The girls started to run after him, but in a moment his loud laughter brought them to a standstill, for surely it could not be anything very serious or he would not be indulging in such levity! Helen and the Sport, however, who had rushed steadily on, were not far behind the doctor, and as they swung around the bend of the trees, they beheld a diminutive figure, sputtering and gasping, with rivulets of water trickling from bedraggled garments and locks, being assisted up the bank by the doctor’s strong arm!
CHAPTER XIII—AROUND THE CHEER FIRE
The sorry-looking object proved to be the Tike, who between sobs and shivery shakes explained, as the party surrounded her, that tempted by the mirror-like surface of a dark pool in the middle of the brook she had stooped to see if she could see her face in it. Unfortunately, her knee slipped on a loose stone, and she had tumbled in.
With much laughter and merriment the girls made a stretcher, tumbled the somewhat subdued fag into it, and then set off for the wigwam, where Miss Carol was speedily disrobed and her clothes hung out to dry, as the girls merrily sang, “on a hickory limb!”
Bundled up in wraps after a few drops of stimulant had been administered to prevent her taking cold, which made her drowsy, she was left to the ministrations of the dream fairies, while the girls hurried off to wash the dishes and finish cleaning up. While this was being performed, the doctor showed Nathalie how to throw dirt or water on the fires—all but one, which was left for a cheer fire—so as to be sure that they were all out. The girls, he said, had learned a lesson last summer when they left a fire smoldering when they struck camp. It soon burst into a blaze and if it hadn’t been for a party of Scouts who had been off for a tramp the woods would have been on fire.
Camp duties done, the cheer fire blazed a welcome and the girls hastily circled around it, and were soon busily engaged in packing the roots of their wild flowers with clay, wrapping them in big leaves and tying them securely with sweet grasses or string. They were then placed in the Tike’s basket to delight the heart of some shut-in, whose only outing was from the window.
When this task was completed the flower specimens were laid in rows, and then Helen as leader, gave the names of her specimens; each girl having a like specimen laid it carefully between a sheet of blotting paper to remove the moisture, and then pressed it deftly in her note-book, where it was fastened with gummed paper across the stems and thick parts of the plant. Under each flower was now written its botanical name, its common name, the date of finding it, its habitat, and any other data that could be obtained from the Encyclopedia, who, with flower books spread before her, was kept busy supplying all the needed information.
Each odd specimen was passed around for inspection, and then the lucky finder jubilantly placed it on record, while others wrote additional information as to the insects that visit it, whether it is a pollen-bearer, if it slept at night, or closed in the sun. The doctor supplemented Barbara’s book lore by stray bits of knowledge that he had picked up from actual experience in his many scout rambles. The girls were only too pleased to listen, being particularly interested in his account of the evolution of color in flowers.
When the time came for telling cheer fire stories, Mrs. Morrow suggested that they should be flower stories, stipulating, however, that the legends told should be about the specimens that had been found in that day’s hike.
With this, the doctor, who was lying on the grass by the side of Nathalie, pulled off his hat which she had decorated with a dandelion wreath, and waving it high so every one could see it in its yellow glory, said he would start the wheel of yarns by telling about the maiden with the fluffy cobweb hair.