“We’ll begin now and then you can find out for yourselves,” the Captain said in reply.
All the tools they had brought were now unpacked and placed ready for use. Mrs. Vernon then said: “Now we must weed up all the stubble and wild-growth that has filled the interior of the hut. We may find the floor beams good enough to use again when the undergrowth is cleared away.”
“Why not let’s build the roof first?” asked Ruth.
“Because you have no flooring down, and every nail or tool you drop while working on the roof will have to be sought for in the rank growth.”
The girls saw the logic of that, so they began pulling and working on the material that had to be eliminated before further work could be attended to.
“Why, this is as bad as weeding dandelions,” grumbled Ruth.
“Say, Ruth, dandelions were easy in comparison,” laughed Joan, standing up to wipe the perspiration from her face.
“Well, all I can say is, if this is the sort of fun the Girl Scouts rave about, I don’t want any more of it!” declared Ruth, throwing down her weeding fork and stepping over the beam to get out of the hut.
The other girls stopped work and looked impatiently at her, but Mrs. Vernon said: “Perhaps you’d like to work at some other task. There are many things to be done before we can settle down in camp and enjoy our leisure.”
“All right! Give me any old thing but that weeding!”