CHAPTER XXII
THE GHOST AT THE CABIN
Miss Phillips had promised to take the first eight girls who qualified as second-class scouts on an overnight hike. She had decided to limit the number for two reasons—first, because the ground was still too damp to risk sleeping out of doors, and she had accepted the use of the boys’ cabin; and second, because she wanted to reward the more energetic scouts.
It was not until the last Friday in May that the required number finally qualified, and the Captain read the names and announced the hike for the first week end in June, which was only two weeks before school closed for the term. Besides Ruth, Doris, and Helen, who had all passed their test before the Spring holidays, Dorothy Maxwell, Lucy Graham, Ethel Todd, Edith Evans, and Ada Mearns were finally added to the number.
Miss Phillips dismissed the other scouts and dictated a list of articles for the girls to take with them. Then she divided the group into pairs, and assigned them their especial duties. Ruth was glad to be coupled with Doris, for whom she possessed a great admiration.
“Will we be allowed to go in swimming?” asked Ruth, after most of the arrangements had been concluded.
“If it is warm enough,” replied the Captain. “There is a creek just beyond the cabin, and the swimming is good all the way down to the dam—where Episcopal Academy is located, you know. So you can take your suits if you care to, and then we will test the water and see. If it’s as warm as it has been this week, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t—unless, of course, your parents would object to your going in on Sunday.”
“Do you suppose,” asked Doris a little timidly, “that we will see the ghost the boys talk about?”
Miss Phillips laughed. “Hardly!” she answered. “I thought of the possibility of the boys playing some sort of trick on you to scare you, so I mentioned the matter to Mr. Remington, and he promptly offered to take the whole troop over to visit another troop of scouts who have the use of a barn in a little town just outside of New York.”
“No, Captain, I meant a real ghost! Of course I don’t believe in them, but——”