“You will by-and-bye,” said his sister, going on with her work. It went very smoothly after that, except that Puppums would jump inside, and then looked at her in a wronged way because the canoe did not float off. After the tinsel was on nothing remained to do but to wrap the end-pieces with black muslin, so they would not show at night, and to cover the canoe with the same material. The lanterns did not need to be hung till the last moment.
The night of the carnival Camp Karonya, very much excited, sailed down the river in all the glory of its fleet, about six. The Indian village was a great success as far as looks went. Whether it would be as handsome a float as the ones it would have to compete with nobody could tell yet. As a canoe takes less time to engineer than a float, and also as the boys hadn’t come yet, Winona stayed behind a little while. At about seven Tom and Billy came up the river in another of the Scouts’ canoes. Winona, in her witch costume, with her lanterns, was waiting for them by the decorated canoe.
Billy was most gorgeous. He had hired a red Mephisto costume, evidently from a real costumer—horns, hoofs and all. His full grandeur didn’t show till he sprang out on the grass, because he had modestly shrouded himself in a raincoat, and his mask was in its pocket. But he snapped the mask on, tossed the coat off, and struck an attitude, before he helped Tom to lay the canoe in the water.
“You certainly are grand and gorgeous, Billy,” said Winona. “All you need is a spotlight running round after you to look just like the man in the opera.”
“I feel like a freak,” admitted Billy. “Got everything, Winona? We’d better be starting.”
Winona veiled her own splendors with an evening wrap of Mrs. Bryan’s which had, fortunately, been brought along, and stepped in. Tom trailed behind.
“I believe I’m frightened,” said Winona. “What about you, Billy?”
“There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said. “We can’t very well upset, tied to a string of other craft, and maybe we’ll get a fourth prize—if they only have four entries in the canoe class.”
“We’ll get one anyway!” declared Winona proudly, throwing her head back and forgetting to be nervous.
They were early at the dock. The Camp float was moored quite a little way from the place where they had to be, but they could see each other, and called across. After that Winona did not feel so lonely. The boys helped her to light and tie on the lanterns, all so realistically like skulls, and when she saw how very ghostly they looked she felt that she hadn’t lived in vain.