The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp
L >> Laura Lee Hope >> The Outdoor Girls in a Winter CampThe Outdoor Girls
In a Winter Camp
OR
GLORIOUS DAYS ON SKATES
AND ICE BOATS
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE," "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW
LAKE," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
=BOOKS FOR GIRLS=
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
* * * * *
=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES=
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
=THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS=
For Little Men and Women
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
* * * * *
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
GROSSET & DUNLAP.
* * * * *
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
[Illustration: "SLOW DOWN--DON'T RUN INTO ANYTHING!" BEGGED BETTY.
_The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp._ _Frontispiece_ (_Page 106._)]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I DANGER 1
II A FINE CHANCE 14
III THE COMPLICATIONS 24
IV MR. BLACKFORD'S CLUE 30
V UNPLEASANT NEWS 40
VI PREPARATIONS 47
VII OFF FOR CAMP 57
VIII A SPILL 66
IX GETTING SETTLED 74
X WARNED OFF 81
XI THE RIVALS 88
XII IN A BIG STORM 99
XIII THE MISSING PIECE 107
XIV AN ICE BOAT RACE 116
XV IN A TRAP 125
XVI TROUBLE 131
XVII A SNOW FIGHT 140
XVIII THE AUTO ICE BOAT 146
XIX MAROONED 153
XX TO THE RESCUE 160
XXI A HELPING HAND 166
XXII THE OLD LUMBERMAN 178
XXIII REVELATIONS 183
XXIV THE LYNX 191
XXV CHRISTMAS JOYS 203
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS
IN A WINTER CAMP
CHAPTER I
DANGER
"How cold it is!" exclaimed Grace Ford, wrapping closer about her a fur
neck-piece, and plunging her gloved hands deeper into the pockets of her
maroon sweater. "I had no idea it was so chilling!"
"Nonsense!" cried Betty Nelson, her cheeks aglow. "Skate about, and
you'll soon be warm enough. Isn't it glorious, Mollie?"
"Surely, and the ice is perfect. Come on Grace, and we'll see who'll be
first to the bend!" and Mollie, her dark eyes dancing under the spell of
the day, circled about the almost shivering Grace, doing a gliding waltz
on skates.
"I don't want to race!" protested the tall, slim girl who had complained
about the weather.
"Oh, but you must!" insisted Betty. "Come, we'll have a short, sharp
one, and then you'll feel so warm you'll wonder you ever said it was
chilly."
"I wish I had brought along that vacuum bottle of hot chocolate, as I
intended," murmured Grace, reflectively.
"Nobody stopped you!" exclaimed Mollie, a trifle sharply. Of late she
had had less and less patience with the "confectionery-failing" of
Grace, as she termed it.
"Yes, you did!" declared the cold one. "You and Bet were in such a rush
I didn't have time. I wish I hadn't come skating," and Grace permitted
as much of a frown to gather on her pretty face as she ever indulged
herself in--for Grace, be it known, was just a trifle vain, and
desperately afraid of a wrinkle.
"Oh, well, come on and skate!" invited Betty. "Amy and I will race you
and Mollie, Grace. That will--make us all feel better," for the Little
Captain, as she was often called, saw just the shadow of a cloud
gathering over the two chums, who seldom, or never, quarreled.
"Does Amy want to?" asked Grace, glancing at a quiet girl who was
adjusting her skates. Amy was always quiet, but of late her chums had
noted that she was more than usually so. And they guessed, rightly, that
it had to do with the mystery surrounding her identity, which mystery
Amy had almost given up hope of solving.
"Yes, I'll race," said Amy gently, and she smiled. Amy was always
willing to oblige, and she did not often consult her own personal
feelings.
Something like a look of disappointment passed over the countenance of
Grace. Seeing it Mollie laughed.
"Grace was hoping Amy would say no, so she could get out of it!" cried
vivacious Mollie. "That's the time you didn't say the right thing, Amy."
"Oh, well, if nothing but a race will satisfy you, I suppose I must,"
and Grace gave in "gracefully." "I'm nearly perished standing still,
anyhow, and skating can't make me much worse."
"It will be all the better," insisted Betty. "Now we'll race in this
fashion--team work to count. Amy and I in one team, you and Grace in the
other, Mollie. Whichever member of the team gets to the bend first will
win. You see," Betty explained, "one of a team might fall, or turn her
ankle, or get tired, and then the other could keep on. It's like a relay
race."
"Oh, well, if I have to--I suppose I have to," and Grace said this with
such a doleful sigh that the others laughed heartily, even quiet Amy
joining.
"On your marks!" cried Betty. "Let's show that we are worthy of our
names--true Outdoor Girls."
"Show who?" asked Grace looking around.
"Well, here comes your brother Will, for one, and I think Allen Washburn
and Frank Haley are with him," spoke Betty, shading her eyes with her
hands, and gazing off across the sparkling surface of the frozen Argono
River.
"Can't you see Percy Falconer?" asked Mollie mischievously, referring to
a certain foppish lad, who seemed to have a great fondness for the
Little Captain.
"If there was any snow here I'd wash your face!" cried Betty, her cheeks
flaming more than before--for, be it known, she did not reciprocate the
feeling that "burned in Percy's manly bosom," to quote the rather
jeering remarks of Grace.
"I'd rather Allen would do it," murmured Mollie. "That is, if you will
let him, Betty."
"Let him? Why shouldn't I?" demanded Betty rather sharply, but she
turned her head away, and bit her lips.
"Oh, nothing, only the other night, when you and he went on such a long
walk down the road, I thought perhaps you might have come to some
understanding----"
"Mollie Billette, if you don't stop----!" began Betty, and then the
approach of three young men on their ringing skates forced her to
conclude rather quickly.
"Hello, girls," greeted Will Ford, the brother of the willowy Grace,
"what's doing?" Will was just the opposite of his sister, being rather
short and chunky.
"We're going to have a race," said Betty quickly, perhaps to forestall
any resumption of the embarrassing conversation, now that the subject of
it was present.
"A race!" exclaimed Allen, a rising young lawyer. "May we join in?"
"This is strictly a ladies' relay race," explained Mollie. "You may be
judges, or starters and offer the prizes, though, if you like."
"And the prizes----?" suggested Frank, who was Will's special chum.
"Hot chocolates when we go back to town," said Betty quickly. "I know
Grace will agree."
"Indeed I will," the latter said. "I don't care how much fun you make of
me, but I am cold, and--and----"
"Us 'ikes tandy--don't us!" interrupted Will, mimicking the little twin
brother and sister of Mollie, whose penchant for sweets was only
equalled by the longing of Grace.
"Easy," said Betty softly. "Well, if we're going to race, let's do it.
Boys, you see fair play. It's to be down to the bend and back."
"No, not back!" declared Amy. "I can't do as much as that at top speed."
"Well, then, just to the bend," agreed Betty, indicating a spot where
the river made a turn, about a mile away.
"We'll skate along," suggested Allen. "It is a bit chilly, and the
exercise will be good for us. Get ready girls. I'm sorry we haven't a
pistol to fire."
"This will do!" exclaimed Will, producing a paper bag. "It _had_
chocolates in," he added with a sly look at his sister.
"Oh!" she cried.
"Nothing doing!" he added quickly if slangily. "Nothing but crumbs," and
he proceeded to empty them into his mouth, and then blew up the bag.
"When I burst it--go!" he called.
The sharp report of the exploding bag echoed on the keen, wintry air,
and the four girls glided off on their skates. Mollie and Betty, the two
best skaters, rather hung back, letting the more unskillful Amy and
Grace lead the way. The boys skated together in the rear.
"When are you going to spurt?" called Will, as he saw that the pace was
not increasing much.
"Time enough," replied Betty, narrowly watching her rival, Mollie.
"That isn't skating!" declared Frank with a laugh. "You girls are only
creeping."
But at that instant Grace, at a signal from Mollie, darted ahead, and
then the race began in earnest, for Amy, at a nod from the Little
Captain did likewise, and then Mollie and Betty, holding themselves in
readiness for the burst of speed that would take place at the finish,
came after.
"Now they're off!" cried Will. "A pound of chocolates to the winner!"
Three-quarters of the way to the bend Amy showed signs of fatigue.
Betty, noting it, called to her:
"I'll take it now."
"So will I!" agreed Mollie, and Grace, gliding to one side, allowed her
partner to take the lead.
"Now they're off!" cried Will again.
"Thank goodness, I'm warm, anyhow!" remarked Grace, a rosy glow
replacing the former paleness of her cheeks.
Leaving Amy and Grace to follow on more leisurely, the youths rushed up
to see the finish of the race. It was close, but by unanimous decision
they awarded the contest to Betty.
"Oh, I'm so glad you won, anyhow!" declared Mollie with fine spirit.
"You earned it, Betty dear, but I thought I was going to beat you, until
the very end."
"Yes, and you might have, only your left skate was loose," said Betty.
"I noticed it. Suppose we try it over?"
"Indeed not! My skate did loosen," spoke Mollie, "but I wasn't going to
say anything about it. You won fairly Betty, and I'm too exhausted to
try again. Now if the boys will----"
"Oh, we'll fulfill our part of the program!" declared Will promptly.
"Come on back to the village whenever you like, and order what you wish.
Or we can go on to the store of the poetical Mr. Lagg if you prefer."
"It's too far," protested Grace, who, with Amy, had come up now.
"Besides he doesn't serve hot chocolate."
"Then thou shalt have thy hot chocolate, sister mine!" cried Will,
rubbing her ears.
"Oh, stop it!" she begged. "You hurt dreadfully, Will!"
"That's the way to make them warm," and he got back out of the way in
time to avoid having his own ears soundly boxed.
Slowly the young people skated back. There were a number of others on
the ice now, and soon our friends were in the midst of quite a throng.
"Here come Alice Jallow and Kittie Rossmore," murmured Mollie. "I hope
they don't tag along after us."
"They're likely to," said Grace. "Though since that last little trouble
they haven't been as unpleasant as they used to be."
The boys circled away from Betty and her chums momentarily, and the two
girls referred to came skating past. They bowed rather coldly, and then,
an acquaintance of theirs joining them, they stopped to chat with the
latter. Mollie's skate again becoming loosened, she halted to adjust it,
her friends waiting for her. It was thus that they overheard what Alice
Jallow was saying to Margaret Black, the girl who had just come up.
"Yes," Alice spoke, "she gives herself as many airs as if she was
somebody, instead of a nobody."
"A nobody?" repeated Margaret, wonderingly, "why----"
"Yes, indeed! She isn't even sure her name is Stonington, and as for Mr.
and Mrs. Stonington being her uncle and aunt as she says, why, I heard
the other day that there is doubt of that even. She and her chums think
themselves high and mighty, but we wouldn't go with anybody that didn't
know who they were!"
"But I thought there was something about a flood in the West----"
"Oh, yes, that's the story she gave out, but I, for one don't believe
it. She's a nobody, and that's all there is to it!"
Then Alice, leaving her bitter words echoing on the wintry air, which
carried them clearly to poor Amy, skated off. Perhaps Alice had not
meant that she should be overheard, but such was the case. She did not
take the trouble to look and see if the one to whom she referred was
within hearing distance.
At the first intimation of what was coming Betty had started off, as did
the other girls. Mollie seemed to have a notion of rushing over to Alice
and the others, but Grace, by a gesture, warned her not to.
Poor Amy's eyes filled with tears. She turned aside and Betty made as
though to skate after her, intending to offer words of sympathy, but
this time Mollie shook her head.
"Perhaps she had better be alone for a little while," she whispered.
"Sometimes that is the best way to pass it off. Oh, but that Alice
Jallow is a--cat!"
No one disagreed with Mollie this time.
Tears blinded the eyes of poor Amy. She skated on out of the crowd,
toward a part of the frozen river where there were no merry-makers. She
did not want to look on pleasure now, for her heart ached from the
bitter words she had overheard--words, she realized, that might be but
too true.
Blindly she skated on, not heeding, and scarcely caring where she went.
Her only desire was to get away where she could be by herself, to think
it out--to try and devise a way of setting at rest all the rumors about
her. For the rumors had grown apace of late, and from a source she could
not determine. It might be that what she had just heard was a clue.
Amy had thought of appealing to Mr. and Mrs. Stonington, with whom she
lived, and who, for many years she had regarded as father and mother.
Then, a few months back, she had learned that they were but uncle and
aunt. Now it seemed that she was to lose even this relationship. It was
a bitter blow, especially to one so young in years.
To briefly mention the mystery of Amy, I might say that she was picked
up when an infant, afloat on a raft in a flood in a western city. Pinned
to her baby dress was an envelope containing the name of Mr. Stonington
of Deepdale. He had been telegraphed for, and took charge of the
infant.
It was supposed that the mother of the baby was a distant relative of
Mrs. Stonington, for the latter had a cousin who resided in the western
city. It was believed that, finding herself about to perish, the mother
did what she could to insure the salvation of her child, and pinned a
note to her dress so that relatives would look after her if the baby was
saved.
But only the envelope was found, together with an old and torn diary
that gave no tangible clue.
And this was the mystery of Amy's life. As I have said, after living for
years in the belief that Mr. and Mrs. Stonington were her parents, they
had told her the truth. Now it seemed that there was to be another
change.
"Oh, but why must it be so?" mourned poor Amy. "Why can't I be like
other girls?"
The tears rushed to her eyes. She could not see, and she skated rapidly
on, only wanting to get away.
She heard the ringing of steel runners behind her, but would not turn.
Then a voice--a boy's voice--called:
"Look out! Look out where you're going, Amy! The ice is thin up there,
and you're going right toward an air-hole! There's danger! Look out!"
If Amy heard she gave no sign nor heed. On she skated, and then the
voice behind her called in startled tones:
"What do you mean? Amy, turn! Turn back before it is too late! You'll be
drowned!"
The skater behind fairly rushed forward, for he had seen what the
tear-blinded girl had not--black water showing through a hole in the
ice. And Amy was headed directly for this opening.
CHAPTER II
A FINE CHANCE
"That Alice Jallow is certainly the meanest girl in Deepdale!" declared
Mollie, with vehemence.
"And Kittie isn't much better," added Grace, with spirit. "I don't see
how Margaret can go with them."
"She's a newcomer here, that's the reason," said Betty--bouncing Betty
she was now, for she was whirling about and "teetering" on her skates in
a dizzying fashion. "When she gets to know those girls she won't have
any more to do with them than--we do."
"And there was a time, even after they made those first slurring remarks
about Amy, that they seemed real nice," spoke Grace.
"It was too good to last," asserted Mollie. "Oh--the cat!"
Mollie shot out the word as though she would like to exercise some of
the proclivities of a feline herself, and scratch.
"What possessed her to stop where she did, and talk loud enough for Amy
to hear?" asked Grace.
"It's hard to tell," decided Betty with a sigh. "Shall we go after her?"
and she nodded in the direction taken by Amy, who could not now be seen
because of the intervening crowds.
"No; best let her cry it out, poor child," said Mollie, softly. "She was
crying when she skated away."
"Well, if we can find the boys we'll just mildly hint that those
chocolates are about due," observed Grace, and she and the others looked
about for Will and his chums, little dreaming of the danger which, at
that moment, menaced poor Amy.
Those of you who have read the previous books of this series need no
special introduction to my heroines. Others may care for just a brief
one. The initial volume, entitled "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale; Or,
Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health," told how Betty, Mollie, Grace
and Amy decided to go on a walking tour. Incidentally they solved the
mystery of a five hundred dollar bill, and won the lasting gratitude of
a Mr. Henry Blackford, a young business man.
In the second book, "The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake; Or, The
Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat _Gem_," there was a queer ghostly
mystery on an island, but the girls were a match for it. As may be
guessed from the title, the story has to do with boating, Betty having
become the proud possessor of a fine craft.
When Mollie Billette got her touring car the girls saw no end of good
times ahead of them, and their hopes were fully realized. The third
volume, named "The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car; Or, The Haunted Mansion
of Shadow Valley," involved the girls from the very start in a series of
queer happenings. They could not discover, until the very end, why a
certain girl fell out of a tree. And as for the strange manifestations
in the mysterious old mansion--but there, it would not be fair to betray
the secret in such a fashion.
The beautiful Fall weather gave the girls a chance to make long tours in
the car, and they enjoyed every minute spent in the open. And now they
were on the edge of winter.
A cold snap had frozen over the Argono River, on the pleasant banks of
which was located Deepdale, the thriving town where our friends lived.
And they were out enjoying the sport when Amy overheard the cruel words
that sent her off crying.
I might add something about the personal lives of the four chums, by
saying that Betty was an only child, that Grace had a lovable brother
Will, and Mollie a small brother and sister--Paul and Dodo--twins, who
were alternately called the "cutest" and the "most mischievous"
youngsters in existence. Of Amy's mystery I have already hinted.
When Will Ford saw the danger in which his sister's chum was
unconsciously placing herself he fairly raced forward. There was need to
act promptly, and Will did so. Skating in a diagonal direction he fairly
collided with the girl, and forced her out of her course, and away from
the dangerous hole that yawned there just before her.
"Amy!" Will cried. "What is the matter?"
Amy looked up with a start, and Will saw that she had been crying.
"I--I don't know," she stammered. "I guess I wasn't looking where I was
going."
"I should say not!" cried Will. "Look there!" and he pointed to the open
water that seemed so black and ugly in contrast with the pure ice.
"Oh--oh!" she gasped. "Was--was I skating toward that?"
"Right toward it!" exclaimed Will. "I couldn't do anything else than
shove you to one side. I hope I didn't hurt you."
"Oh, no, Will, it was good of you. I--I didn't know what I was doing. I
was thinking--thinking----"
She hesitated, and again tears came into her eyes.
"Can I do anything for you--has anything happened?" he asked, eagerly.
"Has anyone----"
"Oh, no, Will. It is--nothing."
"Then let's go back to the others," he proposed. "They may be getting
anxious about you."
"No, Will, I'd rather not go back--just now. I'll go on--home." Amy
hesitated over the word. "I can take a short cut across the fields."
"Then let me take off your skates," he said, gently. Perhaps he guessed
at something that had occurred. "Come over to shore and I'll have them
off in a jiffy. Then I'll walk home with you."
"No, Will," said Amy, in a low voice. "I had rather go alone, really I
would. Just tell the girls----"
She hesitated again, and seemed unable to speak.
"Tell them I am all right--that I want to be alone. They will
understand."
"Very well." He skated with her to the bank, where she sat on a log.
Then, with her skates dangling over her shoulder, Amy set off across the
snow-covered fields alone--with bowed head--and into her eyes the tears
came again as she thought of what she had heard.
Will watched her, shook his head once or twice, as though puzzled, and
then skated back toward his sister and the others.
"Where's Amy?" Grace demanded, anxiously, as he came in sight.
"Gone home."
"Home? Why didn't you go with her?" asked Mollie, quickly.
"She wouldn't let me. Say, she acted mighty funny. She was skating
along, looking down, and she came within a few feet of going into an air
hole. I had to almost knock her to one side. She seemed dazed. Did
anything happen?"
"Yes, there did," said Grace, promptly. "And the less said about it the
better. It was that horrid Alice Jallow making slurring remarks about
Amy. We won't take any notice of her after this. Oh, how mean she is!"
Briefly, she told Will what had happened.
"That accounts for it," he said. "Poor Amy! No wonder she didn't look
where she was going. She might have been drowned."
"Don't say that!" cried Betty, sharply.
"Why not, when it's the truth?"
Betty gave the woman's reason.
"Because."
Frank and Allen came skating up.
"Come!" cried Grace, as joyfully as possible under the circumstances.
"The prizes--our chocolates, boys!"
"Of course!" added Allen. "But where is Amy?"
"She'll be along later--maybe," and Will winked at his chum as a signal
not to be too inquisitive. The young lawyer understood and nodded.
Soon the party of young people were in a drug store, partaking of hot
chocolates, and talking of the fun on the ice, while Grace spent some
time at the candy counter, selecting a new variety of chocolates.
That evening Betty and Mollie called on Grace.
"Let's go over and cheer Amy up," proposed Betty, who was always
thinking of some kindness.
"All right," agreed Grace. "Come into the library a moment. I'll get you
that book I promised, Betty. Oh, it's just splendid! You won't stop
until you finish it."
"Good!"
"Oh, Papa, I didn't know you were here!" exclaimed Grace, as, leading
her chums into the library, she discovered her father busy over a mass
of papers on the table.
"That's all right," he invited. "Come right in. It's only a little legal
tangle I'm trying to straighten out," for Mr. Ford was a well-known
lawyer.
"Anything we can help you with?" asked Betty, with a smile.
"I'm afraid not," he answered, laughing. "I've just been appointed
receiver of a bankrupt lumber camp up in the North Woods, and I've got
to arrange for some one to stay there during the winter to see that it
isn't disturbed. It comes just at the wrong time, too. I'm so busy I
don't know how I can spare the time to go up there and straighten things
out. Where are you going, Grace?"
"Over to see poor Amy Stonington. It's too bad! She heard something more
about her mystery to-day, Daddy, and she nearly skated into an
airhole--she was so upset. Isn't it horrid?"
"Yes, it is too bad about Amy," said Mr. Ford, for he knew the story, as
did many in Deepdale. "She ought to get out and away from the
influences around here. Stonington ought to take her away."
He was musing for a moment. Then a queer expression came over his face.
"Girls!" he cried. "I think I have something that will just fill the
bill!"
"Oh, Papa!" cried Grace, clapping her hands. "When you talk that way I
know something is going to happen!"
"Well, we'll see," he answered. "As I understand it, the High School
won't open until late this winter, on account of the repairs not being
finished."