“No, I remember Jack1 saying you should fasten the other rope first.”
“Are you sure the pegs3 are driven in tightly enough?”
“There! I knew something would be missing. We haven’t a hammer to drive in the pegs with.”
“But where are the tent pegs?”
Thus the girls questioned and commented as they had gathered about an indiscriminate collection of canvas, boards, ropes and other things at the campsite on Green Lake. They had made a quick trip in the train, and the little lake steamer had landed them at Crystal Springs, as their camping-ground was called.
“There are the pegs,” said Alice, after a look about, and she indicated some articles that looked like exaggerated clothes pins, save for the slot.
“That’s so, we must decide where they are to go, and drive them in, so we’ll have something to fasten the ropes to,” declared Natalie. “I remember Blake saying that.”
“But no hammer!” cried Marie.
“Use a stone, girls,” suggested Mrs. Bonnell. “There are plenty hereabouts. Then we must set up the oil stove and make tea. I’m famished4 for some.”
“I hope the man left oil,” murmured Alice.
“Yes, here’s some in a can,” called Mabel, who was looking about. “And the stove is just like one we have.”
“Girls!” called the Guardian5, “just slip your middy-blouses over your waists, and put on the skirts too. You can work so much better then, and not be afraid of soiling anything.”
The change was quickly made, the girls having brought in their suit cases their Camp Fire garments. Then they began once more to try to solve the problem of the tent. But it was not so easy as they had supposed, even with the help of a diagram Marie had made from Jack’s vivid description.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Alice. “I wish the boys were here after all. One never knows how much one needs them until they are not on hand.”
“Oh, we can do it!” asserted Mabel. “Let’s try the small cooking tent first. That will be easier.”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” asked Alice. “We can use it as a sort of model. Come, girls. Wo-he-lo!”
“If you shout like that some will surely hear, and come to help us,” said Marie. “I wonder where the boys are?” and she looked toward the point of land, where a waving flag denoted the presence of the camp of their brothers. But the boys were not in evidence.
“Probably they did not know just when we would arrive,” suggested Mrs. Bonnell, as she helped Natalie lay out the smaller tent.
“It’s just as well—if we can get the tent up alone,” spoke6 Mabel. “So much the more credit for us. But it does look like one of those Chinese puzzles,” she went on rather hopelessly. By dint7 of much changing and shifting, trying first one rope then another, turning the pile of canvas first this way and that the girls finally, with the help of Mrs. Bonnell, got it in such a position that, after a sort of council of war they decided8 that they could erect9 it.
“Now, all together!” called the Guardian of the Camp Fire Girls. “Raise it up, Mabel and Marie, while Natalie and Alice fasten the ropes to the pegs.”
The three of them raised, while two excited girls, on either side, took the trailing side ropes and began to catch them around the notched10 pegs, that had, with much labor11, been driven into the earth with stones.
“Now let go!” ordered Mrs. Bonnell.
The girls stepped back.
The tent came down with a dismal12 flop13.
“Oh, dear!” sighed Natalie.
“Isn’t it a shame! Just when we had it nearly up?” spoke Alice.
“Well, we’ll have to do it all over again,” decided the Guardian. “But we have the right idea now.”
“I don’t believe Natalie and Alice put the ropes on the pegs quickly enough,” declared Mabel.
“Oh, we did so!” chorused the two.
“Then why should it come down?” demanded Marie, as if the question was unanswerable.
“I don’t know,” declared Natalie. “I know I bruised14 my knuckles15 on that one peg2. Where is your cold cream, Alice? I left mine in my suit case, and it’s so hard to open.”
“This is no time for cold cream—nor ice cream, either!” declared Alice. “Let’s try once more.”
“’Twon’t do you a bit of good ladies!” suddenly exclaimed a voice from the lake shore. “You can work ’till doomsday tryin’ t’ git a tent up that way, but lessen16 you puts th’ ridge17 pole on top of th’ end poles, an’ raises them fust, you won’t never git no tent up.”
They looked whence the voice came and saw an old man, in a clumsy rowboat, regarding them with half-quizzical, half-amused glances.
“The poles!” murmured Natalie.
“That’s why the tent wouldn’t stay up!” added Marie.
“How silly of us!” chorused Alice and Mabel.
“Goin’ t’ camp here?” asked the old man.
“We—we hoped to,” answered Mrs. Bonnell. “But if we don’t know enough to put up a small tent I don’t see——”
“I’ll help you,” volunteered the visitor. “I often help camping parties that don’t know much about the game. I’ll help you.”
“We’re Camp Fire Girls!” declared Mabel with dignity.
“Ha! Ha!” chuckled18 the old man. “I have seen folks what could git up a good meal over a camp fire, but they was mighty19 few. I see you’ve brought an oil stove. That’s what they mostly does up here. There’s some fellows over on Stony20 Point that have got their camp going in good shape.”
“They are our brothers,” said Mabel.
“So! Wa’al, now let’s see about your tent,” and he lumbered21 up from his boat which he tied to a stump22 on shore. “Have you got poles?” he asked.
“They are over there,” replied Mrs. Bonnell, rather put out at her own inability to recall that her husband had, several times, had her help him erect their tent.
“That’s good. Now I’ll show you. I guess between us we can manage to raise the tents.”
As he spoke he came face to face with Natalie who had gone for some cold cream to apply to her bruised knuckles. At the sight of breath-of-the-pine-tree the old man started back, and a queer look came over his face. Staring at Natalie he exclaimed in a whisper:
“Who—who are you? Have—have you come back to me?”
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1
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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2
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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3
pegs
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| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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4
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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5
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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6
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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7
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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8
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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9
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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10
notched
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| a.有凹口的，有缺口的 | |
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11
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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12
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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13
flop
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| n.失败(者)，扑通一声；vi.笨重地行动，沉重地落下 | |
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14
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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15
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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16
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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17
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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18
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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20
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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21
lumbered
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| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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22
stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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