through bad management. But I happen to know that if it were backed by somebody of good repute and put into the hands of an able manager it would pull through and pay dividends. Trouble is nobody wants to sink any more money in it. Possibly I could arrange to back it–Hm. I’ll see what can be done. Not a word to the girl about this, you understand, there’s nothing certain about it.”

Then Antha’s voice was heard calling for her father and away he went, leaving Mr. Evans and Uncle Teddy staring breathless after the man who proposed to revive dead ventures as casually as if he were talking about putting up screens.

“What are we going to do with Eeny-Meeny when we go home?” asked Gladys. That was a question nobody was prepared to answer offhand.

“Take her home and put her in the House of the Open Door,” said Sahwah.

“But hardly any of us will be there to see her,” objected Hinpoha, “and, anyway, it’s cruelty to dumb Indians to take them away from their native woods and shut them up in houses. I know Eeny-Meeny wouldn’t be happy there. I think we ought to leave her here on Ellen’s Isle.”

Then it was that Katherine had another inspiration. “I’ve got a plan worth two of that,” she said, beginning to giggle in anticipation. “Let’s bury her at the base of the rock in the ravine, and then mark the rock so mysteriously that somebody who comes after us will fall for it and dig up the earth. You’re good at that sort of thing, Hinpoha, you carve some fearful and wonderful things on that rock. Won’t they get a shock, though, when they come to Eeny-Meeny?” In their mind’s eye they could all see the sensation caused by the discovering of Eeny-Meeny possibly years hence at the base of the rock, and the prank appealed to them irresistibly.

Of course, the mention of the rock in the ravine brought out the story of the Trail of the Seven Cedars and the fruitless search for Indian relics. The judge listened to the tale with a peculiar expression of interest. “By the way,” he said casually, when they had finished, “did you know that I happen to own that stretch of land?”

The Winnebagos and Sandwiches were much taken aback. “Do you mind awfully, because we dug up the ground?” asked Gladys. “Why didn’t you tell us your father owned the land?” she said, turning reproachfully to the twins.

“We didn’t know it,” said Antha, “but I don’t think papa minds our digging it up, do you, Papa?”

“Not in the least,” said the judge, chuckling. “And I think it would be the best joke in the world to ‘plant’ Eeny-Meeny at the base of the rock. Some time or other that land will be sold, and I will see to it that hints are dropped to whoever buys it that there are Indian relics on the premises and they are invariably found at the bases of marked rocks. That’s the best joke I’ve heard in years. Katherine, you’re a genius. That idea of yours was surely inspired.”

So the Principal Diversion for the last week was the burial of Eeny-Meeny. After elaborate farewell ceremonies had been held over her on Ellen’s Isle she was put into a canoe and towed across the lake, then taken out and carried along the Trail of the Seven Cedars to the ravine. All the family went along to see the fun and take part in the last rites. But at the entrance to the ravine there was a ripple of astonishment. The cedar tree which had stood half way up the side, the largest and oldest of the seven, had been uprooted by the storm and lay at length in the bottom of the ravine. Where it had been there was a great gaping hole in the hillside. Numbers of rocks had come down with it and rolled into the excavation made by the boys and girls, carrying with them great quantities of earth, so that it was no longer an open pit. The whole appearance of the ravine had been changed by the falling of the tree.

The funeral party paused, uncertain whether to go to the work of taking the rocks out of Eeny-Meeny’s grave or dig a new one somewhere else. While they stood around and talked it over Slim grew weary and went up the hillside to sit down in the hollow left by the roots of the tree, which looked to him like a comfortable seat. He settled himself heavily, but no sooner had he done so than the ground broke away under him and he disappeared with a yell.

“Where are you?” cried the rest in amazement, running to the spot.

“Inside the hill,” came Slim’s voice from beyond the hole. “There’s a cave here and I’m in it.”

“Are you hurt?” they called.

“No,” he answered.

“I’m coming in to look at the cave,” said Sahwah, and she crawled carefully through the hole which had been much widened by Slim’s breaking through, and dropped down beside him. After her came the others, one by one, all anxious to see this chamber in the hillside. It was about as large as an ordinary sized room, the walls all rock, dripping with the dampness of ages. Katherine, blundering about in the darkness, which was only partly relieved by the flashlights, walked into something wet and cold. At her startled exclamation the others hurried over into the far corner with her and their flashlights shone on a good sized pool of water in the floor of the cave. It was being fed by a stream which came steadily through a fissure between two rocks. At one end of the pool the water flowed out into a hole in the ground and was lost to view.

“It’s a spring!” said Gladys. “I thought I heard water in here when we came down.”

Mr. Evans dipped a pocket cup into the clear water and took a drink. “It’s a mineral spring!” he exclaimed in great excitement. “The same as the one on Ellen’s Isle. But the size of it! There’s a fortune in it for you, Judge. Think of the gallons of water that are flowing by some underground passage into the lake without ever coming to the surface! That’s the prettiest case of poetic justice I’ve ever come across, finding this spring on your land. Now you can go ahead and organize a new mineral water company that will have a real spring for a basis.”

“I’ll do it!” said the judge, “and all those who had stock in the old one will have first chance at this. What a lucky accident! I told you that idea of Katherine’s to bring Eeny-Meeny to the ravine was inspired.”

“Now I know the meaning of the arrow on the rock!” said Sahwah when they were all outside the cave again. “You see, it points directly toward the hillside where those rocks came rolling down. Somebody found that cave and the spring and marked the spot so they could come back again, and then they never came back and it went on being a secret.”

“Now, Miss Katherine,” said Hinpoha, “was it so terribly silly after all to think that mark meant something?”

And Katherine cheerfully admitted that it wasn’t.

Hinpoha went on. “Captain,” she said, “didn’t you say you dreamed about water when you were fasting?”

“That’s what I did,” said the Captain.

“There!” said Hinpoha triumphantly. “You had a ‘token’ after all!”

And nobody could deny the fact.

“But if you’re not going to sell the land, as, of course, you won’t, there won’t be any use in burying Eeny-Meeny,” said Katherine in comical dismay.

“Eeny-Meeny wasn’t born to be buried in the ground,” said Gladys. “Once more she has been rescued on the brink of death. If she wants to stay with us as badly as all that, I think we might take her home and put her in the House of the Open Door.”

“I think,” said Nyoda with twinkling eyes, “that Eeny-Meeny obstinately refuses to be disposed of because she wants to stay with Katherine. Don’t you want to take her home with you, Katherine, for a good luck omen? She seems to bring good fortune to whoever has her. And she’ll keep you from getting lonely.”

So it was decided that Eeny-Meeny was to go home with Katherine to Spencer, Arkansas, “to live with her and be her love,” as Katherine poetically expressed it.

With f*** and feasts and celebrations of all kinds the last week passed, and almost before they knew it that time had actually come to pack up. Full of surprises as the summer had been, there was yet one more on the program. It came on the second last day. Going down to the beach in the morning for the bathing hour they saw, anchored out in the lake near the island, a good-sized steam yacht, splendid with the morning sun shining on her white sides and fluttering flags.

“Where did it come from?”

The twins were falling all over themselves with joy and pride. “It’s our yacht, the Sea Gull,” they shouted. “Did you have it come to take us home, Papa?”

“Not only you, but all these folks,” said the judge.

“Oh, not really,” protested Mr. Evans, “think of the distance!”

“Nothing at all, nothing at all,” the judge replied. “I would be most happy to make some slight return for your gracious hospitality.”

The Winnebagos and Sandwiches were delighted beyond measure at the thought of going home in such grand style, and much as they had dreaded the moment of leaving before, they could hardly wait for it now.

“I’ve been sent home in people’s automobiles lots of times,” said Hinpoha, “but just fancy being taken home hundreds of miles in a yacht! Doesn’t it make you dizzy, though?”

In spite of the delight of steaming away on the spick and span yacht, there was heartfelt regret in every wave of the hand that bade farewell to Ellen’s Isle, when the hour of leaving came, and never had it seemed fairer than when they looked upon its wooded height for the last time. Out in the channel they passed the lighthouse where the Hares had put their heads into the noose, and there was much laughter as they recounted the story for Nyoda’s benefit. Still farther on was the reef where the Huronic had met her fate; the salvage crews were still at work on her. In the clear sunshine and with the calm waters dimpling around them it seemed impossible to believe that this was the same lake that had worked itself into such an ungovernable fury but a short time before.

The Sea Gull was as swift as her white namesake, and flew over the sparkling lake like a real gull. So taken up were the Winnebagos and Sandwiches with the appointments of the yacht and such fun they had going anywhere they pleased on board by day or night, that before they knew it they were in the harbor of Detroit where Katherine and Nyoda and Sherry were to be set ashore to finish their respective journeys by train.

With Katherine went Eeny-Meeny, nicely crated, to be a companion for her loneliness, as well as Sandhelo, who, by vote of council, was awarded to her because the others would no longer be able to take care of him, and because he had always had more of an affinity for Katherine than for any of the others. It was the fun they had over Eeny-Meeny and Sandhelo that made the parting less difficult. Katherine was the most hilarious of any. Grasping her umbrella by the bottom, she recited a husky poem to the effect that

“Their parting was sad, but not tearful,

It happened at four by the clock,

The sail-aways tried to be cheerful,

And the stay-ashores tried to be keerful,

So’s not to get shoved off the dock!”

“We’ll all be together again some time, I feel it in my bones,” said Hinpoha cheerily. “You just can’t separate us Winnebagos.”

Farewells were being said on all sides. “Good-bye, Nyoda! Remember the visit you’re going to make us next summer!”

“Good-bye, Sandhelo!” “Good-bye, Eeny-Meeny!” “Good-bye, Uncle Teddy!”

Antha clung to Katherine, sobbing. “Good-bye, little sister of all the Winnebagos!” said Katherine, gently loosening the child’s hands from her neck.

Then somebody touched her on the shoulder, and, turning, she saw Slim beside her. He put something into her hands. It was a big bag of peanuts. “Eat them on the way,” he said.

“You’re a sport!” said Katherine, laughing, and holding out her free hand to be shaken for the last time.

The good-byes were all said and the yacht began to back away from the dock. Katherine looked after it with hungry eyes as it steamed away into the sunset, carrying with it the friends that had meant to her all that was bright and happy about her school days. She looked until the waving handkerchiefs were a blur in the distance, and the white form of the Sea Gull itself faded from view.

Then she squared her shoulders, held up her head, and grasping the umbrella as if it were the sword Excalibur, turned and followed Nyoda across the dock toward the railway station.