The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House Part 12

Migwan shrieked and covered up her ears. "A mystery!" said Sahwah, theatrically. "How thrilling!" The interest in the Thieves' Market died out before this new and alarming idea.

"It may be only a remarkable series of co-incidences," said Nyoda, seeing the fright of the girls, "but it certainly looks suspicious. That window may possibly have been broken by the wind during the storm, and the footsteps may have been rats or Mrs. Waterhouse's ghost, and the ghost in the tepee may have been a practical joker, but baskets of potatoes do not fall over of their own accord in the middle of the night and cold chisels don't grow in automobiles. There's something wrong and we ought to find out what it is."

"Oh, I'll never go up-stairs alone again," shuddered Migwan. "Sahwah, how did you ever dare go down cellar in the dark after you heard that noise?" And she shivered violently at the very thought.

"Tom, can you handle a gun?" asked Nyoda.

"Yes," answered Tom.

"I'm going to buy a little automatic pistol to-morrow," said Nyoda, "and teach everyone of you girls how to shoot it."

"I wonder if we hadn't better try to get Calvin Smalley to sleep in the house," said Migwan.

"I can take care of you," said Tom, proudly. Nothing else was talked of for the remainder of the evening and when bed time came there was a general reluctance to become separated from the rest of the household.

But, although they listened for footsteps in the attic they heard nothing, and the night pa.s.sed away peacefully.

The next night the ghost became active again. Whether it was the same one or a different one they did not find out, however, for they did not see it this time, only heard it. Just about bed time it was, a strange, weird moaning sound that filled the house and echoed through the big halls. Whether it proceeded from the bas.e.m.e.nt or the attic they were unable to make out; it seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

Migwan clung close to her mother and trembled. The sound rang out again, more weird than before. It was bloodcurdling. Nyoda opened the window and fired several shots into the air. The moaning sound stopped abruptly and was heard no more that night, but sleep was out of the question. The girls were too excited and fearful. The next day Mrs. Gardiner advised everybody to hide their valuables away. The peaceful life at Onoway House was broken up. The household lived in momentary expectation of something happening. "And this is the quiet of the country," sighed Migwan, "where I was to grow fat and strong. I'm worn to a frazzle worrying about this mystery."

"So'm I," said Gladys.

"And I'm getting thin," said Hinpoha, which brought out a general laugh.

"Not so you could notice it," said Sahwah. Whereupon Hinpoha tried to smother her with a pillow and the two rolled over on the bed, struggling.

As if worrying about a burglar were not enough, Sahwah and Gladys had another exciting experience one day that week. If we were to stretch a point and trace things back to their beginnings it was the fault of the Winnebagos themselves, for if they hadn't gone horseback riding that day-- Well, Farmer Landsdowne came over in the morning and said he had a pair of horses which were not working and if they wanted to go horseback riding now was their chance. The girls were delighted with the idea and flew to don bloomers. None of them had ever ridden before and excitement ran high. Naturally there were no saddles, for Farmer Landsdowne's horses were not ridden as a general rule, and the girls had to ride bareback.

"It feels like trying to straddle a table," said Migwan, marveling at the width of the horse she was on. "My legs aren't half long enough."

She clung desperately to his mane as he began to trot and she began to slide all over him. "He's so slippery I can't stick on," she gasped. The horse stopped abruptly as she jerked on the reins and she slid off as if he had been greased, and landed in the soft gra.s.s beside the road.

"Here, let me try," said Sahwah, impatient for her turn. "He isn't either slippery," she said, when she got on, "he's bony, horribly bony.

He's just like knives." She jolted up and down a few times on his hip bones and an idea jolted into her head. Getting off she ran into the house and came out again with a sofa pillow, which she proceeded to tie on his back. Then she rode in comparative comfort, amid the laughter of the girls.

Calvin Smalley, who happened to be working out in front and saw her ride past, doubled up with laughter over his vegetable bed. "What next?" he chuckled. "What next?" He was still thinking about this and laughing over it when he went through the empty field which Sahwah had crossed the time she had discovered the house among the trees, and where Abner Smalley now pastured his bull. So absorbed was he in the memory of that ridiculous pillow tied on the horse that he was not careful in putting up the bars behind him when he left the field, and later in the afternoon the bull wandered over in that direction and came through into the next field. He found the river road and followed it and began to graze in one of the unploughed fields belonging to Onoway House.

Sahwah, wearing her big, red hat, was bending low over the ground, digging up some ferns which grew there, when all of a sudden she heard a loud snort and looked up to see the bull charging down upon her. She looked wildly around for a place of safety. Nothing was nearer than the far-off hedge that surrounded the cultivated garden patch. Not a tree, not a fence, in sight. Quick as light she bounded off toward the hedge, although she knew it would be impossible for her to reach it before the bull would be upon her.

Gladys, coming along the road in the automobile, heard a shriek and looked up to see Sahwah tearing across the open field with the bull hard after her. Without a moment's hesitation Gladys turned the car into the field and started after the bull at full speed. She let the car out every notch and it whizzed dizzily over the hard turf. She sounded the horn again and again with the hope of attracting the attention of the bull, but he did not pause. Like lightning she bore down upon him, pa.s.sed to one side and slowed down for a second beside Sahwah, who jumped on the running-board and was borne away to safety.

"This hum-drum, uneventful life," said Sahwah, as she sat on the porch half an hour afterward and tried to catch her breath, while the rest fanned her with palm leaf fans, "is getting a little too much for me!"

CHAPTER X.-A BIRTHDAY PARTY

After Nyoda had fired the shots out of the window, nothing was heard or seen of the ghost and the footsteps in the attic ceased. "It's just as I thought," said Nyoda, "someone has been trying to frighten us with a possible view of robbing the house at some time, thinking that a houseful of women would be terror-stricken at the ghostly noises, but when he found we had a gun and could shoot he thought better of the plan." Gradually the girls lost their fright, and the odd corners of Onoway House regained their old charm. They were far too busy with the canning to think of much else, for the tomatoes were ripening in such large quant.i.ties that it was all they could do to dispose of them. The 4H brand found favor and the market gradually increased, and every week Migwan had a goodly sum to deposit in the bank after the cost of the tin cans had been deducted.

"I have to laugh when I think of that honor in the book," said Migwan, "can at least three cans of fruit," and she pointed to the cans stacked on the back porch ready to be packed into the automobile and taken to town. "Why, h.e.l.lo, Calvin," she said, as Calvin Smalley appeared at the back door. "Come in." Calvin came in and sat down. "What's the matter?"

asked Migwan, for his face had a frightened and distressed look.

"Uncle Abner has turned me out!" said Calvin.

"Turned you out!" echoed the girls. "Why?"

"He showed me a will last night," said Calvin, "a later one than that which was found when my grandfather died, which left the farm to him instead of to my father. He just found it last night when he was rummaging among grandfather's old papers. According to that I have been living on his charity all these years instead of on my own property as I supposed and now he says he can't afford to keep me any longer. He wanted me to sign a paper saying that I would work for him without pay until I was thirty years old to make up for what I have had all these years, and when I wouldn't do it he told me to get out."

"How can any man be so mean and stingy!" said Migwan, indignantly.

"And what do you intend to do now?" asked Mrs. Gardiner.

"I don't know," said Calvin, looking utterly downcast and discouraged.

"I had expected to go through school and then to agricultural college and be a scientific farmer, but that's out of the question now. I haven't a cent in the world. I could hire out to some of the farmers around here, I suppose, but you know what that means-they wouldn't pay me much because I'm a boy, but they would get a man's work out of me and it's precious little time I'd have for school. I've always saved Uncle Abner the cost of one hired man in return for what he gave me, so I don't feel under any obligations to him. I think I'll give up farming for a while and go to the city and work. The trouble is I have no friends there and it might be hard for me to get into a good place." His honest eyes were clouded over with perplexity and trouble.

"My father could probably get you a job in the city," said Gladys, "if you can wait until he gets back. He's out west now."

"I tell you what to do," said kind-hearted Mrs. Gardiner to Calvin, "you stay here with us until Mr. Evans comes back. You can help the girls in the garden, and we were wishing not long ago that we had another man in the house."

"You are very kind," said Calvin, gratefully, "but I don't want to put you to any trouble."

"No trouble at all," Mrs. Gardiner a.s.sured him, "you can sleep with Tom." The girls all expressed pleasure at the prospect of having Calvin stay at Onoway House and under the spell of their kindly hospitality his drooping spirits revived. He shook the dust of his uncle's house from his feet, feeling no longer an outcast, since he had suddenly found such kind friends on the other side of the hedge.

Calvin lived in a perpetual state of wonder at the girls at Onoway House. They made a frolic out of everything they did and were continually thinking up new and amazing games to play. Calvin had never done anything at home all his life but work, and work was a serious business to him. He never knew before that work was fun. The long, weary hours of peeling were enlivened with songs made up on the spur of the moment. Sahwah would look up from the pan over which she was bending, and sing to the tune of "The Pope":

"Our Migwan leads a jolly life, jolly life, She peels tomatoes with her knife, with her knife, And puts the pieces in the can, And leaves the peelings in the pan, (Oh, tra la la)."

And then they would all start to sing at once,

"The tomatoes went in one by one, (There's one more bushel to peel), Hinpoha she did cut her thumb, (There's one more bushel to peel)."

"The tomatoes went in two by two, And Gladys and Sahwah fell into the stew.

The tomatoes went in three by three, And Migwan got drowned a-trying to see."

etc., etc., thus they made merry over the work until it was done.

"Do you know," said Migwan, looking up from her peeling, "that it's Gladys's birthday next Friday? We ought to have a celebration."

"How about a picnic?" asked Nyoda. "We haven't had a real one yet. Have the rest of the Winnebagos come out from town and all of us sleep in the tepee as we had planned on the Fourth of July. Then we'll get a horse and wagon and drive along the roads until we come to a place beside the river where we want to stop and cook our dinner and just spend the day like gypsies." The girls entered into the plan with enthusiasm, both for the sake of celebrating Gladys's birthday and cheering up Calvin, who had been rather quiet and pensive of late. It was a great disappointment to him to have to give up his plans for going to college, and his uncle's unfriendly treatment of him had cut him to the heart.

Medmangi and Chapa and Nakwisi arrived the day before the picnic and the house echoed with the sound of voices and laughter, as the Winnebagos bubbled over with joy at being all together. The morning of the picnic was as fine as they could wish, and it was not long before they were b.u.mping over the road in one of Farmer Landsdowne's wagons, behind the very two horses which the girls had ridden the week before. It was a wagon full. Sahwah sat up in front and drove like a veritable daughter of Jehu, with Farmer Landsdowne up beside her to come to the rescue in case the horses should run away, which was not at all likely, as it took constant persuasion to keep them going even at an easy jog trot. Mrs.

Landsdowne, who, with her husband, had been invited to the picnic, sat beside Mrs. Gardiner, in the back of the wagon, while Calvin Smalley stayed next to Migwan, as he usually did. She was so quiet and gentle and kind that he felt more at ease with her than with the rest of the Winnebagos, who were such jokers. Ophelia, who was beginning to be inseparable from Sahwah, squeezed herself in between her and Mr.

Landsdowne, and refused to move. Sahwah, of course, took her part and let her stay, although she was a bit crowded for s.p.a.ce. Hinpoha and Gladys sat at the back of the wagon dangling their feet over the end, where they could watch the yellow road unwinding like a ribbon beneath them, while Nyoda sat between Betty and Tom to keep the peace.

"Where are we going?" asked Mrs. Gardiner, as they swung along the road.

"Oh," replied Sahwah, "somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere. It's lots more romantic to start out without any idea where you're going and stop wherever it suits you than to start out for a certain place and think you have to go there even if you pa.s.s nicer places on the road.

Maybe, like Mrs. Wiggs, we'll end up at a first-cla.s.s fire."