Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer

by Rena I. Halsey

Some one was just about to mount a ladder placed against the flagstaff when Nathalie, with sudden thought, turned and whispered to Mrs. Morrow, who immediately signaled to Helen. Helen nodded as she listened to her Director, and then stepping forward stood before Nita who, with her mother and Ellen, was a joyful spectator of this camp demonstration. A sudden look of delight overspread her face as she heard what Helen had to say, and then after a hurried assent from Mrs. Van Vorst, Nita with the help of Peter had mounted the ladder, holding a bottle of water in her hand.

A swing of the bottle, a crash of glass, a stream of water trickling down the pole, and Nita in a voice somewhat faint at first, but that grew louder as she caught Nathalie’s eye, cried, “Summer camp of the Girl Pioneers of America, I name thee, Camp Laff-a-Lot!” Wild bursts of applause now broke forth, even Ellen and Peter doing their share, the former tearing off her apron and flapping it vigorously, while the latter brandished his hat hilariously, stopping every moment or so to rub the back of his hand across his eyes. “Sure,” as he afterwards confessed to Nathalie, “it was enough to make any one weep with joy to see Miss Nita spilling all over with happiness!”

As the Pioneers hastened to the boat-house they saw a diminutive figure standing on the top of its little square cupola. With many flourishes of her bottle Carol—who had been elected to this honor—chimed jubilantly, “Boat-house, in memory of the ship that crossed the unknown sea to carry the founders of this nation to its shores, I now name thee, ‘The Mayflower’!”

And so the naming continued, the little log summer-house being honored by the name of Ann Burras, a pioneer of the Jamestown colony, known as the first white bride in America. The tent loaned by Mrs. Van Vorst was dubbed “The Three Guardian Angels,” in appreciation of the services of Ann Drummond, Sarah Cottin, and Mrs. Cheisman, also of the Jamestown company, sometimes known as “The White Apron Brigade,” as during the Bacon rebellion they were placed in front of a trench where Bacon’s men were digging, to prevent Governor Berkeley from firing on the Fort.

The “Grub House” was to be known as the “Common House,” a most appropriate name, the campers declared, as it contained their food and ammunition, just as the little log hut known by that name held the necessities to sustain and defend the lives of the Pilgrims in the Plymouth settlement.

The doctor’s army tent was named the “Three Margarets,” to honor Margaret Brent of Maryland, the first woman suffragist, Margaret Draper, the first woman to publish a newspaper, and Margaret Duncan, the first of her sex in the new world to engage in mercantile life. Helen and Nathalie’s tent was to be known as the “Two Anns,” out of respect to Ann Hutchinson, the first club woman, and Ann Bradstreet, the first American poetess.

The boats were quickly honored with the names Priscilla, Mary Chilton, Annetje Jans, and Polly Prevoorst, while shady retreats, lofty trees, and rocky coves were named anew to do homage to those women who helped their good sires build the foundation of this great Republic, by being faithful, enduring wives and mothers.

At eleven o’clock the girls assembled on the shores of the Lake for a life-saving drill. Forming in line at a given signal, each girl quickly unfastened her red necktie, and turning swiftly to the right tied one end of it in a square knot to her neighbor’s. This red life-line was then thrown to the sinker—as the girls dubbed Edith, who was playing the part of the person drowning. She hurriedly grabbed this necktie rope and was drawn ashore by her comrades.

The girls found that this drill not only made them keen and alert, training them to keep cool heads, but helped to give them reliance as well as courage, and—heaps of fun.

The bathers were now lined up for a swimming contest, each girl at the toot of the horn making a wild dash for the water, and swimming out as far as she could to the stake-boat, manned by the doctor, anchored some distance from shore. This contest was to determine not only who could swim, and the best swimmers, but those who had the greatest amount of strength and endurance, who would be able to train others not so competent.