there were but a few days left of camp life. hartley must return to harvard, effie would enter upon her last year at the wadsworth school where daniella, too, would go. ran would go back to his law school, ashby to the university, jo was looking forward with some misgivings to her first year at college, but was so rejoiced that nan was to be one of her classmates that she averred it took away half her dread. mary lee and the twins would return to miss cameron, and on the way home the corners would stop for a day at cousin maria hooper’s.
“we must do something to celebrate,” declared the boys.
“what shall it be?” asked ran. “we might send off fireworks on the lake.”
“that would be one thing if we could get them in time,” hartley fell in with this.
“no doubt al davis has some left over from his fourth of july stock; we’ll see,” ran rejoined.
“we might have a regular breaking camp[326] the way the darkies do at camp-meeting,” suggested mary lee.
“we could do that,” agreed the others.
“let’s arrange a programme,” proposed ashby, taking out his note-book and pencil.
“now, isn’t that just like ash?” said ran; “he always wants everything down in black and white.”
“best way,” ashby answered, “then there’s sure to be no mistake. what first? i suppose we ought to have some sort of feed to make it jollier.”
“and some kind of stunt besides fireworks,” specified hartley.
“come, nan, you and jo are the ingenious ones; stir up your brains and give us a programme,” demanded ran.
“speeches,” suggested nan. “you can be one of the orators, ran; it will get your hand in. jo can do one of her funny monologues.”
“oh, i don’t know about that. can’t you leave me out?” jo began to protest.
“oh, yes, of course you will. come on, jo.” voices urged her on every side, and she gave in.
“pity we couldn’t have the phonograph again for some music,” said hartley, “but there isn’t time. you might give us a banjo solo, ash.”
[327]“and ran can sing some coon songs; he’s great at that.” mary lee suggested this.
“what’s the matter with a sort of minstrel show? we needn’t black up,” proposed ran.
“why not?” inquired hartley. “here’s the lake handy to remove the burnt cork.”
“well, we’ll see. put it down, ash. now, let’s see, i suppose we ought to begin with a feed. what shall it be, jean? you’re the authority on wittles.”
“if we had ice we could have ice-cream, for the cream is easy to get from the farmhouse,” replied jean.
“so’s the ice easy to get; we’ll look into that. well, suppose we say ice-cream and cake, though it seems to me something warmer would be more comforting; the nights are chilly,” ran remarked.
“jean could eat ice-cream sitting on an iceberg with her feet in a snow-drift,” remarked jo. “let’s have something warm if we can, jean.”
“suppose we have an old time country feast,” daniella proposed, “nuts and cider, apples and gingerbread.”
“something typical of the region? it wouldn’t be bad. cider and apples are plentiful enough, and we can bribe hetty to make the gingerbread, while as for nuts, if we can do no better we’ll have peanuts. we might toast[328] marshmallows, too, if any one cares for them after having so many this season.” jo was the speaker.
“what’s wrong with a corn-roast?” inquired ashby.
“all right. the best yet. good boy!” cried hartley. “put her down. now read.”
“early evening, minstrel show, followed by corn-roast and fireworks; that simplifies matters. speeches and stunts included in show; fireworks as finale,” ashby read from his note-book.
“what do we do to break camp, as you call it?” inquired effie.
“oh, we must march around camp singing, then shake hands and go to bed. we needn’t keep it up all night the way the negroes do sometimes,” mary lee told her.
“we might get up a song for the occasion,” observed ran. “well, i think that is a pretty good programme, as much as we can get through. nan, you and jo can get up the jokes and things; mary lee and the rest can attend to the costumes; we boys will see about the speeches, the corn for the roast and the fireworks; that disposes of the whole business.”
ashby wrote the list down and the party scattered, intent upon the immediate carrying out of their plans. therefore very soon nan[329] and jo had their heads together giggling over some absurd jokes, ran was marching up and down with head bent, intent upon his speech, mary lee and the other girls were consulting their elders in the matter of costume while hartley and ashby started off for a forage for corn and fireworks.
miss marshall and miss lloyd never failed to further anything in reason, and proposed that the costumes be nothing more elaborate than the ordinary camp dress. “if you black up,” said miss lloyd, “you will be sufficiently prepared for a show of this kind and you can brighten your costumes by wearing different colored handkerchiefs. are you all to take part in the minstrel show?”
“oh, no, only the three boys, nan, jo and myself,” mary lee told her. “the rest want to be audience, so there will be only six to perform.”
“quite enough considering the size of the audience. very well, anything we can do to help, please believe we shall be glad to do.” so the flock went off to report to nan and jo.
they found these two cudgeling their brains for proper words to use in something they were writing. “ate, state, fate.” jo had her pencil poised. “which sounds better, nan? so from this good old camp we must be getting[330] on a gait, or, for we must all be traveling just as sure as fate?”
“oh, jo, the first is so slangy and the second isn’t much better. let me see. why not say: we must be departing for the season’s waxing late?”
“departing is so formal. we don’t want a song to be sung on a college platform before a row of professors. i object to departing. why not say: now we must be going for the season’s getting late?”
“that’ll do. i think it really sounds better. hallo, girls. we are getting into shape. i think one more stanza will complete this beautiful song. you all must learn it so as to sing it when we march around camp.”
“it is to the tune of john brown’s body,” jo told them. “here’s the first verse:
“we’ve all been having such a jolly time at camp,
we’ve all been having such a jolly time at camp,
we’ve all been having such a jolly time at camp,
but now we’re marching on.”
“go on,” begged the girls. “let’s have the rest.” and jo consented to read the other lines.
“we’ve been canoeing on the pretty little lake,
we’ve been canoeing on the pretty little lake,
we’ve been canoeing on the pretty little lake,
but now we’re marching on.
[331]
“we’ve been on picnics and we’ve climbed the mountains high,
we’ve been on picnics and we’ve climbed the mountains high,
we’ve been on picnics and we’ve climbed the mountains high,
but now we’re marching on.
“we’ve eaten flapjacks and a lot of other things,
we’ve eaten flapjacks and a lot of other things,
we’ve eaten flapjacks and a lot of other things,
but now we’re marching on.
“we’ve done our shopping at the store of al davis’,
accent on the vis, girls.
“we’ve done our shopping at the store of al davis’,
we’ve done our shopping at the store of al davis’,
but now we’re marching on.
“we’ve been a-riding on the farmer’s clumsy nags,
we’ve been a-riding on the farmer’s clumsy nags,
we’ve been a-riding on the farmer’s clumsy nags,
but now we’re marching on.
“now we must be going, for the season’s getting late,
now we must be going, for the season’s getting late,
now we must be going, for the season’s getting late,
and we go marching on.”
“you see,” jo laid down her paper, “the beauty of this is that we don’t have to have any rhymes, only meter, and it is a sort of hymny thing appropriate for a camp. of course the glory, glory hallelujah comes in to make it more like a camp-meeting.”
[332]“it’s perfectly fine, jo. how did you come to think of it?” asked the girls.
“oh, it was nan’s idea, as you might know. she started it and i helped out with the lines. i’m going to do an irish monologue and we have some good jokes. noahdiah peakes ought to be here to ask conundrums.”
“that gives me an idea,” said nan jotting something down on the margin of her paper.
the boys, who had gone off in the wagon, returned with a pile of roasting ears, and some mysterious articles which they hustled into their tent.
“did you get any fireworks?” asked jack on the alert.
“we did, indeed,” ran told her. “we bought out all that al davis had, and i think we shall have quite a show.”
“are they what you took into the tent?” inquired jack, her curiosity still unsatisfied.
“shan’t tell you,” returned ran with a mischievous smile. he was a tall lad, with blue eyes and sandy hair, not handsome but with a frank, pleasant face that at once inspired confidence. ashby was not so tall. he had the same colored hair but his eyes were gray. he was a little shy, but was always ready to do anything for others he could, but always did it in a quiet, unassuming way.
[333]there was much scurrying to and fro for the rest of the day, much laughter and fun over the arrangements for the evening.
“i am glad we have something to occupy us,” said daniella as they sat down to dinner, “for the breaking up of a good time always does make me sad.”
“then you have had a good time, danny, and are glad you came,” miss helen said.
“oh, i am glad. i have never had such a good time.”
“not even in europe?”
“no, because it was all so strange and new, and i was trying so hard to understand and take in everything, while here i’ve been with you all and it has been so free. there were no lessons, no strange languages, no buildings i ought to know about, no pictures i ought to see.”
miss helen smiled at the frank confession. it was evident that while daniella’s trip to europe had been of great benefit in the matter of education, it had weighed rather heavily upon her at the time.
presently mary lee came in and drew up her chair with a sigh of fatigue. “i’m tired,” she said. “i do hate to pack, but i have about finished.”
“you are forehanded, mary lee,” said her aunt.
[334]“oh, but you know i like to get things done. the rest said they wouldn’t pack till morning as they might want some of their things this evening, but i have put aside exactly what i shall need and can stuff them in the last thing.”
“isn’t that just like mary lee?” said daniella. “she is so orderly that i believe she’d be standing ready dressed with a hand satchel if the house caught on fire.”
“oh, i always keep my bag ready packed,” replied mary lee in a matter-of-fact way. “i can snatch it up at any minute.”
“didn’t i tell you?” daniella laughed and nodded at miss helen.
here jo came in. “hurry up, girls,” she said. “we have something on hand to do right after dinner.”
“hurry up yourself,” nan told her. “you’re a great one. here we have nearly finished our dinner and you have just come in. what is the special rush?”
“we’re going to get things to deck the hall.”
“they will all have to be taken right down again,” said mary lee practically.
“well, ’lish can do it after we go. we don’t have to consider anything but the putting up.” she hurried through with her meal and rushed out to join the others who, with the boys, were waiting to set out for the woods.[335] the boys were armed with hatchets ready to chop off green boughs for decorations, leaving the girls to gather leaves already turning, and the red berries of the wild rose.
with armfuls they returned to the big cabin where they made a veritable bower to the contempt of ’lish whom they called upon for nails and string. “fool nonsense, i call it,” he muttered, “fetchin’ all that there truck to litter up the place. some folks ain’t got a mite of common sense. why can’t they leave things be? i can’t see as it’ll make their wittles taste any better to have the place look like a bé-zar.” however, he was willing enough to help, for it was his way to grumble a little and then be all the readier afterward.
they all had a busy day of it, but their enthusiasm never flagged and if they were tired by supper time each and all insisted that all they needed was a little food to make them as ready for fun as ever. the days were much shorter and they needed all the lanterns in camp to light up the place. the lights were hung around the impromptu stage, gleaming from between green boughs and casting a glow upon the red and yellow leaves. hartley’s was the first appearance, and here jack discovered what was so mysteriously hurried to the boys’ tent, for hartley was made up as noahdiah peakes,[336] and came in pushing himself along on a ridiculous little wagon with a toy horse, these having been discovered at davis’s store. the old jokes were made, the old conundrums asked each to the customary accompaniment of “git ap!” this was nan’s idea, the one she had jotted down that morning on the margin of her paper, and it made a great hit. then came the minstrels, hartley keeping his costume, but adding a coat of black cork to his hands and face. ashby with his banjo was one of the end men, ran with bones was the other. they did some funny coon songs interspersing the performance with jokes. then mary lee gave her breakdown which was so applauded that she did another typical dance. nan gave an imitation of an opera singer with no voice at all, then jo, who had gone out to get rid of her burnt cork, returned to do an irish monologue. she was a great mimic and her brogue brought much applause. after the finale, an old camp-meeting hymn, sung in chorus, they all trooped out to the field back of the camp where ’lish had been instructed to build a fire, and here they had the corn-roast. the boys had prepared a pile of sharpened sticks, and if the corn was frequently smoked and charred it was relished by most of the party.
“now the fireworks!” cried jack who was[337] much interested in these. to the lake they took their way to set off pinwheels and roman candles, and to send up rockets which went hissing down into the lake. at the last a great rocket bomb started the echoes and sent frightened birds flying from their nests in the near-by trees.
then every one, even ’lish and hetty, joined in the procession which marched around the camp singing their song. more verses were added as a line would be suggested and the marching was kept up enthusiastically till the older ones declared themselves tired. at the close every one solemnly shook hands all around and it was declared that they had “done broke camp” as hetty expressed it. she made a little bobbing curtsey to all. “i sholy is disinclined to part with yuh-alls,” she said. “it seem lak ole times to hev dese yer cay’ins on. i ain’t been to no veritas camp-meetin’ fo’ many a long ye’r, an’ yuh-alls is such nice ladies an’ gemmans dat i hopes to see yuh-alls nex’ ye’r,” a wish which was echoed by one and all.
then some one raised “three cheers for camp happiness!” and then “three cheers for miss marshall and miss lloyd!” so the cheering was kept up till a curious little squirrel, wakened by all this hullabaloo, came scampering out of his nest and sat on his haunches[338] looking around inquiringly as if to say, “why all this fuss, friends?” the squirrels had become very tame, for every one fed them, and no one thought of scaring them off, much less of hurting them.
in a short time every lantern and candle was out, the tents gleamed white in the moonlight. before another week the place would be silent save for the lonely call of a night-bird or the pad of some four-footed creature prowling the woods.
all this came to nan’s mind as she turned on her pillow. she thought of place o’ pines deserted and boarded up as she had seen it for the last time. “i shall never come back,” she sighed.
