keineth learned that ricky was peggy's gymnasium teacher. her real name was fredericka grimball, but to "her girls" she was always known as ricky. the camp was among the hills ten miles from fairview. and during the vacation months ricky took her girls there in groups of twenty. with their play she gave them instruction in scoutcraft.
"we go for tramps into the woods and she tells us stories of the birds and trees. i never knew until she told me that there are male and female trees, and flowers and all the things that grow; did you know it, ken? and we found a weasel, last summer--it was almost tame. we're going to learn signalling, too; perhaps this winter ricky will let us form a troop and join the girl scouts."
keineth, with wide-open eyes, was trying to follow peggy's incoherent description of the camp life they were to begin on the morrow. back in her mind was a tiny doubt as to whether she would enjoy twenty girls--all strangers! but she would fight this shyness and do whatever peggy did.
"we sleep right out of doors when it is clear. the woods smell so good and there are all sorts of funny sounds as if all the bugs and things were having parties."
"oh-h, i wonder if i'll like it!" and keineth shivered with pleasurable dread.
"we paddle in canoes on a little lake that's like a mill-pond. it's awfully shallow and the water is so clear you can see right through it, and we ride horseback, too! i'm a patrol leader," peggy finished with pride. she folded the last middy blouse neatly into a wicker suitcase. their luggage consisted of bloomers, blouses, bathing-suits and blankets.
"easy to remember--all b's," mrs. lee had laughed.
mr. lee drove them to the camp. "come back with some muscle in these arms of yours and a few more freckles on your nose," he said to keineth, pinching her cheek affectionately.
"camp wachita"--the girls had nicknamed it camp wish-no-more--was nestled in the hills with the tiny lake at its front door and a dense woodland at its back. sleeping tents were built in a semicircle about the central building, in which were the living-rooms. on a grassy level stretch close to the water was the out-of-door gymnasium and beyond that the boathouse and dock to which several gaily-painted canoes were fastened.
the family at camp wachita consisted of martha washington jones, the colored cook; bonsey, her twelve-year-old son, who very occasionally made himself useful about the camp; captain o'leary, a spanish war veteran by title and by occupation caretaker of the horses and boats; miky, the little irish terrier, and jim crow, who had been brought, the summer before, to the camp hospital from the woodland to receive first aid for a broken wing, and had refused to leave the family.
keineth had little difficulty in making friends with the other girls. there seemed to be among them such a jolly spirit of comradeship that she found it very easy to call them jessie and nellie and kate, and never once wondered at their quickly adopting peggy's familiar "ken." she thought that peggy must have known them all very well and was surprised when peggy told her that there were only three of her friends among them.
"but we're all ricky's girls, you see," she explained, as though that was all that was necessary to create a firm bond of loyalty and friendship among them.
"ricky," this captain of girls, was a tall, straight, broad-shouldered woman of twenty-five. the sunniness of her smile, the firmness of her jaw and the all-understanding warmth of her dark eyes told of the character which made her a leader of others and a spirit beloved among them all.
each new day of the camp life brought to keineth some new experience, thrilling in its strangeness to the little girl. she had learned to love going to sleep with the great, star-lit vault of the sky enveloping her; the singing of the "bugs," as peggy had put it, was fairy music to her ears; she had conquered her first terror of the shell-like canoes and now could paddle with confidence, even venturing alone upon the shallow water. and to her own surprise she was enjoying the companionship of the other girls!
among them was one named stella maybeck. stella was not an attractive girl--she was too tall and too thin, her voice was loud and her manners a little careless. she had big, dark eyes with a hungry look in their depths. she adored ricky and showed a preference for keineth's company. at first keineth felt a little repelled by the girl's rough ways, but gradually she grew to feel that beneath them was a warm, kind heart and that it was, perhaps, shyness that often made stella's manner disagreeable.
they walked together on the tramps into the woods and keineth enjoyed the fund of knowledge the other girl seemed to have concerning all the little woodland creatures and their ways.
"i don't see why you like to be with stella maybeck," peggy had said to her one day. "i think she is horrid!" she finished unkindly.
"why, peggy!" keineth frowned. it was very unfair in peggy to speak in this way concerning one of the other girls. keineth did not suspect that perhaps a little jealousy prompted peggy's ungraciousness.
this little cloud was to grow over the whole camp. and in the second week ricky's girls learned a lesson of greater value to them than all the scoutcraft they loved.
twice a week the vegetable man came to the camp with fruit and vegetables. these the girls placed in the storehouse, one of them carefully checking off the purchases as they did so. one morning some oranges were reported missing. ricky paid little attention to the incident. the next day one of the girls came to her and announced that a ring had been taken from her sleeping tent. although disturbed, miss grimball gently rebuked the girl for having disobeyed the camp rules in bringing jewelry to it and sent her away, bidding her speak to no one of her loss.
then miss grimballs silver purse containing ten dollars in bills was taken from her desk!
like a flash the story spread through the camp. the girls gathered in an excited group. keineth and stella, with arms locked, stood together. from the other side of the group peggy saw them. the jealousy that had been slumbering within her heart suddenly gripped her.
"well, i think i could guess who did it, all right, and i just think it's a shame for anyone like that to i dare to come to ricky's camp!" it was not necessary to do more than fix her gaze indignantly upon stella maybeck. with a little gasp stella turned and ran into her tent. the others pressed closer to peggy.
"oh, do you think so?" they whispered in awed voices.
"peggy!" cried keineth, imploringly.
"i'm not going to say another word," peggy answered, perhaps a little frightened at what she had done.
the girls waited breathlessly for miss grimball to take some action in the matter. each felt that the disgrace must be wiped from the happy camp life.
at noon ricky's whistle sounded. the girls assembled on the gymnasium ground. their captain stood before them, dear-eyed, smiling at them all with her usual confidence. stella, with keineth, had joined the others and stood in the background.
"i think you all know what has happened. i am disturbed, but i will not suspect one of my girls. all i want to say is this--so great is my trust in your loyalty, in your honor, and in your sense of what is square--if one of you, through an unfortunate yielding to temptation, has taken these things that have been lost, they will be returned, because you are girls of honor. so i am not worrying. now, please do not talk of the matter among yourselves."
the routine of the day went on. the girls avoided stella; only keineth kept close to her side. keineth longed to pour out to stella her confidence in her innocence and her indignation at peggy, but a certain pride in stella's manner forbade it; she could not find the right words, so she simply occasionally squeezed stella's hand!
in this way two unhappy days passed. then on the third morning peggy, crossing the path leading to the kitchen, saw jim crow scurrying toward the wood with a spoon in his mouth! on tip-toe she followed him. turning off from the trail near the edge of the woodland, he stood for a moment as though listening, then dropped his treasure into the hollow trunk of a dead tree!
and there peggy, following the rascal, found the oranges, the ring, and ricky's silver purse!
in that moment when peggy stood alone among the trees, the stolen things in her hands, she learned a lesson that she could never forget! she walked slowly back to miss grimball's office and told her the story of jim and of her own unjust accusation of stella.
"we should have suspected jim, the villain," ricky laughed. "another chapter in scoutcraft, peggy. will you go, my dear, and tell stella?" then she gently put her hand upon peggy's head, "judge not, my dear," and, leaning, she kissed her.
peggy rushed off in search of stella. she found her sitting on the dock, a picture of misery, keineth by her side.
"stella, i was a wicked, wicked girl! it was jim crow stole the things, and i found them in an old tree and i wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me! i think the reason i was so horrid was because i was just jealous that ken loved you more than she did me--" for lack of breath peggy stopped, her soul clean from her confession.
a great joy came into stella's dark eyes. she held out her hand and peggy caught it in a tight grip.
"now i'm going to call all the girls together and tell them the whole story and that i'm just terribly ashamed." she ran from them, her hands to her mouth, loudly giving the call of the camp. there was great rejoicing at camp-wish-no more. the cloud of suspicion had lifted. the girls could not be nice enough to stella, and for the first time she seemed to lose her shyness and awkwardness among them. then ricky decided that, in order to entirely forget the whole thing, they would go on an all-night hike to the old mill on cobble hill.
"hooray--hooray!" went up from eager throats.
"three cheers for stella!"
"three cheers for peggy!" they cried again.
"down with jim crow!"
that night, under the stars, keineth snuggled close to peggy. she had asked to be peggy's blanket mate.
"you're all right, peg," she whispered, billy-fashion, "and i do love you most of all!"
