As for Blake, he did not wait for that, but, wildly brushing his hands about his head, in he plunged2, face foremost as soon as the water was up to his knees. And his head went well under.
“That’s the only way to get rid of hornets when they once take after you,” went on the voice of one who had given the good advice. “They can’t sting under water.”
The girls peered from the tent to see approaching one Reuben—his other name they had never asked. He worked for a near-by farmer, and had often brought butter, eggs and occasionally chickens, when the campers did not get them from the regular storekeepers.
“Oh, look how Reuben is dressed up!” exclaimed Mabel.
“He must be going to the circus, or somewhere,” added Alice.
“Probably he’s going to the ‘city’, wherever that is up here,” declared Marie. “Oh, but look at Jack3!”
The three chums, after floundering about in the water, had now ventured to raise their heads, but Jack appeared not to have quite freed himself of the pestiferous insects so rudely disturbed, and after getting a needful breath of air he had to duck under the water again.
Blake had reached a deep place and was swimming down the lake, making rather slow progress because of his clothes. He came presently to a little point, swam in until his feet could touch bottom, and then, cautiously waiting to see if any of the hornets were about, and hearing none, ventured to go ashore5.
Phil, too, had managed to get rid of his guard of honor, and was approaching the little gravelly beach. But Jack seemed to have more than his share.
“I’ll fix you for this, Phil, when I——” he began, and then he had to get beneath the water again.
“Swim up the shore a bit, duck down and I guess they’ll leave you,” called Blake, and Jack, catching6 at least the drift of the advice, if not all the words, did so. Soon three dripping figures stood on shore, cautiously listening for the hum of the hornets’ wings.
“I—I guess they’re gone,” said Phil slowly, as he looked at a rapidly swelling7 wrist.
“They ought to,” said Blake. “The next time you throw a stone at a hornets’ nest we’ll make you stay and apologize. I’m stung in half a dozen places!”
“So am I,” declared Jack. “What’s good for the bites?”
“They don’t bite, they sting,” Reuben informed them as he tied the boat in which he had arrived, and walked up to the tents. “If they’ve left their stinger in it’s worse, too.”
“How do you tell that?” Jack wanted to know.
“You rub your finger over the place, and if it hurts more than when you don’t rub it, and if it feels like there was a sliver8 in it, that’s the sting. Or you can see it with a magnifying glass. I worked for a feller once that kept bees, and I got stung regular. They say it’s good for rheumatism,” he added cheerfully.
“Give me the rheumatism,” said Blake as he tenderly felt of a swelling on his cheek. “Say, maybe they didn’t come for us!”
“Are they gone?” demanded Natalie, peering from between the tightly-held tent-flaps.
“Pretty much,” replied Jack. “C?sar’s pineapples! How they hurt though!”
“Be careful, girls,” cautioned Mrs. Bonnell. But a little observation told them that the hornets had gone back to repair the damage done by Phil’s stone thoughtlessly tossed into their nest.
“What do you do for the stings?” asked Blake of the farm lad.
“I always puts mud on ’em.”
“Ammonia is better,” volunteered Mrs. Bonnell. “Wait and I’ll get you boys some. I have a bottle of the strongest kind for my little pistol.”
“I wish we’d had that when they came at us,” murmured Phil, clasping a wrist that was rapidly getting to be twice its natural size.
The ammonia made the stings feel a little less painful, and then the boys went back to their camp to don dry clothes.
“I wonder if they found any evidence of those who have been helping9 themselves to things in our camp?” observed Natalie, as she and her companions left the large tent.
“We’ll ask them later,” said Marie.
“Have you folks been missing things?” asked Reuben, as he overheard the talk.
“Yes,” answered Alice, “Whom do you think could have taken the stuff?”
“It’s them Gypsies!” declared Reuben. “Lots of folks around here are complainin’ of missing things. Not only the farmers but some cottagers and campers. Them Gypsies ought to be driven away. They’re a regular nuisance comin’ here every year.”
“But where are they?” asked Mabel.
“Over at Bear Pond, some one told me. Did you girls find it that day all right?”
“Oh, yes—we found it,” answered Marie, for they had agreed that they would not needlessly admit their failure to select the right road home.
“And did you see ’em?”
“No,” answered Mrs. Bonnell. And then, wishing to change the conversation she asked:
“Where are you going, Reuben, with your good clothes on?”
“Nowheres,” and he blushed painfully.
“Oh, you must be going somewhere,” she insisted, for he seemed but a little boy.
“Oh, I jest took half a day off and come over to see you folks,” he went on, and this time his ears were included in the general red color scheme of his face.
“That was nice of you,” went on the Guardian10, while the girls tried hard not to giggle11. “Won’t you sit down?”
“No, ma’am. I thought maybe some of you girls would like to come for a row,” and he motioned to a small, and not altogether water-tight boat that he had moored12 near the little dock.
“We can’t all get in that boat, Reuben,” said Marie.
“No ma’am, I—er—I only thought of taking one!”
Reuben fussed with his straw hat, while the girls, after a first gasp13 of surprise, looked at each other.
“Which—one—Reuben?” asked Mrs. Bonnell softly.
“Oh, I ain’t particular!” he answered with cheerful indifference14. “You could draw lots for it if you was a-minded to. Or you can take turns if you want. I kin4 git half a day off onct a week I guess.”
“That’s very kind of you,” said Mrs. Bonnell, while Natalie had to stuff her handkerchief in her mouth, and Marie and Mabel suddenly discovered that they had something vitally important in the tent that must be fetched immediately.
“I—I’m afraid we can’t come now, Reuben,” said Mrs. Bonnell gently. “You see we have to do our after-lunch work, and then we have other things to do. Some other time——”
“I’ll come any time you want me,” he said eagerly. “Jest let me know a day ahead so’s I kin git off, and I’ll come. I’ll take anybody out,” he added cheerfully. Then, bringing one hand from behind his back where he had kept it during the talk, he held out some wild flowers and ferns.
“I brought these,” he said. “You kin have ’em,” and he thrust them toward Natalie, who had returned from the tent where she had mastered her near-hysterics.
“Oh, thank you!” she exclaimed, as she slipped them in her belt. “They are very pretty.”
“Oh, I kin git heaps more,” he said with proper indifference. “I guess I’ll go over and see how the boys’ stings is comin’ on,” he added. “And I’ll take you rowin’ any time you like—one at a time. Maybe you’d want to go to Bear Pond agin,” he added. “I’ll row you as far as we kin go, and we’ll walk the rest of the way.”
“Not now, thank you,” said Mrs. Bonnell. “We’ll think about it,” and Reuben walked off toward the boys’ camp.
“Oh, oh, Natalie!” laughed Marie, when he was out of hearing.
“It was you he favored last time!” declared breath-of-the-pine-tree, as she re-arranged her flowers. “And really he meant to be kind.”
“Of course!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell. “But, girls, he has given me an idea. Now you know we are going to stay here for some time longer,” and she looked around at them.
“What about it?” asked Marie, as the Guardian paused.
“Well, it isn’t very pleasant to feel that every time you leave the camp some one is likely to come in and take things. It spoils all the fun.”
“Indeed it does,” agreed Mabel. “But what can we do?”
“If the Gypsies are really to blame,” went on Mrs. Bonnell, “then they should be warned to keep away from here. Why can’t we send word to that constable15 who so nearly arrested Nat?”
“We can,” said Alice. “But he couldn’t seem to find the Gypsies himself, and neither the boys nor ourselves have had any better luck.”
“I was going to say we might make another try at Bear Pond,” resumed the Guardian. “We know the road now, and we won’t get lost. Suppose we have a second try. We don’t need to tell the boys, except that we are going off for a row and walk. I would like to know that our camp was safe when we leave it.”
“What about leaving it to look for the Gypsies?” asked Marie.
“Well, we would have to take one chance of course.”
They talked it over, and ere the boys had come back with their dry clothing the Camp Fire Girls had decided16 that they would make another try to locate the suspected Gypsies.
“We might take Reuben for an escort,” suggested Natalie.
“Oh-o-o-o!” came in a long-drawn-out chorus. “Oh-o-o-o Nat!”
“Well, then, our boys!”
“No, let’s see if we can’t do this all ourselves,” suggested Marie. “Remember that we are—Camp Fire Girls!”
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
wading
|
|
| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
plunged
|
|
| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
jack
|
|
| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
kin
|
|
| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
ashore
|
|
| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
swelling
|
|
| n.肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
sliver
|
|
| n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
guardian
|
|
| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
giggle
|
|
| n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
moored
|
|
| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
gasp
|
|
| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
constable
|
|
| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |