Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer

by Rena I. Halsey

After a joyous welcome from Mrs. Van Vorst and Nita, seconded by Peter and Ellen, who all stood awaiting them on the large veranda, the girls ran riot. With swift steps they hurried—after first inspecting Mrs. Van Vorst’s bungalow, so suggestive of luxury and cozy cheer—to the smaller bungalow, where the Morrows were to abide, with its big living-room abloom with golden-rod. This was to be used as an assembly room for the Pioneer Rallies. Then they hastened to the little wooden shack, which they dubbed the Grub House, as it was here that the camp cooking was to be done.

After duly admiring the boat-house, which they all declared would make a lovely place for a dance, they were conducted by Peter to the loft above, where he stood silently enjoying their delight as they exclaimed over this unexpected surprise. It had been turned into a good sized bedroom with two bureaus, a center-table, a few odd chairs, and four little white cots, looking so restful that the Sport declared she wanted to go to bed that very second.

But their rhapsodies came to an abrupt end as Lillie Bell suddenly spied the Lake from one of the windows. In a moment the girls were crowding about her, gazing in hushed silence at the silver sheet of water—three miles round Peter informed them—with its enticing little inlets, or coves, and tiny islands running like a series of stepping-stones through the center.

The Sport had caught sight of several newly painted boats and canoes that bobbed cheerily at her, moored to the pier below, and a moment later the girls were off like a cavalcade of young Indians to inspect them, for did they not all have to be named on the morrow, when a general christening of all camp tents, boats, and so on was to take place?

But there were other things to claim a share of their hearts’ joy they found, as Carol, who made the seventeenth camper, suddenly saw a large tent on the edge of the woods to which they all made a mad rush. Here they found the doctor and his wife, who said it was an army tent that had been loaned, put up, and furnished by that good lady, Mrs. Van Vorst. Lifting the flap the girls peeped in to see four more tiny cots, a little book-case made from soap-boxes by Peter, and the usual camp furniture staring at them invitingly.

A tiny log cabin was also inspected—Peter said it had once been a summer-house—which contained two cots. But time was limited, and Dr. Morrow—who was for the time being captain of the working squad—began to issue his orders. All baggage and camp equipment had arrived the day before and the girls were soon busily engaged in putting up tents. It meant lots of work, but each one was at her cheeriest best as she overhauled canvases, measured spaces, dug pole-holes, sewed on rings for tape, tied ropes, and performed the various odd jobs necessary to have the camp city in shape before night.

As Mrs. Van Vorst had generously provided so many sleeping accommodations, there were only three tents to be erected, an old canvas tent which the doctor had loaned, an Indian tepee belonging to the brother of one of the Orioles, and a natty little affair made of heavy cotton sheeting. It is needless to say that this was the pride of Helen’s and Nathalie’s hearts, the tent they had wrestled with through many toilsome hours on the rear lawn, with Fred Tyson doing duty as a master tent-maker.

When the tents were erected with openings to the East, in a row by the water, backed by a belt of woodland, whose pungent odors added a zest to the girls’ ideals of the camp life, Nathalie and Helen hurried to their tent to unpack. The big packing-box which had served as a trunk for two was hastily turned on its narrowest side, with open side to the tent, and then with hammer and nails converted into a combination arrangement of book-case and dresser, the top having a piece of white shelf oilcloth tacked on it.

Here pincushions, hair-pin trays, brushes, and various toilet articles, with cologne, lotion, and medicine bottles—the last in case of need—were hastily bestowed. On the upper shelf books were stored—for the story hour—while the other shelves were quickly filled with all sorts of knick-knacks, things they just had to have, even in the wilderness, as Helen had affirmed.

Two ropes, one on each side of the tent, were fastened up so that each girl could have a handy place to dispose of superfluous articles of wearing apparel. There was also a smaller one near the soap-box with its little tin pitcher and bowl, to serve as a towel-rack. After hanging a mirror for mutual use and tacking on the floor between the cots a pink and blue cotton rug—Mrs. Page’s idea and gift—they started on the beds. These were real camping affairs, and would ordinarily have meant hard labor, but Peter, who had been let into the secret before he left Westport, had already cut eight logs, four to a bed frame, one on each side of the tent, and had brought the dry evergreen boughs.