“Oh–I say,” he called back, when Uncle Teddy had given him a small flask of brandy and pointed out the nearest route back, “if you should happen to run into my friend anywhere while you are in these woods would you be so kind as not to mention this–er–mistake of mine? He is something of a joker, and I am afraid if this story came to his ears he 108 would repeat it where it would cause me some embarrassment.”
And he departed as solemnly as the other had done, leaving the campers limp with merriment.
The next day they ascended the river as far as they could go, with nothing more exciting than the dropping overboard of Katherine’s poncho. On the return trip the punctured canoe began to leak, so her crew and supplies were transferred to Eeny-Meeny’s canoe and she was towed along in the leaky one, with frequent stops to bail out the water when she seemed in danger of being swamped. They spent the second night in the same place where they had spent the first, and this time there was no disturbance. They mended the leaky canoe again and Eeny-Meeny finished her trip in comparative dryness.
“Oh, dear,” said Katherine, when they were back at Ellen’s Isle once more, and had finished telling Mr. and Mrs. Evans their adventures, “what was there in life worth living for anyway, before we had Eeny-Meeny?”
109CHAPTER VII
A FAST AND A SILENCE
Being Chief that week it was Katherine’s duty to blow the rising horn in the morning. The day after the return from the canoe trip was the morning for war canoe practice. The crew practised three mornings a week before breakfast. Katherine, who had gone to sleep with the idea firmly fixed in her mind that she must wake by a quarter to seven so that she could rouse the others, awoke with a start, dreaming that she had overslept and the others had tied her in her bed and gone off without her. The world was dull and grey and covered with a chilly mist. There was nothing to inspire a desire to go war canoe practicing. Katherine was still tired from the strenuous paddling of the past two days, and she stretched in delicious comfort under the covers. Then she pulled her watch from under her pillow and looked at it.
“Gracious!” she exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in bed. “It’s ten after seven. I have overslept! It’s so grey this morning it seems much earlier.”
She seized the horn and blew a mighty blast at the other girls, who were still sleeping peacefully. One by one they opened their eyes drowsily.
“Get up!” shouted Katherine. “We’ve overslept! 110 This is the morning for crew practice and it’s ten after seven already.”