“Verny, haven’t you heard from Gilly since he wrote us that he was planning the trip to Arizona and New Mexico?” asked Juliet Lee, one of the girl scouts of Dandelion Troop.
“Only the telegram from Mr. Gilroy, which came yesterday, telling us that he had mailed a letter of particulars the day before. I did not expect to receive it from Denver in twenty-four hours’ time, you know,” was Mrs. Vernon’s smiling reply.
“No; but it ought to arrive to-night or to-morrow morning,” said Julie, meditatively.
“I hope we start right off, Verny. It would be dreadful if we had to lose a week of our summer’s vacation,” declared Elizabeth Lee, who was always known as “Betty” by her family and friends.
“Well, at least, we have our things all ready to pack the moment we find out when to start and where to meet Gilly,” remarked Joan Allison, one of the group of scouts that had spent the preceding summer, with Mr. Gilroy as their host, in the Rocky Mountains.
A mournful wail from Ruth Bentley, another girl in that group of mountain scouts, prevented Mrs. Vernon from speaking. “I’d so much rather go with you all and have the wonderful times you will have this summer, than have to accompany father and mother to Europe! If only Dad could see that I might be educated better on this scout tour than in Paris, he might change his mind. But he refuses to see!
Julie laughingly added: “Remember the biblical words, Ruth? ‘Eyes have they and they see not.’”
“Well, that’s Dad!” exclaimed Ruth.
“I am so thankful that I am able to go with you this summer that I am just keeping quiet and marking time. I feel as if I must wake up and find it all a dream, should I express my joy as fervently as I want to,” was Hester Wynant’s humorous declaration.
“We’re all glad with you, Hesty. While we were ‘doing the Rockies’ last summer, we often said how nice it would be to have had you there,” added Anne Bailey. “This year you might say as much of me.”
There were other girls in that scout meeting held at Mrs. Vernon’s home this first day of the summer vacation of the Elmertown school; but these girls, because they could not be with their chums on the southwestern tour, seemed too disconsolate to make any remarks about the proposed interesting trip.
It is taken for granted that the reader has heard of these girl scouts who, each summer after the closing of school, endeavor to visit a famous range of mountains, and thus became distinguished as the Mountain Scouts.
The first summer of their scoutdom they camped upon a ridge of the Blue Mountains in New Jersey. Here they acquired the knowledge, and tested their ability, to join the National Organization of Girl Scouts; later when they had two Patrols, according to rules, they were enrolled and became known as the Girl Scouts of Dandelion Troop.
It was during their first camping season that they went to Blue Beard’s cave, one of the local points of interest, and discovered a man who had been injured by two escaped convicts, who, after robbing him, managed to get away. The poor man was unconscious and would have died in that dark and seldom-visited cave on the top of the mountain had it not been for the timely assistance given him by the scouts and their Captain.
Back in the mountain camp Mr. Gilroy, the convalescing guest of Dandelion Patrol, explained how he came to visit Blue Beard’s cave that day. Thus the girls learned that he was a great admirer of scout work and had been a patron of the Boys’ Scout Organization. The junior scouts who had rescued him now decided to enlist his interests in the Girls’ Scout Organization, as well.
Mr. Gilroy continued his visit at the Dandelion Camp for a few days after he felt completely restored to normal strength, and, during this visit, became deeply interested in Mrs. Vernon’s plans and propositions for her girls. Because of the first aid rendered him in his hour of extremity, Mr. Gilroy insisted upon having the Scout Patrol visit his Adirondack Estate the following summer. To this unexpected proposition the girls gladly agreed, providing their parents and Mrs. Vernon would consent and advance the necessary money to defray the costs of the trip.
Hence the second summer of the Dandelion Troop of Girl Scouts was spent on the shores of First Lake, one of the Fulton Chain of lakes. There was a boys’ camp a mile away, and Mr. Gilroy divided his time and interest between the two camps. The girls won such favor, however, that their host invited them to accompany him the following summer on a camping trip through the Rocky Mountains.
Mrs. Vernon, who had founded Dandelion Troop, was the Captain of the scouts; Juliet Lee was their Leader; and Joan Allison was the Corporal. Since that first enrollment, when there were but four girls, namely: Julie and Betty Lee; Joan Allison, and Ruth Bentley, there were now two flourishing Patrols. In Patrol Number One were the first four girls, and Hester Wynant, Amy Ward, Edith and Judith Blake and Anne Bailey. Patrol Number Two was larger, but the members were younger. It was Patrol Number One that had spent the second summer in the Adirondacks.
There were but five girls of Patrol Number One who went to the Rockies for the third season. They were: Julie and Betty Lee, Joan Allison, Ruth Bentley and Anne Bailey. Hester Wynant could not go because she had been needed at home. Mrs. Blake had refused to hear of having her two girls go and, perhaps, risk their being lost or killed in the wild and woolly west. Amy Ward’s mother listened to Mrs. Blake; hence Amy Ward had remained home.
Now, this fourth summer for mountaineering, the plan of visiting Arizona and New Mexico appealed so strongly to every girl in Dandelion Troop that mothers had heard nothing, morning, noon, and night, for weeks, but glowing accounts of this trip. A very important factor brought to bear in their arguments for this southwestern trip being that not one of those girls who had gone to the Rockies had been lost or injured as Mrs. Blake had foretold. Instead of disaster and troubles, the scouts had returned to Elmertown looking the picture of health and happiness.
Mrs. Blake, however, held up both hands in horror when a trip to New Mexico and Arizona was suggested; and, through her vehement objections, she influenced her friend, Mrs. Ward, to keep Amy home this time as aforetime. Thus, three bitterly rebellious girls sat with their fellow-scouts that day in Mrs. Vernon’s home, and cried over the fate of having such unreasoning mothers.
“Our list has dwindled to four girls; one less than we had on the Rocky Mountain trip. Ruth has to accompany her parents to Europe, but I wish she could have this rare treat, instead of Paris,” sighed Mrs. Vernon. “As for Judith and Edith and Amy—well! I dare not say what is in my heart, but I wish I was their mother, that’s all!”
“How we wish you were, Verny!” exclaimed all three girls.
“If my sister would postpone her wedding day till October, I, too, could go with you,” remarked Anne Bailey. “But Eleanor says the last week of July is the only time Henry can take a vacation; so the wedding has to be then. I’d a heap rather be scouting out west with you girls than be a bridesmaid at a wedding. If I ever become engaged to marry, I won’t be so selfish as to insist upon keeping my younger sister home from a glorious summer-tour for nothing more than a poky ceremony that takes only five minutes! Just think of me losing all your fun this summer and moping, instead, about a house that is turned topsy-turvy for a prospective bride.”
“We will miss you awfully, Anne,” said Julie, teasingly, “because we won’t know what to do with the left-overs from the camp meals.” Anne was a healthy, hearty eater, and during the summer in the Rockies had made the most of every opportunity to eat.
“Perhaps you will command your younger sister as Eleanor now commands you, Anne, when you are Eleanor’s age and have a beau,” remarked Mrs. Vernon, smilingly.
“Verny! I want you to wake me up sharply if you find me, at the age of twenty, hypnotized with any young man that happens to cast an eye upon my fair face,” laughed Anne. “A girl, now-days, ought to remain single till she is twenty-five or -six. Then she knows her own mind, and won’t hanker for a divorce the moment she learns she will have to cook and sew for a man she thought was to be her permanent supply for candy, flowers, and theater-parties.”
The scouts laughed merrily; Anne’s views were well known to them, because she took every opportunity to speak her mind on the subject of sweethearts. “Without any prospects other than love!” was her usual conclusion.
“Well, scouts, as I was saying long before all these digressions, the applicants for this trip are Julie and Betty Lee, Joan Allison, and Hester Wynant. If you can bring about a change of heart in your parents before we actually leave here, there will be no difficulty in tucking you in at the last moment of the last day,” suggested Mrs. Vernon. “Even should a mother relent later, you can wire us and come on to the nearest railroad stop, where we can pick you up for the tag end of the tour.”
“Verny, that might answer in my case!” exclaimed Anne Bailey. “If Eleanor is safely married, I can rush away the last of July and join you for the month of August. I may not get the whole loaf, but a slice of bread will be better than none, you know.”
“Besides, mother may relent when she sees the postal cards of all the beautiful places you visit,” added Amy Ward, eagerly. “Once you are away from the Grand Canyon that Mrs. Blake is forever harping about, my parents may consent to let me go with Anne, in August.”
“That would be great, Amy!” exclaimed Joan, gladly.
“Well, then, girls, say we leave the matter open,” said Mrs. Vernon. “Any scout who can secure the consent of her parents to allow her to join us out west during this summer that we plan to spend there, will be told exactly how to reach us. For this purpose I propose Joan, the scribe, to keep those back home fully informed of our plans and proposed stopping places each coming week. In this way you can keep tabs on our movements, and can reach us by telegraph any time we might be in a town where there is telegraph communication.” As the speaker concluded this encouraging amendment to the stern parents’ verdict, the maid knocked at the door of the large living-room.
“Come in, Mary,” called Mrs. Vernon, glancing at the half-opened door.
“Shure, ma’am, it’s onny the letter ye’es was a-lookin’ fer awl ov yistiddy. Here it be’es.” So saying, Mary handed a thick letter to her mistress.
“Oh, girls!” exclaimed the scout Captain, “it’s from Mr. Gilroy.”
Exclamations and sounds of delight came from every one present and, immediately, Mrs. Vernon was surrounded by eager girls. No time was lost in tearing open the envelope and in removing the typewritten instructions.
As the Captain unfolded the paper, she said: “How nice it is to have had this arrive while you were still present. Now we shall read the news together.”
Realizing that every scout was impatient with eagerness to hear the contents of the momentous letter, Mrs. Vernon began to read without further delay.
