“It will be ever so much out of our way,” said Claudia. She turned to the storekeeper. “Will any one from here be going by the Sykes place this afternoon?” she asked.
“Pretty sure to be,” was the answer. “If there isn’t some one can come from Sykeses and get her. I’ll call ’em up and tell ’em she’s here.”
This was declared a perfectly satisfactory plan, and after having made their purchases the girls started back saying good-bye to Mariquita, who was assured by Joanne that she needn’t be afraid, for some one would come for her and take her home.
“It’s lucky we came around that way,” said Winnie as they started off. “That poor little thing might have wandered farther and farther into the woods and there is no knowing when they would have found her. Such a pretty little thing she is, too, with those big dark eyes and that smooth olive skin. There’s another thing, too, Jo; this should get you your Interpreter’s badge. You’ll be plastered all over with badges by this time next year, if you keep on.”
“I’m not thinking of badges just now,” returned Joanne, “but I am thinking of what this will mean to Pablo. It will be a great thing for him to have neighbors to whom he can speak in his own language; he gets very homesick sometimes.”
“Nice little Pablo,” said Claudia; “he is always so polite and ready to do things for us; I surely am glad he will have companions, but to return to the question of badges. How many do you expect to earn this summer, Jo?”
“Oh, dear, I don’t know; all I can, of course. Now that I have qualified as Second Class Scout, I am working for the First Class, but my goal is the Golden Eaglet.”
“So say we all of us,” Winnie put in. “Jo is nothing if not ambitious, Clausie.”
“Why shouldn’t she be? Mark my words she will reach her goal as soon as we do. How many badges have you earned already, Jo, I mean of those required for the Golden Eaglet?”
“Let me see,” Joanne began checking them off on her fingers. “I have the one for Athletics, for Bird Hunter and Needlewoman. I am studying up on First Aid. Oh, yes, and I have my Pioneer’s badge and the one for Personal Health. That’s how many? Five, I believe, and I mean to add at least three more before we leave these diggings, which will make eight.”