“It will be all right in a day or so,” said Mrs. Bonnell who had looked at it. “It isn’t a bad cut. Just keep your weight off it. We’ll bring you some food so you won’t have to go out.”
“Thanks,” he murmured, as he lay back in an old chair.
The boys did what they could for him, and then left with the girls in the launch, promising to come back later with food enough to last for several days.
This they did, the Camp Fire Girls insisting on providing their share, for they felt kindly toward the old man, and, as Mabel said, they were pledged to give service, and here was a chance to do it.
With the boys, they also paid him another visit, finding him much improved. He could hobble about, and inside of a week he was able to resume his odd tasks about the lake, for he was hired by a number of the cottagers and campers to look after their places.
Green Lake was beginning to assume life. Many new camps were opened, as well as a number of summer residences. The Camp Fire Girls were delighted with their new life. They got into the swing of living in the open, sleeping in a tent, and dining as they pleased.
“It’s the ideal of the simple life,” declared Marie. “I wonder we never thought of it before.”
“And we all feel so much better,” added Mabel.
They had established a sort of routine, for Mrs. Bonnell realized the necessity of this, and the work, well divided, was not a task at all. Breakfast over they made the camp “slick,” as the boys expressed it, though the lads did not always follow that injunction themselves. Then came a row or a paddle on the lake, for they had hired a canoe, and a row boat. Or perhaps they went out with the boys.
There was the trip to the nearest post-office for mail, or to drop letters home and to friends. Then there was the buying of supplies, though the butcher and grocer, now that the lake shores were better populated, came every day.