The Outdoor Girls Around the Campfire or, The Old Maid of the Mountains pdf

Book: The Outdoor Girls Around the Campfire

or, The Old Maid of the Mountains

Author: Laura Lee Hope

Release Date: September 2, 2019.

Language: English.

(✍️ This article is collected from this book 📚 (All Credit To Go Real Hero The Author of this book 📖) 🙏 Please buy this book hardcopy from anyway.)

CHAPTER I

PLANS

“PUTT—putt—putt!” came the rhythmic throb of the motor as the little motor

boat sped over the glassy surface of the lake, stirring up the water on either side

of it and leaving a frothy white trail in its wake.

“How’s this for speed?” chortled the girl at the wheel, a pretty, dark-haired girl

with dancing brown eyes. “I reckon we could beat any other boat on this old

lake.”

“And then some!” agreed Mollie Billette, slangily. “I wish some one would

come along and challenge us to a race.”

“It would provide some excitement, anyway,” sighed Grace Ford, as she

lounged in the bow of the pretty little boat. “Looks like a pretty dull summer to

me, so far.”

“How do you get that way, Grace Ford?” cried Betty Nelson, she of the dark

hair and dancing eyes whom the girls fondly called “Little Captain.” “Tell ’em,

Amy,” she added, to the quiet, sweet-faced girl who lounged beside Mollie

Billette. “Tell ’em what you told me a little while ago.”

Grace Ford sat upright, a chocolate half-way to her mouth, while Mollie

Billette’s black eyes regarded the “Little Captain” severely.

“Betty Nelson, what have you been holding back from us?” she demanded,

but Betty was still looking at Amy Blackford.

“Tell ’em, Amy,” she repeated. “The news is too good to keep.”

“I’ll say it is,” agreed Amy, a smile lighting up her quiet face. “When Henry

spoke of it to me at first I thought it was too good to be true. I supposed he was

joking.”

“Told you what?” cried Mollie Billette, in an exasperated tone. “If you are not

the most aggravating——”

“Hold your horses, old dear,” drawled Grace Ford, quietly helping herself to

another piece of candy. “Amy has the floor——”

“The deck, you mean,” murmured Amy, then added hastily, as the girls threw

impatient glances her way: “I’ll tell you just how it happened if you give me a

chance. You see, Henry,” Henry was Amy’s older brother, “had a chance to takeover an old shack near the upper end of Rainbow Lake in part payment for a

debt. And now that he has the shack, he doesn’t know what to do with it.”

The girls leaned toward Amy eagerly.

“Then what?” asked Mollie.

“Why,” said Amy, with a smile of quiet enjoyment, “I told him I thought we

girls might help him out, for the summer, anyway. I thought it would be a great

lark to camp out there during vacation.”

“Amy, you are a wonder,” drawled Grace, but Mollie broke in impatiently.

“Is he going to let us have it?” she demanded.

“I should say so!” laughed Amy. “Said he would be glad to put it to some sort

of use. He said it would make a mighty fine summer camp but that was about all

it was good for.”

“It will be ideal,” broke in the Little Captain, happily, as she brushed a wind-

blown strand of hair from her eyes. “Why, at the upper end of Rainbow Lake

we’ll be as much alone as if we were in an African forest.”

“More so, I hope,” drawled Grace, adding with a little shudder: “For in an

African forest they have wild animals for company while here——”

“We sha’n’t see anything wilder than a chipmunk,” chuckled the Little

Captain.

“Suits me fine,” said Grace heartily. “Wolves and bears may be all right, but

give me a chipmunk every time.”

“My, isn’t she brave?” said Mollie, admiringly, and the other girls chuckled.

“Tell us more about this little shack, Amy,” said Betty, after a while. “Is it

very tiny, or is it big enough to contain us all without squeezing?”

“Henry said it is of fair size,” replied Amy, wrinkling her forehead in an

attempt to remember details. “There are two rooms in it and the rooms are

furnished in a rough sort of way, with home-made furniture.”

The Little Captain let go of the wheel long enough to clap her hands gleefully.

“Great!” she cried. “This gets better every minute. Think of it. A house ready-

made for us, and furnished, at that.”

“Too much luxury,” drawled Grace.

It was the first day of July and the Outdoor Girls, never completely happy

unless they were engaged in some outdoor sport, had embarked in their pretty

motor boat Gem for a sail down the Argono river. Although the motor boat was

really Betty’s property, the Outdoor Girls rather regarded it as their own. And

indeed, when it is considered that none of the four ever used it without the other

three, it was the same to them as though the ownership were actually theirs. As amatter of fact, what belonged to one of the Outdoor Girls automatically belonged

to all of them.

Those who have kept in touch with Betty and her chums will need no

introduction to the Gem, but for the benefit of those who do not know these

Outdoor Girls so well, we will give a brief description of it. For in this story the

trim little motor boat plays rather an important part.

First of all, the Gem had been given to Betty by an uncle of hers, a retired sea

captain by the name of Amos Marlin. The old fellow had produced the best craft

of its size that could be found anywhere. There was a large cockpit in the stern,

and a tiny cooking galley. Also the little boat boasted a small trunk cabin and an

unusually powerful and efficient motor. Altogether a snappy little craft, well

meriting its name of Gem.

And now, as the girls putt-putted briskly down the river, the thrill of summer

filling them with a fresh eagerness for adventure, it is no wonder that Amy’s

suggestion of a summer camp on the banks of Rainbow Lake was greeted with

enthusiasm.

So far, having made no plans for the summer months, they had about decided

to spend a rather uneventful summer in Deepdale, the thriving and busy little

town in which they had been brought up.

It might have been supposed, since Deepdale was situated so pleasantly on the

banks of the Argono—the latter emptying some miles below into pretty Rainbow

Lake—and since the bustling population of the town itself numbered something

like fifteen thousand, that the Outdoor Girls would have been content to spend a

summer there.

However, although they agreed that Deepdale was “the finest place in the

world,” change and adventure were what they really hankered after, and

Deepdale was too familiar a spot to offer them either.

But there was real adventure in the idea of camping out in the romantic little

shack so recently acquired by Amy Blackford’s brother, and they welcomed it

eagerly.

“I suppose we ought to run down there and look the place over,” said Grace,

cautiously. Grace was the only one of the four Outdoor Girls who really

considered comfort where adventure was concerned, and this trait of hers no

amount of or impatience on the part of the other girls could overcome.

For Grace, who was tall and slim and graceful, was very fond of her ease. Once

she was assured that an outing was to be “comfortable,” then she could start in to

enjoy herself.

So at this suggestion that they “run down there and look the place over.