Mrs. Bryan shook her head. “No,” she said, “it doesn’t, because somebody has to look after the Blue Birds every week. I’m going to appoint Marie Hunter, because she hasn’t any small sisters, and it won’t be such an old story to her to look after little girls. So there are just enough people to go around. Rise up and draw lots out of the boiler, girls!”
“I’d rather wash every dish in camp than chaperon the infants!” said Louise aside; and drew a slip marked “Dish-Washing” on the spot. “If I got all my wishes as quickly as that, how nice it would be!” she sighed, and lay down with her arm around little Bessie. Louise had not a passion for washing dishes.
Then Adelaide drew a cooking slip. So did Winona and Elizabeth and Lilian Brown, one of the girls who had joined later. Anna Morris, Dorothy Gray and Edith Hillis drew the other dish-washing slips and Helen Bryan, Nataly Lee, Gladys Williams and the other Brown sister, Gertrude, were assigned the police and provision duty. At the end of the week everybody was to shift to something else.
“It seems to me the camp orderlies have the best of it,” said Helen, yawning. “What do we do, Nannie?”
“You see that everyone remembers to make up her bed in the morning, you sweep out the camp, carry water from the spring. You have to see, too, that the camp is kept in fruit and vegetables—in other words, walk to a farmhouse about a mile away every other day to buy provisions. We mustn’t break into our canned goods except in an emergency. You are really the people who are responsible for the camp’s running smoothly.”
“Carry water!” said Nataly with a gasp. “Won’t we get our clothes wet?”
“Wear a waterproof, love,” said Louise. “I’m going to ask to have Nataly assigned to bring me all my water for dishes,” she whispered to Winona, beside her. “I’m sure it will have an elevating effect on her character.”
“Oh, don’t, Louise!” whispered Winona back. “Suppose you’d spent your young life on a sofa, reading ‘Beautiful Coralie’s Doom,’ you wouldn’t feel able to carry water either!”
“Then I wouldn’t go Camp Firing,” said Louise conclusively.
Next morning the camp cooks were up at six. Breakfast was to be at seven-thirty, but the girls were so afraid of being too late that they devised an elaborate system of strings, whereby the earliest awake was to jerk her strings, and wake all the others. Winona, Lilian Brown and Elizabeth were on the ground by a quarter past six, but, although they had all jerked their strings faithfully, no Adelaide appeared. Finally they descended in a body on the tent which held Adelaide and her little sister Frances.