“There!” cried their helper, letting go of the pole. “She’ll hold until we can peg her down. It will be easy now.”
Rapidly the other side pegs were put in, the ropes tauted on them, and the tent was up. It only remained to further stretch the front and rear guy ropes, and fasten the sides of the canvas down to the wooden platform. It took some time to do this, and longer to put up the other tent, but finally it was accomplished.
“Now I’ll help you put your trunks in,” offered Mr. Rossmore. “We can put up the flies on to-morrow.”
“Flies!” exclaimed Natalie. “I guess he means fly paper; doesn’t he? Though I hoped we wouldn’t be bothered with insects up here.”
“The ‘fly’ of a tent is a piece of extra canvas that goes over the top like a roof,” explained Mrs. Bonnell. “It keeps out hard rain. The boys will help us put them on,” she added to the old man. “But we will be glad to have you help us lift in the trunks,” for the girls’ baggage had been left at a dock near their camp by an early morning steamer, previous to their arrival.
“Oh, to get off some of my things!” cried Alice, when they were in the privacy of the dressing tent, and Old Hanson had been thankfully dismissed with a dollar, handed him by Mrs. Bonnell, to pay him for his work. “I’m nearly dead with this Camp Fire outfit on over my other clothes.”
“So am I!” confessed Natalie. “Oh, isn’t it lovely to be free, and not to have to primp before a glass.”
“Speaking of glasses, I wonder if we brought one,” asked Mabel.
“I did!” came in a chorus from the other three girls.
“And to a camp!” reproached Mrs. Bonnell with a laugh.