“Oh, look at that big spider!” cried Lily. “Isn’t he horrid?”
“Only a water-bug, I guess,” said the captain, reassuringly. “And that reminds me, girls, I should like you to keep ‘observation notebooks’. Every plant, animal, insect, reptile, fish, flower—in fact, anything interesting in nature that you can identify, please put down. Then at the end of each day we shall see who has been the most observing.”
“Well, you can all put down that water-spider,” offered Lily, generously. “I’m glad to give him away.”
“Miss Phillips,” asked Marjorie, “are we to pass any merit badge tests, or do any special work in scouting, on this trip?”
“Yes, it is my hope that every girl will pass the Sailor’s test before we reach Silvertown. Indeed, I have so arranged the schedule that we remain one morning at a certain camping spot in order to give the test. Because it would be more difficult to do it at Silvertown, among so many strangers.”
“And what does the test include?” asked Ruth, always interested in a new chance to win distinction for herself.
“Oh, it has to do with swimming, and landing a canoe, and tying knots, and—just lots of other things. You can study it up in your handbook, before we take the test.”
“I wish I were a first-class scout,” observed Alice. “Would there be any hope of my passing that test on the trip?”
“I hardly think so,” replied the captain. “But you can do that as soon as you get back to Miss Allen’s in the fall.”
As the heat increased towards the middle of the day, the girls paddled more slowly, often merely directing the course of their canoes, and allowing the current to do the rest. Miss Phillips did not urge them forward; she realized how weary they were by their eagerness to stop for lunch.