Girl Scouts in Arizona and New Mexico

by Lillian Elizabeth Roy

Back in the mountain camp Mr. Gilroy, the convalescing guest of Dandelion Patrol, explained how he came to visit Blue Beard’s cave that day. Thus the girls learned that he was a great admirer of scout work and had been a patron of the Boys’ Scout Organization. The junior scouts who had rescued him now decided to enlist his interests in the Girls’ Scout Organization, as well.

Mr. Gilroy continued his visit at the Dandelion Camp for a few days after he felt completely restored to normal strength, and, during this visit, became deeply interested in Mrs. Vernon’s plans and propositions for her girls. Because of the first aid rendered him in his hour of extremity, Mr. Gilroy insisted upon having the Scout Patrol visit his Adirondack Estate the following summer. To this unexpected proposition the girls gladly agreed, providing their parents and Mrs. Vernon would consent and advance the necessary money to defray the costs of the trip.

Hence the second summer of the Dandelion Troop of Girl Scouts was spent on the shores of First Lake, one of the Fulton Chain of lakes. There was a boys’ camp a mile away, and Mr. Gilroy divided his time and interest between the two camps. The girls won such favor, however, that their host invited them to accompany him the following summer on a camping trip through the Rocky Mountains.

Mrs. Vernon, who had founded Dandelion Troop, was the Captain of the scouts; Juliet Lee was their Leader; and Joan Allison was the Corporal. Since that first enrollment, when there were but four girls, namely: Julie and Betty Lee; Joan Allison, and Ruth Bentley, there were now two flourishing Patrols. In Patrol Number One were the first four girls, and Hester Wynant, Amy Ward, Edith and Judith Blake and Anne Bailey. Patrol Number Two was larger, but the members were younger. It was Patrol Number One that had spent the second summer in the Adirondacks.

There were but five girls of Patrol Number One who went to the Rockies for the third season. They were: Julie and Betty Lee, Joan Allison, Ruth Bentley and Anne Bailey. Hester Wynant could not go because she had been needed at home. Mrs. Blake had refused to hear of having her two girls go and, perhaps, risk their being lost or killed in the wild and woolly west. Amy Ward’s mother listened to Mrs. Blake; hence Amy Ward had remained home.

Now, this fourth summer for mountaineering, the plan of visiting Arizona and New Mexico appealed so strongly to every girl in Dandelion Troop that mothers had heard nothing, morning, noon, and night, for weeks, but glowing accounts of this trip. A very important factor brought to bear in their arguments for this southwestern trip being that not one of those girls who had gone to the Rockies had been lost or injured as Mrs. Blake had foretold. Instead of disaster and troubles, the scouts had returned to Elmertown looking the picture of health and happiness.

Mrs. Blake, however, held up both hands in horror when a trip to New Mexico and Arizona was suggested; and, through her vehement objections, she influenced her friend, Mrs. Ward, to keep Amy home this time as aforetime. Thus, three bitterly rebellious girls sat with their fellow-scouts that day in Mrs. Vernon’s home, and cried over the fate of having such unreasoning mothers.

“Our list has dwindled to four girls; one less than we had on the Rocky Mountain trip. Ruth has to accompany her parents to Europe, but I wish she could have this rare treat, instead of Paris,” sighed Mrs. Vernon. “As for Judith and Edith and Amy—well! I dare not say what is in my heart, but I wish I was their mother, that’s all!”

“How we wish you were, Verny!” exclaimed all three girls.

“If my sister would postpone her wedding day till October, I, too, could go with you,” remarked Anne Bailey. “But Eleanor says the last week of July is the only time Henry can take a vacation; so the wedding has to be then. I’d a heap rather be scouting out west with you girls than be a bridesmaid at a wedding. If I ever become engaged to marry, I won’t be so selfish as to insist upon keeping my younger sister home from a glorious summer-tour for nothing more than a poky ceremony that takes only five minutes! Just think of me losing all your fun this summer and moping, instead, about a house that is turned topsy-turvy for a prospective bride.”