CHAPTER VIII
THE GYPSY CAMP
There were two things that encouraged Ruth Kenway, the oldest CornerHouse girl, to accompany Pearl Harrod's party through the woodswithout objection. Pearl told her that when they reached the highwayon the other side of the timber in all probability they would beovertaken by an auto-bus that ran four times a day between a stationon a rival railroad line and the Cove.
This was one thing. The other reason for Ruth's leaving the train withher sisters, and without objection, was the fact that the strangelydressed woman and the pretty, dark girl had left it already.
When the train first stopped and the brakeman announced the accidentahead, the woman had spoken to the girl and they both had risen andleft the car. Perhaps nobody had noticed them but Ruth. The strangegirl had not looked at Ruth when she passed her, but the woman hadbowed and smiled in a cat-like fashion.
Pearl said they would follow a path through the timber to the road;and she pointed out the direction through the window. Ruth saw thewoman and girl strike into this very path and disappear.
So curiosity, too, led the oldest Corner House girl to agree toPearl's plan. The party of ten girls, including Ruth, Agnes, Tess andDot Kenway, slipped out of the car without being questioned by any ofthe older people there. Nobody observed them enter the cool andfragrant woods. Chattering and laughing, they were quickly in theshadowy depths and out of sight of the hot train.
"Oh, isn't this heavenly!" cried Agnes, tossing up her hat by theribbons that were supposed to tie it under her plump chin.
The green tunnel of the wood-path stretched a long way before them. Itwas paved with pine needles and last-year's oak leaves.
Ruth looked sharply ahead, but did not see either the woman or thegirl, in whom she was so much interested. Either they had gone on veryrapidly, or had turned aside into the wood.
Dot had made no complaint upon being forced to leave the train; butshe clung very tightly now to the Alice-doll, and finally ventured toask Tess:
"What--what do you think is the chance for _bears_ in this wood, Tess?Don't you think there may be some?"
"Bears? Whoever heard the like? Of course not, child," said Tess, inher most elder-sisterly way. "What gave you such an idea as that?"
"Well--it's a strange woods, Tess. We aren't really acquainted here."
"But Pearl is," declared Tess, stoutly.
"I don't care. I'd rather have Tom Jonah with us. Suppose a bearshould jump out and grab Alice?" and she hugged the doll all thecloser in her arms. For her own safety she evidently was not anxious.
The girls, after their ride in the train, were like young colts letloose in a paddock. They sang and laughed and capered; and when theycame to a softly carpeted hollow, Pearl Harrod led the way and rolleddown the slope, instead of walking down in a "decorous manner, as highschool young ladies should," quoth Carrie.
"If our dear, _de-ar_ teachers should see us now!" gasped Pearlsitting up at the foot of the slide, with a peck of pine needles inher hair and her frock all tousled.
Their only baggage was the lunch baskets and boxes. All other of theirpersonal possessions were on the train, in the baggage car. But theremains of the luncheons came in very nicely. Before they had gone amile through the wood they were all loudly proclaiming their hunger.
So they found a spring, and camped about it, eating the remainder ofthe lunches to the very last crumb. And such a hilarious "feed" as itwas!
Ruth forgot all about the Gypsy woman and the girl who had so puzzledher by her actions. The rest by the spring refreshed even Dot. She wasplucky, if she _was_ little; and she made no complaint at all aboutthe long walk through the stretch of timber.
The party did not hurry after that rest. It was still early in theafternoon and Pearl, referring to her watch, said they would surelycatch the auto-stage that passed on the main road about four o'clock.
"You see, there are no servants at the bungalow yet," Pearl explained."Uncle has been taking his meals at one of the small boarding-housesnearby, that opens early. He is a great fisherman, and always goesdown early and 'roughs it' at the bungalow until my aunt comes down.
"But she thought we girls would be able to get on all right--withUncle Phil to give us a hand if we need him. We'll have to airbedclothes, and get in groceries, and otherwise start housekeepingto-night."
"Why! it will be great fun," Ruth said. "Just like playing housetogether."
"Say!" cried Agnes. "We want more than 'play-house' food to eat--now Iwarn you! No sweet crackers and 'cambric tea' for mine, if youplease!"
"Oh! if I ask him," said Pearl, laughing, "I know Uncle Phil will takeus to his boarding-house to supper to-night--if we get there late. ButI want to show him what ten girls can do toward housekeeping."
"There'll be plenty of cooks to spoil the broth," sighed Agnes. "Didyou ever see _me_ fry an egg?"
Ruth began to laugh. The single occasion when Agnes had tried her handat the breakfast eggs was a day marked for remembrance at the oldCorner House.
"What can you do to a defenseless egg, Aggie?" Lucy Poole demanded.
"Plenty!" declared Agnes, shaking her head. "When I get through withan egg, a lump of butter, and a frying-pan, there is left a residue ofcharred 'what is it?' in the bottom of the pan, an odor of burnedgrease in the kitchen--and me in hysterics! It was an awful occasionwhen I tackled that egg. I've not felt just right about approaching anegg since that never-to-be-forgotten day."
"I was left home to cook for my father, once," said Carrie Poole,seriously, "and he asked to have boiled rice for supper. Mother neverlet me cook much, and I didn't know a thing about _rice_.
"But I saw the grains were awfully small, and I knew my father liked agreat, heaping bowlful when he had it, so I told the grocery boy tobring two pounds, and I tried to cook it all."
A general laugh hailed this announcement. Agnes asked: "What happened,Carrie? I don't know anything about rice myself--'cepting that it'sgood in cakes and you throw it after brides for luck--and--andChinamen live on it."
"Wait!" urged Carrie, solemnly. "It's nothing to laugh at. I begancooking it in a four quart saucepan, so as to give it plenty of room;and when father came in just before supper time, I had the whole topof our big range covered with pots and pans into which I had dippedthe overflow of that two pounds of rice!
"Oh, yes, I had!" said Carrie, warmly, while the others screamed withlaughter. "And I had gotten so excited by that time that I beggedfather to go out to the washhouse and bring in the big clothes boiler,so's to see if I could keep the stuff from running over onto thestove.
"You never saw such a mess," concluded Carrie, shaking her head. "Andwe had to eat rice for a week!"
It was just here that Agnes spied something far ahead beside thewoodspath.
"Oh!" she cried, "are we in sight of the tent colony you tell about,so soon?"
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Pearl Harrod. "We're nowhere near the river."
"But there's a tent!" exclaimed Agnes, earnestly.
"And I see the top of another," said Lucy Poole.
"Dirty brown things, both of them. Look more like Indian wigwams,"announced Ann Presby.
"My goodness, girls! there are the Gypsies Uncle Phil wrote about,"said Pearl, in some excitement. "Let's get our fortunes told."
"Oh, dear me," said Ruth, rather worriedly. "I don't just _like_Gypsies."
"Oh, you haven't got to hug and kiss them!" laughed Pearl. "Come on!they're lots of fun."
But when the party of girls drew nearer to the Gypsy camp, thisparticular tribe of Nomads did not appear to be "lots of fun," afterall.
In the first place, the tents--as Ann had said--were very shabby anddirty. The two covered wagons were dilapidated, too. Gypsies usuallyhave good horses, but those the girls saw feeding in the little gladewere mere "crowbaits."
Several low-browed, roughly dressed men sat in a group on the grassplaying cards. They were smoking, and one was tipping a black bottleto his lips just as the girls from M
ilton came near.
"Let's hurry right by, Pearl!" begged Ruth.
Pearl, however, was not as observant as the Corner House girl. Shefailed to see danger in the situation, or in the looks the disturbedmen cast upon the unprotected party of girls. As several of thefellows rose, Pearl called to them:
"Where's your Pythoness? Where is the Queen of the Gypsies? We wantour fortunes told."
One man--a tall fellow with a scarred face--turned and shoutedsomething in a strange tongue at the tents. Ruth recognized thelanguage in which the woman had talked to the dark-faced girl on thetrain.
And then, the next moment, Ruth caught sight of the face of the verywoman in question, peering from between the flaps of one of the dingytents.