“Hello!” said Lynne, sitting down next to her on the grass. “I’m Lynne and you’re Judy, the girl who doesn’t want to go to my camp. Is that right?” she asked with a delightfully disarming smile.
Judy found her anger dissolving at Lynne’s unexpected warmth.
“I don’t especially care about a day camp,” Judy said lamely.
“Why? Did you ever go to one?”
“No,” Judy said, surprised at Lynne’s directness. “But I’ve friends who went and were bored.” Judy knew she would have to defend her opinion if she was to escape. “I feel as they do,” she went on. “I like to paint when I feel like painting, swim or read or do any activity when I’m in the mood, not just at certain set periods.”
“I see,” Lynne said, with just a suspicion of a smile on her lips. “You’re afraid of regimentation. But don’t you find that unless one plans to do a certain thing at a definite period, one never gets around to it at all?”
“I do,” Judy said, but even as she spoke, she was conscious of the many things she never managed to get around to doing. “Of course, I’d feel very differently about going to a sleep-away camp,” Judy went on with more confidence. “Sometimes you go on canoe trips and long, exciting hikes, mountain climbs and spending nights in a hut, preparing your own meals—things you can’t possibly do by yourself.”
“That’s true,” Lynne agreed, “but no one could recommend such a program for very young children. Those are the ones we try to reach. They can live at home with their parents and yet for part of each day have companionship of other children and do interesting things.”
“A lecture instead of a swim,” Judy groaned inwardly and yet she couldn’t help being interested in spite of herself.
“You see,” Lynne went on, “children of professional people, musicians especially, frequently have long separations from their parents—tours, long or short, recitals, rehearsals at all sorts of inconvenient times. They miss their mothers and fathers. And I find that it’s just as important for the parents who want their children with them when it’s at all possible. Here at Aspen our camp serves such a purpose.”