The first week at Wohelo Wigwam, as the girls had named their camp, slipped by with incredible rapidity. Up with the dawn, they found the long sunny days entirely too short for the countless pleasures to be enjoyed in their woodland home. Vermilion Lake was a never-ending source of joy to them. Every morning found them out in the canoes and paddling up and down the portion of the lake nearest their camp. Under Blue Wolf’s efficient instruction, they were becoming fairly skillful canoeists.
With the second day in camp, Miss Drexal had wisely allotted to each girl a certain amount of camp work to be performed. Six o’clock had been the hour set for rising, and, promptly at six, the Guardian sounded the reveille call on a bugle which she had brought along for that very purpose. As she had been a bugler in one of the first Camp Fire groups to spend a summer in the open, she was familiar with the various calls used by the Army. Her flock hailed this bit of military procedure with acclamation. According to Sarah, it was “positively thrilling” to hear “Taps” fall sweetly on the summer air at ten o’clock each evening. She agreed with Jane, however, that “reveille” was not half so inspiring.
Thus far, they had made only short jaunts through the adjoining woods, content to keep fairly near to camp at first in order to explore their immediate surroundings. On these occasions Wohelo Wigwam was left to take care of itself. Owing to the fact that the canoes held comfortably only three persons, the party took turns in making voyages to the various nearby islands in the lake. With Blue Wolf as chief navigator, from three to five girls usually accompanied him, leaving the rest in camp. Ruth proving herself more adept at the paddle than her friends, she was constantly in demand, although Marian was rapidly becoming a close second.
True to his word, the Indian had ranged the woods for a suitable tree from which to fashion a canoe. It had required considerable searching to find one of sufficient size and straightness. His object was to secure, if possible, a single strip of bark that would extend the entire length of the canoe he purposed to make. The tree which he finally found was admirably suited to his project. Whenever not required by Miss Drexal, he was invariably to be seen squatted in front of his shack, his wiry fingers engaged in skillfully stripping the bark from his prize. Eager to do their part, Ruth and Frances also tried their hand at bark stripping. Blue Wolf firmly declined, however, to allow them to experiment on the tree he had chosen. Instead, he put them to work on a smaller tree, bluntly informing them, “You try cut him little tree! You spoil him, no matter. Heap more me get. Big tree you spoil, never I find again ’nother mebbe.”
Determined to do credit to their teacher, the two girls devoted themselves so industriously to their trial tree as to have the proud pleasure of at least furnishing the extra strips of bark which had to be added on each side to make the canoe sufficiently broad. Under his eagle eye they also helped to sew the seams with balsam roots, and assisted in daubing them with a black mixture of spruce gum and cedar ashes to render them water tight.
Had the Indian devoted himself solely to the work of fashioning the canoe, he could have finished it in five days. As it was, the end of their second week in the woods was upon them before he pronounced it ready for its first voyage. It was late on Friday afternoon, when a jubilant group collected at the edge of the lake to watch its trial trip. When the shapely canoe finally shot out on the placid water, under the guide’s practical hands, he received the ovation of his life. After thoroughly testing it, he brought it ashore and gravely invited Miss Drexal to become his first passenger. When she returned, Ruth and Frances were accorded the honor of the next trip and so on, until every girl, even to Blanche, had tested its merits. Considering her recent scathing denunciation of canoes in general, her companions were secretly amused at her apparent willingness to trust herself in one of them.
Blanche had her own reasons, however, for her change of mind. She was well aware that Blue Wolf took particular pains to keep out of her way. If she addressed him, he answered briefly and with no show of interest. With the others, he had grown quite friendly in his reserved, stately fashion. The canoe having been the chief center of importance since he had commenced its making, Blanche was not anxious to incur his fresh disapproval by refusing to try it. She therefore told herself scornfully she would at least show this “stupid Indian” that she was no coward. Back of this was also a slowly growing desire to “be in things.” Far removed from the artificial mode of living which she had ever held as all-important, the magic spell of the great outdoors was beginning to make itself felt.
She was no longer so entirely satisfied with herself as when she had first come to the Heights. Her ignorance of wood lore placed her at a decided disadvantage. Long accustomed to having her own way, it piqued her not a little to be a mere follower rather than a leader. Dislike for Ruth made her particularly envious of the former’s woodsman-like qualities. Miss Drexal herself frequently consulted Ruth regarding their various expeditions. This was as a thorn to Blanche’s flesh. It aroused in her a desire to do something remarkable that would redound to her own credit. To plod patiently along and win her honors for Wood Gatherer did not appeal to her. That would merely please Ruth, whom she wished to thwart whenever possible. She longed to do something especially clever that would place her in the front rank of popularity at a single bound.
Though her motive was ignoble, it was at least ambitious. Under her still languid pose, she began to keep an alert watch for the coveted opportunity. Should a sudden emergency arise which called for quick action or high courage, Blanche resolved that she would be first to grasp it, if only to show her superiority over Ruth.
With the completion of the canoe, the campers immediately made plans to explore in a body one of the larger islands of the lake, several miles distant. Blue Wolf had spoken of it to Ruth, who, impressed by his terse description of its beauty, had at once begged Miss Drexal that a canoeing party be gotten up with it as an objective.
Half past seven o’clock, on a cloudless Saturday morning, saw the dwellers of Wohelo Wig-wam setting jauntily off toward the lake, their packs slung over their shoulders. They were in high spirits as they tramped through the bit of woods to the lake shore, for the thought of invading fresh territory had fired their enthusiasm. Miss Drexal had demurred a little at leaving their camp with no one at home, but Blue Wolf had phlegmatically assured her: “When come back, camp him here, just same. No one see. No one steal. No one do nothing.”
In charge of the expedition, he was to pilot his crew to the island, land and leave them there for the day, while he turned about and paddled to Tower on his semi-weekly trip for supplies. In the late afternoon, a little before sunset, he was to return for them and see them safely back to camp. The problem of seating eleven persons in three canoes having been thoroughly discussed on the previous evening, it had been decided that for once a little crowding would be necessary. The canoe which the Indian had made was large enough to hold four persons. Four squeezed into one of the other two, and three in its mate, made a satisfactory division.
“You had best place us as you think wise, Blue Wolf,” directed Miss Drexal. “I would r............