“You have not yet said, Don, that you consider our camp superior to yours, when I am perfectly convinced that it is, without having laid eyes on yours. Lance has given me the impression that he agrees with me. He has not exactly said so in any words I can recall, but he can be tactful when he likes. You are always so tiresomely silent, Don, whether you think a thing true or not true. I always know when you are most silent your opinion is the strongest one way or the other.”
Don was silent. Yet he knew the group of girls were awaiting his reply with almost as great interest as Tory.
Finally he smiled in a handsome, good-humored fashion.
“Don’t see why you should object to my not talking a great deal, Tory, when it gives you and Dorothy and Lance more opportunity.”
He turned around, however, studying the little camp in the shadow of the old forest with careful scrutiny. Donald McClain did not think quickly nor could he express his point of view until he had given a subject serious consideration.
“I don’t see any comparison between your Girl Scout camp and our own, Tory,” he returned at length. “The two camps are not in the least alike. In the first place, you tell me that you have only fourteen Girl Scouts and we have nearly forty boys. Of course things look neater and more picturesque here, with girls one expects this. Our problem is different. I have an idea we have more discipline and do more hard work.”
Tory Drew looked annoyed.
Dorothy McClain took up the defense.
“I am not so sure of the work and the discipline, Don. We do everything at our camp, the cooking, washing and cleaning. We have been pretending that we were members of Penelope’s household. If you have never read the ‘Odyssey’ you won’t know what I am talking about. Joan Peters we sometimes call Penelope. She is everlastingly at her weaving, but does not unravel her web at night that she has woven in the daytime. She is not troubled by Penelope’s importunate suitors. Tory at present is the Princess Nausicaa, the daughter of the King Alcinous, who conducts the family washing as a part of her work. I won’t bore you with all our distinguished titles.
“As for discipline! I don’t mean to be rude and I am glad you did not wish your Troop of Scouts to descend upon us like a band of Indians on a group of pioneer women. Still, I would scarcely be proud of such discipline.”