Chapter III: Keeping the Girls in Suspense

“Aren’t they provoking?” pouted Margery.

“They are queer boys,” observed Jane, with a shake of her head.

Harriet laughed gleefully.

“It is my opinion that the Tramp Club is preparing to play a joke on the Meadow-Brook Girls,” she declared. “However, I think we are well able to take care of ourselves. Miss Elting, what about this proposal to move the camp?”

“That is for you girls to decide. I see no objection to it. The boys no doubt wish to have us nearer to their own camp.”

“Why don’t they move down here, then?” questioned Jane.

“I hadn’t thought of that. What do you think?”

“I will think it over,” answered Harriet. “The morning will give us time to decide. We’ll sleep over it rather than decide hastily. I should like to know what that surprise is that they have planned for us; that is the kernel in the nut.”

“They just want to tease us,” complained Margery. “I don’t believe they have any surprise at all.”

“I think you are wrong, Margery,” replied Miss Elting. “Those boys surely have something that is to be a great surprise to us. If we don’t do as they wish, they may not tell us.”

“They will tell us,” nodded Harriet reflectively. “What do you girls say about moving camp?”

“We will leave that to you,” answered Hazel.

“Then let us turn in and decide the question to-morrow morning. I always like to sleep over anything of this sort.”

“I don’t. I like to know right away,” declared Margery.

They prepared for bed, having first banked the fire and consulted the skies for weather indications. The girls did not lie awake long thinking of the surprise that the Tramp Club had in store for them. They were far too sleepy to be particularly curious concerning it.

Breakfast, next morning, was finished by seven o’clock. The birds were darting through the air, or pouring forth their songs from bush or tree. The sun was shining brightly, and the skies were blue and smiling.

The girls had not finished washing the dishes when a shout from the top of the hill caused them to look up. Down the incline came the Tramp Club boys, jumping from rock to rock, raising a cloud of dust as they plunged recklessly down the side of the hill toward the camp.

“We have come to move you,” called Captain George, when still some distance from the camp. “Hurry out of the way before we run into you and your camp.”

“Not quite so fast! We haven’t decided to move,” answered Harriet laughingly as the boys came tearing down to them, flushed and breathless.

“We decided that yesterday. You haven’t anything to say about it. Here, Pickle, you drop that tent. Up with it!”

Tent pegs were drawn and down came the tent about Margery’s ears, she having been at work setting the tent to rights. Margery uttered a wail. Davy Dockrill ran to assist her.

“Don’t get in the way of the men,” advised Billy Burgess. “They have a big morning’s work ahead of them, and any one who gets in their way is likely to be run over and perhaps hurt.”

“I gueth they better not run over me,” warned Tommy. “I’d jutht like to thee them try to run over Tommy Thompthon.”

The camp already looked very much as though a tornado had passed over it. The belongings of the Meadow-Brook Girls lay strewn about the camp, the tent was flat on the ground, the fire had been kicked aside and the cooking utensils dragged out to cool off preparatory to packing them. Miss Elting gazed at the bold lads smilingly. Harriet had sat down and was laughing heartily. Margery was too angry to speak for a time, after having been assisted from the collapsed tent by Davy Dockrill.

“Would it be proper to ask where we are going?” questioned Harriet, after she had succeeded in controlling her merriment.

“You are going to a new camp, Miss Burrell, and you’re going to get the surprise of your young life,” answered Captain George.

“I am beginning to think that surprise is a joke, Captain.”

“You’ll find it isn’t. Oh, you girls will be beside yourselves with joy and sheer delight when you hear about it,” chuckled Sam.

“Provided we are not old ladies by that time and unable to walk without crutches on account of our rheumatic joints,” retorted Harriet mischievously.

“I think you should tell us before we shift our camp,” suggested Miss Elting almost severely.

“You are not moving your camp, we’re moving it for you, begging your pardon for contradicting you,” answered George, touching his hat to the guardian. “I’ll tell you before we go.”

In the meantime, that camp was disappearing with greater speed than had ever before marked the striking of a Meadow-Brook Girls’ camp. Thus far the girls had had no part in the striking. They had made several individual efforts, only to be thrust aside by the determined boys. Now and then George would appeal to Miss Elting as to where this or that article was to be packed. The girls were never asked. It was as though they were merely guests.

All was in readiness within half an hour after the boys had swooped down upon the camp. Captain George distributed the packs among his fellows. These were not very heavy loads, for the girls had taken light packs, knowing they would have to climb more or less, provided they followed the hills.

“Now we are ready to move,” announced the captain, himself shouldering the largest of the packs and nodding to the boys.

“But, my dear Captain, we have not yet decided to move camp,” answered Miss Elting, smiling good-naturedly.

“Decided? Of course not. It wasn’t for you to decide. We decided that yesterday. You don’t have to come along if you don’t want to, but your equipment is already on the way.”

“I won’t go a step,” declared Margery.

“You may, of course, stay here if you wish,” answered the captain politely. “May I assist you up the hill, Miss Elting?” he questioned.

“Oh, no, thank you, Captain, I am quite well able to climb this hill. Come, girls. I suppose we might as well give in. It is either that or lose our equipment. These young men are very determined.”

“Aren’t you going to tell uth what the great thurprithe ith?” demanded Tommy.

George uttered a long-drawn whistle.

“Say, girls, I forgot all about that. Honestly I did.”

“Then tell us now,” suggested the guardian.

“I’ll tell you when we get to the camp.” George began climbing the hill, followed slowly by the girls and their guardian.

“Isn’t he provoking?” grumbled Margery petulantly.

The boys led the way over the brow of the hill to the more level ground and on into the forest that crowned the top of the hill. Reaching a cleared spot from which the timber had been cut, the girls found the advance guard of Tramps at work pitching the tent. There was a heavy growth of bushes, but the stumps had been fairly well burned off. The clearing, surrounded by great trees, was about an acre in extent and a really attractive camp site.

“Here we are,” announced George jovially, throwing down his pack. “You girls just make yourselves at home while we put the place to rights. How do you like it?”

“I like it,” answered Harriet frankly. “You have done considerable work here, I see—cut all the bushes and leveled off the ground for the camp. It is very kind in you, Captain. Where is your camp?”

“A quarter of a mile to the north,” he replied with a wave of his hand. “You will find a fine spring just the other side of those rocks yonder. There is an old log road leading in from the highway. It is a much more convenient place in every way than the one where you were camped, and yet not a soul comes here. We were here for a time last fall. Have you plenty of provisions?”

“For the present,” answered Harriet, nodding. “We shall have to go to town within the week, however.”

“No need to do that. There is a farmhouse a mile from here where we can get everything we need. We go there for milk every morning. We can just as well bring your milk at the same time and anything else you may need.”

“You are very kind,” said the guardian. “But now that we are here, suppose you tell us about that very great surprise.”

George pointed out a pile of wood that they had gathered, showed Harriet where the spring lay hidden behind the big rock and pointed out other advantages of the camp they had chosen for their friends, the Meadow-Brook Girls, all of which pleased the girls very much, though Margery and Tommy would not have shown their satisfaction for the world.

The camp was pitched in record time that morning, but the boys kept working about, even going so far as to make an oven of flat stones. George then drew from a bag a dozen squirrels that they had shot that morning. These he proceeded to skin and dress, after which he spitted them on sharp sticks ready for broiling over the fire when luncheon time should have arrived.

The hour for getting the noon meal was at hand almost before the young people realized it. Time had passed very rapidly that morning. The boys got the luncheon that day. By this time the Meadow-Brook Girls had begun to enter into the spirit of the fun. They were chatting and laughing gayly, teasing the Tramp Boys and criticising their methods of house-keeping. Luncheon was the jolliest meal they had enjoyed that season—so the girls unreservedly declared. After having finished and before getting up from their blankets, Captain George coughed significantly.

“Now, I suppose, you would like to hear about it,” he said teasingly.

Harriet shrugged her shoulders.

“Having waited this long, I don’t think it would give us much pain to wait longer,” she replied.

“No, no! Tell us,” cried Buster.

“I thought you weren’t curious?” taunted Davy.

“Don’t keep us in suspense, Captain. Tell us now. You don’t have to be coaxed to tell, do you?” asked Miss Elting.

“No, we are really anxious to tell you the whole story, and I know you’ll all shout with delight when you hear it,” answered Captain George.