"Oh,dogo in for it!" Edith Holmes was saying, as she and Maisie Norris sat on the edge of the Rose's shack and tried to persuade Dotty and Dolly to agree to their plan.
"But I never made a cake in my life," Dolly objected.
"Nor I, either," said Dotty; "I don't see how we can, Edith. You're a regular born cook, and that's different."
"But maybe you're a regular born cook, too," argued Edith; "you can't tell if you never have tried."
"Anyway, enter the contest just for fun," urged Maisie. "Everybody will help with the bazaar, and of course you want to be in it; and I want you to be in this contest, because all us girls are."
"I'd just as lieve," said Dolly, "only there's no chance of our winning the prize."
"Well, never mind if you don't. You'll have alot of fun, and besides it will teach you to make cake, and that's a good thing to know. That funny old Maria of yours will help you."
"But would it be fair to have her help us?"
"Oh, of course notmakethe cake; you must do that yourselves. But she can tell you how, or show you how, and you can practise all you like beforehand, of course. And you might win the prize, after all."
"What is the prize?"
"A twenty dollar gold piece!"
"What a grand prize! I didn't know it was such a big one."
"Well, you see, old Mrs. Van Zandt gives it. She's a crank on Domestic Science and girls knowing how to cook and all that. And besides there'll be lots of entries. All the girls all round the lake will send cakes."
"Can anybody send?"
"Any girl under sixteen. They call it the Sweet Sixteen Cake Prize."
"All right, let's do it," said Dotty, and Dolly said, "I'm willing, but it seems nonsensical when we don't know a thing about making cake, and less than a week to learn in. But we can have a try at it, anyway, and we'll be in the fun. Hey, Dotsy?"
"All right, then," said Maisie, delightedly; "I'll tell Miss Travers that you two girls will join the contest. She'll be delighted. She's at the head of that committee."
Later the two D's conferred with Mrs. Rose about the matter.
"I'll be glad to have you do it," that lady said. "I always like to have you learn anything domestic. Of course you can learn to make cake in a week, if you have any knack at all. Go down to the kitchen now, and Maria will give you your first lessons. Ask her to show you how to make plain cup-cake first, and if you make a little more elaborate kind every day, by the end of the week you ought to be able to concoct almost anything. I don't want to be discouraging, but I can hardly think you'll take the prize, for I remember last year the cakes were really most astonishing affairs."
"No, we won't catch any prize," Dotty agreed; "but we want to be in the bazaar, and the cake department is about as much fun as any. You see, even if we don't take the prize, we sell our cakes for the biggest price possible and that helps the bazaar along."
"Is it for charity?" asked Dolly.
"Yes; they hold it every year in the hotel, andall the camp people take part. Oh, it's lots of fun; I'm so glad it's going to be while you're here."
The two girls ran down to the kitchen, and informed Maria of their immediate desire to learn to make cake.
"Bress gracious, chillun," said the surprised old coloured woman, "I'll make all de cakes you all can eat. Don't you bodder 'bout makin' cakes yo'self. Jes' leab dat to ole Maria."
"But you don't understand, Cookie," said Dotty. "We want to learn, because we're going to make a cake to send to the fair, for the prize contest."
"Prize contes'! What's dat?"
"Why, they give a prize for the best cake sent in."
"All right, den. Leab it all to me. I'll sho'ly make a cake what'll catch dat prize. You all shoo out ob here now."
"No, no, Maria, you don't understand," and Dolly began to explain. "We must make the cakes ourselves. You can't do it, because you're not under sixteen—are you?" And the laughing blue eyes looked quizzically at the old darky.
"Sixteen! Laws, chile, I's a mudder in Israel. I got chilluns and grandchilluns. I ain't been sixteensince I can 'member. But, lawsy,—a young un of sixteen can't make no cake worth eatin'!"
"But we can, ifyouteach us, Maria," said Dotty, with tactful flattery.
"Well, mebbe dat's so, if I do the most of it, and you jes' bring me the things."
"No, that won't do; we must do it ourselves, but you must show us how."
At last they convinced Maria of her part in the undertaking, and with more or less good-natured grumbling, she proceeded to enlighten the girls in the mysteries of cake making.
The old cook was not trammelled by definite recipes and her rules seemed to be "a little of dis," and "a right smart lot of dat."
But, even so, she was a good teacher, and at the end of the first lesson, the girls had each a round cake, plain, but light and wholesome, well-baked and delicately browned.
These were proudly exhibited at the family luncheon, and were at once appropriated by Bob and Bert, who immediately constituted themselves a Court of Final Judgment, and declared their intention of eating all the preliminary cakes that would be made during the week's lessons.
So interested did the girls become, that every morning they spent in the kitchen.
Mr. Rose expressed a mock terror lest his bills for butter and eggs should land him in the poor-house, but the cake-making went on, and more and more elaborate confections were turned out by the rapidly progressing cooks.
Mrs. Rose declared that it was her opinion that doctors' bills were imminent, if indeed the whole family would not soon be in the hospital; but though the boys and Genie ate a fair portion of the cakes, much more was consumed by the neighbouring young people, who formed a habit of drifting in to Crosstrees camp afternoons to sample the morning's work.
The days brought plum cakes and marble cakes; chocolate, cocoanut, custard and jelly cakes.
Once having achieved the knack of making the cake itself, the fillings or elaborations were not difficult.
The girls took the matter rather seriously, but as the great day drew nearer, they began to have a glimmering hope that they might achieve the prize after all.
"But, oh, Dollyrinda," exclaimed Dotty, impulsively, "if my cake should take the prize ahead of yours, I'd cry my eyes out, and if your cake tookthe prize ahead of mine, I'd never speak to you again!"
Dolly laughed. "I've been thinking about that, too, Dot, and do you know, I think it would be nicest for us to make only one cake, and make it together, and enter it under both our names, and then if it takes the prize we can divide the twenty dollars."
Dotty drew a long sigh of relief. "That is the best way, Doll; I never thought of that. To be sure we run a double chance with two cakes, but it would be horrid for one of them to take the prize. So let's devote all our energies to one beautiful, splendiferous cake that will be so perfect nobody else will have any chance at all."
"Yes, that's what I think. Now, what kind shall it be?"
This was the great question. The girls had proved apt pupils, for they had a housewifely knack, and Maria was really a superior teacher. They had learned the art of pound cake, the trick of sponge cake and had even penetrated the mysteries of fruit cake. They had learned to make raisin cake without having all the raisins sink to a thick mat at the bottom; they had learned ginger-bread in all its forms, from the puffy golden sort to the most dark spicy variety. Angel food and sunshine cake presented nodifficulties to them and layer cakes were their happy hunting ground.
Also they were Past Grand Masters in the matter of icing. They could boil sugar through its seven stages of spun thread, and they even experimented with a few confectioners' implements in the matter of fancy decoration and borders.
"It seems to me," said Dotty, as they held solemn conclave over the great question, "that our trick is to invent an absolutely new combination of flavours or ingredients. Say, cocoanut stirred into chocolate icing, or something that's different from the regulation 'White mountain cake' or 'Variety cake.' I'm sure we can think of some new idea that will be perfectly stunning."
"I don't agree with you, Dot," and Dolly looked solemnly thoughtful, as her blue eyes stared into Dotty's black ones. "Now, I think this way. A more simple cake, but of perfect quality and with a plain but beautiful icing, that will charm by its very simplicity."
"That's a fine line of talk, Doll, and sounds well," put in Bert, who was present with Bob as Advisory Board; "but I doubt if 'twill go down with the Powers that Be. You see, after all, they're on the lookout for novelty and elaborate messes."
"I'm not so sure of that," and Bob shook his head. "Perhaps Dolliwop's idea isn't so worse! It's like a beautiful big white monument being more impressive than a lot of ginger-bread architecture."
"Oh, we wouldn't make ginger-bread!" cried Dotty, laughing; "but I can't see a plain cake taking a prize. I tell you, it's got to have an unusual combination of materials. I can't get away from the idea that a novel mixture of just the right kind of flavouring would turn the trick."
"And I'm positive that simplicity is the note to strike for." Dolly said this with a faraway look in her eyes, as if she saw the vision of the beautiful cake she was planning.
"Stick to it, Doll," cried Bob. "You've got the right idea or I'm a loser!"
"You boys go away, now," and Dolly's brows wrinkled in serious thought. "This is no time for fooling and Dot and I have to decide this thing to-day."
Realising the gravity of the occasion, the boys went off, and the two girls settled down to a desperate confab. Neither of them was insistent merely because she wanted her own way, but each was eager for success, and quite ready to settle their controversyby careful weighing of each other's arguments.
At last, after a long discussion, they reached their conclusions and went down to the kitchen to construct what they had finally decided would be the best plan for their masterpiece.
Very carefully they worked, Dolly, slow, sure and very particular as to measurements and combinations; Dotty, quick, beating the batter like mad, whisking eggs and sifting sugar in a whirl of excitement.
And when the great work was accomplished, and the marvellous result set on the dining-room table for exhibition, the family came in to gaze in an awed silence on the beautiful cake.
No one was allowed to see it but the household, for of course it was kept secret from the other contestants.
The cake was a marvel of beauty, and it combined the best ideas of the plans of the two girls.
It was square in shape, instead of round, as that gave a touch of novelty. It was only two layers, but the layers were of the most exquisitely textured angel food, which had, after three attempts, graciously consented to turn out "just right."
Between the layers was a filling, which followed in a measure Dotty's idea of novelty. It was a combinationof confectioners' icing, whipped cream, pineapple juice and a few delicate feathery flakes of freshly grated cocoanut. This delectable mixture was novel and of charming delicacy.
But the icing was Dolly's triumph. The square cake, large and high, was covered so smoothly with white icing that not a lump or a crack marred the perfect surface of its top and sides. There were no decorations save three lines of icing that delicately outlined the square top. The trueness of these lines was a wonder, and only Dolly's steady hand as she traced them with a paper cornucopia of icing could have resulted in such an effective scheme.
"It is perfectly wonderful!" said Mr. Rose, looking at it as an artist. "It's like the Taj Mahal or some such World Wonder."
"It's perfectly exquisite!" said Mrs. Rose, as she bent over to examine it and then walked away to view it from a distance. "I never saw such icing! How did you do it, girlies?"
"Dolly did that," said Dotty.
"Only because you were so excited your hand wiggled," said Dolly, who was always placid, whatever happened. "But the filling is Dot's invention, and it's just fine. We put some of it on another cake and I want you all to taste it."
So they all sampled the other cake, and tested the flavour like connoisseurs.
"Ripping!" exclaimed Bob.
"Out of sight!" remarked Bert, suiting the action to the word.
The boys were vociferous, the older people were enthusiastic; but one and all agreed that there had never been such a cake built before and that it would surely win the prize.
"Are you going to send it over now?" asked Mr. Rose.
"No," said Dotty; "we're going to take it with us when we go ourselves. I wouldn't trust it to anybody, for it might get joggled and crack the icing. Put it in the pantry, Dolly; I daren't touch it myself." Dotty was quivering with excitement, but Dolly's steady hand carefully lifted the precious cake and carried it safely to the pantry.
Later in the afternoon, the girls made ready to go to the bazaar. They were to serve as assistants in the cake department, for the majority of the cakes were to be sold. The prize cake, and those having honourable mention would be exhibited, and later sold at auction, but much cake would be disposed of at the regular sale.
They wore white dresses, with pale green ribbons, which was the costume of all connected with that department of the bazaar.
Very pretty they looked, as they came dancing downstairs for Mrs. Rose's inspection.
"You'll do, girlies," she commented; "your frocks are all right. We'll be over later. I hate to have you carry that big cake, Dolly."
"Oh, I must, Mrs. Rose; I wouldn't trust it to any one else. Bert offered to take it, and Bob did, too. But if they should drop it or anything, I'd never get over the disappointment. We worked so hard on it, and it issolovely, and if we can just get it there safely, I'm sure it will get honourable mention at least."
"It ought to take the prize," said Mrs. Rose, enthusiastically; "but don't get your hopes up too high, for there's nothing surer than disappointment. Be very careful as you get in the boat, Dolly."
"Indeed, yes, but Long Sam is such a kind old thing, I know he'll do all he can not to joggle, but to run very steadily all the way."
The bazaar was held in a hotel which was some distance down the lake. But Dolly did not fear any accident while on the motor boat; she was only apprehensivelest some one push against her as she made her way into the building or into the cake booth. For one little crumb of broken icing or one dent on its perfect surface would spoil, to Dolly's anxious eye, the perfection of their cake.
"We'd better take our sweaters," said Dolly, as she handed the two white, fleecy garments to Dotty. "You carry them, Dot, and I'll carry the cake; you'd be sure to drop it."
Dotty took the two sweaters and flung them over her arm, well knowing the precious cake would be safer in Dolly's steady hand.
"Now we're all ready," Dolly said, as she tucked a handkerchief into her sash folds. "Wait for me here, Dot, and I'll get the cake."
Dolly went to the kitchen and on through to the pantry, where she had left the cake on a shelf by the window. But it was not there.
"Maria," she called, wondering what the old darky had done with it.
There was no reply and Dolly called again louder.
"Yas'm, I'se comin'," and the old cook came in at the back door of the kitchen. "What yo' want, honey? I spec' I jes' done drapped asleep fer aminute, settin' out dere in de sun. What is it, honey chile?"
"Where's the cake, Maria?"
"On de pantry shelf, whar yo' done left it. I ain't teched it, dat I ain't."
"But it isn't there. You must have put it someplace else."
"No, Miss Dolly, I nebber laid a hand on dat cake. I know jes' how choice you was of it, an' I lef it jes' whar yo' put it."
"But it isn't there, and who would disturb it?"
"Tain't dar! Land o' goodness! Den whar is it?" Maria's black eyes rolled in dismay. "Somebody's done stole it!"
"Stole it? Nonsense! Nobody would do that. Dot—ty!" and Dolly's loud call brought Dotty flying.
Mrs. Rose followed, and both stood aghast with consternation when Dolly announced, "The cake is gone!"
"Gone! What do you mean?" and Dotty looked around the shelves in a dazed sort of way.
"I mean what I say," cried Dolly impatiently. "Our cake is gone, and, as Maria says, somebody must have stolen it."
"Stolen it! Our cake!" and Dotty gave a wild shriek.
"It can't be stolen," said Mrs. Rose, looking puzzled; "we've never had anything stolen all the years we've been here."
"Then where is it?" demanded Dolly. "Where can it be?"
"Didn't you take it into the dining-room?" suggested Mrs. Rose, unable to think of any other solution of the mystery.
"No, indeed; I left it right here till we were ready to start. I had it in the open window, because the kitchen was so hot, and of course some tramp has come along and stolen it. Oh, Dotty, what shall we do?"
But Dotty was beyond speech. Her staring eyes gazed at the table where the cake had been. Vaguely she glanced round the pantry shelves, and then flew through the kitchen to the dining-room and looked all around there. But of course she saw no cake, for Dolly had left it in the pantry.
"Where are the boys?" asked Dolly, suddenly.
"Gone to a motor boat race," said Mrs. Rose. "They went off half an hour ago. But they wouldn't steal your cake."
"They might do it for a joke," said Dolly.
"No," said Mrs. Rose, decidedly; "they wouldn't do that. They were too interested in the success of you girls, and they felt about that cake just as we all did. No, Bob and Bert never stole the cake! Where's Genie?"
"Upstairs, I think," said Dotty, and going to the foot of the staircase she called her sister.
Genie came running down and was as greatly disturbed as the other girls at the disappearance of the cake.
"Of course I never touched it!" she said indignantly. "I wanted my Dotty and my Dolly to take the prize. Do you s'pose I'd steal their lovely cake?"
There was no mistaking the little girl's honesty and good faith, and Mrs. Rose said finally: "Then itmusthave been stolen by some one passing by, but I can't understand it. There are no tramps around here, Long Sam is as honest as the day, and nobody else would be passing by this window. I wish your father were here, Dotty."
"So do I, but he couldn't do anything. The cake's gone, and it must have been taken by somebody. What do you say if we make another, Dolly?"
Dolly looked blank. "Make another!" she said slowly; "why it's three o'clock now, and the fair begins at four. We couldn't do it, Dot, and anyway we couldn't make a prize one. I wouldn't have the heart to try again as hard as I did for that one. Would you?"
"Yes, I would! I'd just like to fly at it and make one as good as that or better! I know who stole that cake, Dorinda Fayre! It was some girl who had made a cake herself and who was afraid ours would take the prize, and so she came and stole it!"
"Oh, Dorothy Rose! aren't you ashamed to think such a thing! And anyway, how could any girl do that even if she was mean enough?"
"Of course she could!" and Dotty's eyes flashed; "everybody knew about our cake, and they knew it would take the prize, and so of course they wanted it out of the way! Now that's just what happened, because it's the only thing that can have happened. As Mother says, there aren't any tramps around here. We always set cakes or pies on that window shelf and they've never been stolen. Come on, I say, let's make another; I hate to have any girl get ahead of me like that!"
"Oh, Dotty, it just seems as if I couldn't make another. Why we were three hours on that one thismorning. It would be after six o'clock before we could get another done. And I know it wouldn't be any good, I'm too upset to make it properly. I'm all of a quiver. And besides we haven't all the things in the house."
"No, we've no pineapple. But let's make some other kind of a cake, chocolate, or something."
"Yes! I think I see a chocolate cake taking the prize! Why don't you make ginger-bread and be done with it? That prize won't go to any common kind of cake, like chocolate."
"It might if it was awful good chocolate. Oh, Dolly, our cake was so beautiful!" And Dotty's overwrought nerves gave way and she burst into violent sobbing.
"Well, crying won't do any good, Dot," and Dolly drew a long sigh; "I don't blame you for crying, 'cause I know you can't help it. But I can't seem to cry, I'm too—too flattened out."
Dolly looked the picture of disheartened woe, but it was not her nature to give way to tears. She felt absolutely dismayed and utterly cast down, as if under a depression that would not lift, but she gave no physical sign of this except by her tense, drawn face and her frequent despairing sighs.
"It's just awful, girlies," said Mrs. Rose, full ofhelpless sympathy; "but I can't think of anything to do. I don't believe you could make another cake successfully, you're too nervous and upset, both of you."
Maria, however, did not take it so calmly. Her grief was more boisterous even than Dolly's. She ran round the kitchen, throwing her apron over her head, and wailing and moaning like a crazy woman.
"Oh, dat cake! dat cake!" she groaned, dropping into a chair and rocking back and forth in ecstasies of woe. "Dat hebenly cake! Sho'ly Miss Dotty and Miss Dolly yo' could make anudder. I kin help yo', and we'll whisk it up in a jiffy. Do make some kind, oh do, now!"
"No, Maria," and Dolly looked positive; "we can't make another cake. It's out of the question. Shall we go to the fair at all, Dot?"
"Yes, of course we will! I want to find out what girl was mean enough and smart enough to cut up this trick!"
"Come on then. You'd better wash your face, you're all teary looking. I s'pose we might as well go, but I don't feel a bit like it. All the fun's gone out of it."
Dotty ran away to bathe her reddened eyes, andDolly gravely walked round the kitchen, looking here and there as if the cake might have voluntarily hidden itself somewhere.
"It's most mysterious," said Mrs. Rose. "I never heard of anything being stolen up in this region before. I wish Mr. Rose were here, but of course he couldn't do anything, and I think we may feel sure that he didn't steal the cake."
"Where is he?" asked Dolly, smiling a little at the jest.
"Gone over to the Norris camp, I think. I wish the boys were here; of course they couldn't do anything, but they could help us express our indignation."
"Yes, they could do that, but it wouldn't do any real good. Hello, Dot, ready?"
The two girls started off down the path and Mrs. Rose watched them go with a sad heart. She knew how disappointed they were, after all their trouble to make the cake, and she couldn't imagine what had become of it.
"I can't believe any of the girls came and took it," she said to Maria.
"No, ma'am, dat dey didn't! dat cake was sperrited away by ghos'es. Dat's what it was!" And the big black eyes rolled in terrified apprehension."Yas'm, sho'ly fer certain, dat's what happened. It's de work of dem sperrits!"
Mrs. Rose went on into the house unwilling to subscribe to Maria's theory, but equally unable to propound any of her own.
The girls reached the hotel where the fair was held and joined the gay throngs of people that were entering.
"Hello," said Maisie Norris as she met them. "Where's your cake?"
Now Dolly and Dotty had made up their minds not to tell of the catastrophe, until they could make some endeavour to find out if there were any suspicious looks or hints to be noticed among the other young cake makers.
"Where's yours?" Dotty said to Maisie.
"Oh, I left mine in the committee room. You know the committee take all the cakes, and then those that haven't any chance at all, they send out to the cake table to be sold. But the ones that have a chance at the prize they keep for final decision. They've kept mine so far, but Edith Holmes' was just sent out. It's too bad, it's a lovely chocolate cake."
"It is too bad," agreed Dotty, "but I don't believe a chocolate cake will take the prize, do you?"
"No, probably not," said Maisie. "Mine's a variety cake. What sort is yours?"
Dotty hesitated, for she well knew they had no cake in the committee room, but Dolly said: "We made up ours. We mixed things together that we never heard of combining before. It was mostly Dot's invention."
"But Dolly made the layers and did the icing," put in Dotty, unwilling to take all the credit.
"Sounds lovely," said Maisie, and then her attention was diverted elsewhere and she ran away.
No more embarrassing questions were asked, for every one assumed that Dotty and Dolly had given their cake to the committee when they arrived.
A dozen times during the afternoon they were asked, "Has your cake been sent out yet?" And they truthfully answered no.
But no hint could they glean from the words or looks of any girl to make them suspect wrong-doing.
"I can't keep it up any longer, Dot," said Dolly at last, in an undertone. "I feel as if I'm telling a lie, when I let them all think we have a cake with the committee."
"Fiddlesticks! it's none of their business. And anyway they have just that much more chance at the prize. Don't tell anybody, Doll, it can't do anyharm to keep it to ourselves, and if one certain person takes the prize, I just want to see how she looks or what she says when I tell her our cake was stolen."
"Why, Dotty Rose! Do you mean to say you suspect anybody?"
"I don't say that; and I won't mention any name, even to you, but just you wait and see. They'll announce the prize winner at six o'clock and it's after five now."
So Dolly deferred to Dotty's wishes in the matter, and as there was much going on and plenty of diverting incidents, the hour slipped away and soon a whisper was passed around that the committee had made their choice.
Mrs. Van Zandt, the aristocratic and somewhat eccentric old lady who had offered the prize, came over to the cake table and smiled as she began her speech.
"It has been rather difficult," she said; "to decide among the beautiful and delicious cakes selected by the committee, for my final test. There were half a dozen at the last judging, that seemed equally well made and delightful of taste. Of course, I did not know who made the various entries, and so I decided, entirely on the merits of the cake itself. And considering everything, the method, the execution and the delicacy of flavours, I adjudge the best cake submittedin this contest to be the one that represents the joint work of Miss Dorothy Rose and Miss Dorinda Fayre. And I'm greatly pleased to present these two young ladies with the golden double eagle I offered as a prize, and I consider it well earned and honestly won."
If Dolly and Dotty had been amazed when they missed the cake from the pantry window, they were ten times more amazed now. What could it mean? There must be some mistake. Dotty's quick thought was that somehow their names had been connected with some other girl's cake, but in a moment that illusion was dispelled by the sight of their own beautiful white cake being brought in and placed in the very centre of the cake table.
It was positively their own cake, although a portion had been cut from one corner for the members of the committee to taste.
Realising that by some miracle their cake had been submitted, and had won the prize, Dolly and Dotty suddenly became aware that they must do their part, and together they stepped forward to receive the prize from Mrs. Van Zandt.
"I'm sorry it is not in two ten dollar gold pieces," she said, as she smilingly held it out to the blushing girls; "but you must divide it between you."
Smiling, Dolly and Dotty held out their hands together, and together received the gold piece, holding it between them as they bowed their thanks.
Then there was a hubbub of congratulations and laughter and chatter from the girls. It seemed unnecessary to say anything about the cake having been stolen, so the two D's smiled and beamed as they listened to flattering words about their prize winning cake.
Soon they were flying homeward to tell the family all about it.
"Our cake was there, and we took the prize!" cried Dotty, as they rushed into the living-room of the Rose bungalow.
"How did it get there?" cried Mrs. Rose, and Mr. Rose and Genie exclaimed in surprise, while Maria appeared in the kitchen doorway, holding up her hands and crying out: "Dem sperrits jes' nachelley wafted dat cake right ober to de fair place!"
"We don't know," Dolly went on, taking up the tale. "I asked two or three ladies of the committee, and they didn't seem to know anything about it—about how it got there. They just said it was there, entered in our names, and it sounded so silly to ask them to find out who brought it, that I just didn't."
"Itwasour cake," declared Dotty; "and it took the prize. So that's all right. But, however did it get there, unless it walked over itself. You didn't take it, did you, Daddy?"
"No," said Mr. Rose; "I did not. I would willingly have done so, but you girls insisted on taking it yourselves."
Just then the boys rushed in.
"Great sport!" cried Bob, flinging his cap and sweater on a chair; "Norris's boat is the swiftest thing ever!"
"You bet it is! Wow, but it was a great race!" And Bert Fayre waved his hands in enthusiasm; "Hello, girls, did your dinky white cake catch the gold piece? Did you bamboozle the judges into thinking it was fit to eat?"
"Yes, we did!" cried Dolly, her blue eyes sparkling with delight; "but, oh, Bert, what do you think! We don't know how the cake got there!"
"Got there? Why, Bob and I took it over. We knew you girls never could transport that masterpiece of modern architecture all that way in safety."
"You boys took it over?" and Dotty looked dumfounded.
"Sure we did," said Bob; "weren't you glad?"
"But why didn't you tell us? we almost went crazy!"
"Crazy nothing! We left a note on the pantry shelf saying we took it. We called to you girls but you were primping in your room and didn't answer. Maria wasn't on deck, so I just scribbled on a paper that we'd taken the cake and left the paper in its place."
Bob looked injured at the thought that their kindness was not appreciated.
"We didn't see any note," said Dolly; "where did you leave it?"
"Right on the pantry shelf, where we took the cake away from. You don't seem awful grateful, for what we thought would be a boon and a blessing to you. I can tell you we had to work pretty hard to get the old thing over there without a smooch on it, and I didn't dare put anything over it for fear it would stick to the icing."
While he was talking, Dotty had flown out to the pantry and returned with the bit of scribbled paper. "Here it is!" she cried; "it was on the floor under the shelf!"
"Must have blown off," said Bert, carelessly; "well, no harm done; cake got there all right. Took prize all right. Everybody happy."
"Yes, we are now," and Dolly grinned contentedly; "but we had a pretty miserable afternoon."
"Oh, pshaw, now," and Bob tweaked the black curls that clustered round her temple; "you must have known we took it, even without the note. Where elsecouldit have gone to?"
"That's so," agreed Dotty; "and it's all right now. But next time you leave an important document for me, don't leave it in an open window on a breezy afternoon."
"Only three days left of Camp Crosstrees," said Dolly, as the girls sat in the shack one summer afternoon. "I never knew two weeks to slip away so quickly."
"Don't you love it?" said Dotty, looking around at the various delights of camp life, the wooded hills and the distant mountains. "There's nothing like it, Doll; I wish we didn't ever have to go back to town."
"You'll have your visit with me, before we go back to Berwick. I wonder if you will like Surfwood, Dotty?"
"I'll love the seashore, I know; but I don't know about liking the big hotel. Don't you have to keep dressed up all the time and all that?"
"Why, we don't wear party clothes all the time. Of course we can't go around in an old serge skirt and middy blouse as we do here. But mornings we'll wear ginghams or linen frocks and late in the afternoon dress up nice."
"Awful bother, fixing up so. I like to go roundas we do here. Nobody cares what they wear in camp."
"Of course it's awfully different at the hotel, but you'll like it after you get there. I don't see why you object to dressing decently. It's only a habit, going around in these old regimentals!"
Dolly looked with distaste at her brown serge skirt, and her tan stockings and shoes, the latter decidedly the worse for wear and scarred and scratched by stones and brambles.
"Oh, I've got plenty of good clothes; Mother's been fixing them all in order. And I know I'll like it to be down there two weeks with you. But I mean for a whole summer, I'd rather be up here, tramping around the woods and dressing like Sam Scratch, than to fuss up fancy every day."
"I wouldn't. I've had an awful good time up here on this visit, but for a whole summer, I'd rather be at the seashore, and at a hotel where I wear pretty white dresses and silk stockings and slippers."
"Aren't we different!" and Dotty laughed as she looked at her golden haired friend. "Sometimes I wonder, Doll, that we're such good friends, when we're so awfully different. Everything I like you hate and everything you like I hate."
"Oh, not quite that. In lots of ways, we like the same things."
"No, we don't. I like to go off in the woods on long tramps, and you'd rather lie around here on a lot of balsam pillows and read a story book or do nothing at all."
"I expect I'm lazy."
"No, you're not, not a bit of it. You're ready enough to work if it's anything you like to do. Why, at a picnic, you'll do more than all the rest put together. We're just different, that's all. You're easy-going and good natured, and I'm a spitfire."
"Well, I guess it's good for us to be different, and so we influence each other, and that's good for both of us."
"Well, I'll influence you right now to go for a ramble in the woods. It's lovely to-day. Just the kind of a day when the breeze sings in the trees and the birds flutter low and you can watch them."
"All right, I'll go, if you don't go too far, nor walk too fast. We've only three days more up here, and we won't have many more chances to go woodsing, so come on."
"All right, we've a good long afternoon. You go ask Maria for some cookies and fruit, and I'll go tellMother we're going. But don't let Genie know. We don't want her along to-day, for she gets tired in about an hour."
Dolly went in search of Maria, half sorry that Genie was excluded from the party, for unhampered by the child, Dotty was apt to walk fast and far in her untiring energy. But Dolly could always make her stop and rest by a reference to the weak muscles that still troubled her a little on a long walk. The girls had entirely recovered from their broken bones, but Dolly's was an indolent nature and disinclined to great exertion at any time.
Carrying their sweaters and a box of food they started off for their tramp in the woods.
"I want to get a whole lot of birch bark," Dolly said, as they walked along; "let's look for particularly nice pieces and get a whole lot to take with us down to the seashore."
"What for?"
"Oh, to make fancy work out of. Everybody does fancy work and they have bazaars, something like the one where we took the cake prize. And we can make lovely things out of birch bark for the bazaar tables."
"All right, we'll gather a heap. What shall we do with our cake prize, Doll, save it or spend it?"
"I'd rather spend it. I think it would be nice if we bought something special with it. Two things you know, just alike, to remember our first cake by."
"Something to wear?"
"Maybe. A ring or a pin or something."
"Couldn't get much of a ring for ten dollars. And we've got a lot of little fancy pins, both of us. What do you say to a gold pencil for each?"
"Only they never write very well; the leads are so hard."
"That's so. Well maybe beads, or how about a lace collar?"
"Let's wait till we get down to Surfwood and ask Trudy. She'll tell us something nice, and maybe we'll buy something there, or else in New York as we go through on the way down."
"All right. Here's some good birch bark, only it's yellowish. Let's keep on till we find some whiter."
The pair rambled on, happily chatting and laughing and now and then sitting down to rest or to refresh themselves from the box of lunch which was rapidly growing lighter.
"We have an awful lot of bark," said Dotty, looking at the big bundles they had collected.
"Yes, too much. Let's chuck out the worst pieces and just keep the best. And I'd like some more ofthat silvery kind. It's awful pretty combined with this dark yellow to make things."
"We want to get some big pieces. A portfolio of the silvery kind lined with yellow is lovely."
"Yes, with one corner turned back and a ribbon bow on it."
"Yes, or tied with sweet grass. There's a big tree on ahead. We can get some there, I'm sure."
"All right and there's another tree out there,—that's a dandy."
Eagerly they went on, absorbed in their fascinating quest. For the hunting of birch bark is ever enticing and lures one on to further treasures like a mirage.
"We can't carry another scrap," said Dolly, at last, laughing to see Dotty with her arms full of rolls of bark and more pieces gathered up in her skirt.
"No; we'll sit down and straighten this out and roll it up and finish the cookies and throw away the box and then we'll go home."
It was hard to throw away any of the beautiful bark, for they had gathered only fine specimens, and the quantity they finally selected to keep was a goodly load.
"We'll put on our sweaters," said Dolly; "so we can carry it all. It's no heavier than that lunch box was."
"No heavier," agreed Dotty; "but a good deal more bunglesome and awkward to carry."
Each girl had a big fat roll under each arm and turning they started gaily along in single file.
"You go first," said Dolly, stepping back; "I'm not sure I know the way. I declare to goodness, Dot, I don't see how you remember the way yourself. You've got a regular guide's brain under that black mop of yours! How do you know which way to go, when you can't see anything but trees?"
"Easy as pie!" Dotty called back over her shoulder. "Just follow the nose of Dorothy Rose and away she goes!" And Dotty hopped over a big stone, while Dolly walked around it.
On they went, Dotty leading the way and Dolly following.
"It's getting awfully late, I believe the sun has set," said Dolly, shivering a little under her woollen sweater.
"Oh, no, the sun hasn't set, but you can't see it in these thick woods. We'll soon be out of thisthick part now. We came quite a way in, Dollypops."
"A million miles, I should say! That's the worst of you, Dot, you never realise that all the walk you take has got to be walked back again!"
"'I took a walk around the block, to get some exercise,'" Dotty chanted, imitating a popular song which was a favourite with the boys.
"Exercise! I've had enough to last me the rest of the summer! Honest, Dot, I've got to rest a few minutes; I can't walk another step."
"Dollyrinda Fayre, you do give out the easiest of anybody I ever saw! Sit down on that stone and rest, do. But you mustn't wait long, for I guess itisabout sunset. I feel sort of chilly, and I don't hear the birds much."
"All right, Dotsy, I'm rested now," and Dolly jumped up and walked on. She tired easily, but also a rest of a very few minutes made her ready to walk on again. She followed Dotty in silence for some distance and then said; "you're sure youdoknow the way, aren't you?"
"M—hmm," Dotty flung back over her shoulder and trudged on.
But Dolly noticed a difference in Dotty's attitude. She walked as quickly as before but she was not quiteso alert. Also, she kept turning her head suddenly from side to side with a gesture of an inquisitive bird, a little uncertain which way to fly.
"You do know the way, don't you, Dotty?"
"'Course I do, Doll, don't be silly."
"How do you know it?"
"Just by instinct. I've been around these woods so much, I just kind of know the way home, even if I can't see out. Don't you see this kind of a trail? We just follow this and it brings us out right by our own camp."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure! What's the matter with you, Dolly?"
"Nothing; only it seems as if we'd walked as far since we've started for home as we did when we were going."
"So we have, nearly. Just a little farther now and we come into that clump of beech woods, don't you know? Where there aren't any birch trees, hardly."
"Yes, I know where you mean; but this doesn't look like it."
"'Cause we haven't got there yet, that's why. You wouldn't think birch bark would be so heavy; would you?"
"I don't mind it. Here give me one of your bundles; I'd just as lieve carry it as not. Give me the one out of your left wing. I know that one must be tired."
"'Deed I won't. You've got enough to carry. I'll throw my left hand bundle away before I let you lug it."
"Oh, don't throw it away! It's a shame, after we've taken such trouble to gather it. Do let me carry it, Dotty."
"No, sir, I won't do it! I don't mind it, anyway. Come on, Doll, let's hurry a little. Don't you think it's getting sort of dark?"
"Not dark, exactly, but dusky here under the trees."
"It isn't dusk, Dolly, it's dark! I mean, it's after sunset, and the real dark will settle down on us in a few minutes. I know more about these woods than you do, and I know we want to get along faster. We mustn't be in here when it gets really dark."
"But you said you knew the way, Dot," and Dolly's tone was anxious.
"I do, most always, but if we'd been on the right track we ought to have been out of the woods beforethis. I must have got turned around somehow."
Dotty stopped still and turned a despairing face toward Dolly.
"Good gracious, Dot, you don't mean we're lost!"
"I hope not that, but honest, I don't know which way to go."
"Why not go straight on?"
"I'm not sure, but I think that leads us deeper into the woods."
"Why, Dorothy Rose! Yousaidthat was the way home!"
"I know I did, and I thought it was; but don't you see, Dolly, if ithadbeen the right way, we would be home by now?"
"Oh, Dotty, what are we going to do?"
Dolly's face took on a woe-begone expression, and her big blue eyes stared at the white face of her friend. "I'm frightened, Dolly, I— I never was lost in the woods before."
"Nor I, either. I've often heard of people being lost in these woods, when they were really quite near their homes. One man was lost for three days before they found him."
"Oh, don't say such dreadful things! It's gettingawful dark, and I'm cold, and—and I'm scared!"
"I'm all those things, too! oh, Dolly, I'm awfully frightened!" and Dotty dropped her bundles of birch bark and sitting down on a stone began to cry hysterically.
Now Dolly Fayre was the sort to rise to an emergency, where Dotty Rose would lose her head completely. So Dolly, though terribly frightened, controlled herself, and sitting down, put her arm around Dotty and tried to cheer her.
"Brace up, Dot, it can't do a bit of good to cry you know. Now you know more about this sort of thing than I do, what do people do when they're lost in the woods?"
"Hol—holler," said Dotty, weakly, between her sobs, "holler like fury, and m-maybe somebody hears them and maybe they d-don't."
"All right, let's holler," and Dolly gave a yell, that sounded about as loud and carrying as the pipe or a bulfinch.
"Who do you s'pose'll hear that?" and Dotty almost smiled through her tears; "this is the way to holler." Dotty gave a loud scream, a long halloo, tapping her fingers against her mouth as she did so, making a peculiar mountain cry, known to campers.
"All right, I'll do that, too," and Dolly set up a rival yell.
But though both girls did their best, their screams were not very loud and they were followed by a silence, so intense, that they shivered and clung together in fear. The dark had fallen suddenly, and though only about seven o'clock, in the thick woods, they could scarcely see each other's faces.
Appalled by the awfulness of the situation, Dolly burst into tears, and though not as violent as Dotty's, her sobs were deep and racking ones.
"Oh, don't, Dollyrinda,don'tcry so! I'll never forgive myself for losing you in these awful woods!"
"You didn't lose me, any more than I lost you. We both lost each other; I mean— I guess I mean we're both lost!" and Dolly's tears fell afresh.
Then both girls gave way and cried desperately, till they could cry no more, and with their stayed tears, they seemed to take a brighter outlook.
"If we're lost," said Dolly, philosophically; "we must make the best of it. Are there any wild animals, that would eat us up?"
"No, nothing of that sort. Nothing but squirrels and birds, and they can't hurt us."
"Then there's nothing really to be afraid of—"
"No, I s'pose not. Only starving to death, andcatching pneumonia and a few little things like that."
"We won't starve right off, that's certain," said Dolly, practically; "at least I won't, I'm so fat. But you poor little picked chicken, you may!" And Dolly patted the thin little shivering shoulders that snuggled up against her.
"I'm hungry now; I wish we'd saved the cookies."
"You can't be hungry, Dot, notreallyhungry. Now, let's plan what to do. Shall we walk on and take our chances or shall we camp here for the night. It isn't so very different being here under the trees or under our own trees in camp."
"'Tisn't very different, hey? Well I think there's all the difference in the world! What are you going to sleep on? What are you going to cover yourself with? Oh, you know we couldn't sleep anyway, when we're lost!" and Dotty suddenly gave a vigorous yell which startled Dolly nearly out of her wits. But realising what it was for, she quickly joined in, and the two shrieked and shouted until it seemed to them that all the camps in that region must hear them.
But only those who have tried it, know how thoroughly one may get lost in the Adirondack woods in a very short time, or how loudly one may scream without being heard even by the friends who are searching for them.
And they were searching for the lost girls. When the two failed to appear by half-past six, Mr. and Mrs. Rose became apprehensive for their safety. They knew the girls had gone for a long ramble in the woods, but it was the rule of the camp to be back for six o'clock supper, unless due notice had been given.
"They're lost in the woods," Mrs. Rose declared, and though hoping the contrary, Mr. Rose agreed with her.
They had telephoned to all the neighbouring camps and as no one had seen the girls that afternoon they felt sure of what had happened.
"We must make search parties," said Bob, while Bert looked thoroughly scared at the thought of his sister's danger. "It isn't so awfully unusual, Bert. People get lost in the woods often, don't they, Dad?"
"Yes," replied Mr. Rose; "but it isn't often our little girls! Call up Long Sam, Bob; tell him to bring lanterns."
Many of the neighbours volunteered assistance and inside of an hour there were various search parties beating the woods for the missing girls.
But Dotty, when thinking she was walking toward home had really been walking in the opposite directionand the two girls were much farther away from camp than their rescuers thought for.
"Nothing doing," said Jack Norris, despondently, as he met Bob and Bert in the woods.
"Then we must keep at it," said Bert; "anything is better than giving up."
The various searchers separated and came together again. They screamed and shouted; they whistled and blew horns; their dogs barked, and it seemed as if some of these noises must reach the girls' ears and bring response calls.
But there was no success, and one by one the neighbours gave up and went home.
But Mr. Rose and the two boys, with Long Sam, kept up the search all through the night. They built fires occasionally, but dared not leave them, and put them out as they went on.
At last, Long Sam seated himself dejectedly on a fallen log, his extraordinary length of limb doubling up like a jacknife.
"'Tain't no use," he declared. "They ain't no livin' use o' trackin' these woods any longer. We mought strike them girls in a minute and then again we moughtn't run across 'em in a thousand years. Lord knows I'm willin' to keep on, but I'm jest about tuckered out. And I put it to you Mr. Rose,wouldn't it be better to rest a bit, and then push on?"
"Perhaps it would, Sam," and Mr. Rose's fingers worked nervously; "but I couldn't stay still, I'd go crazy. I think I'll push on and take my chances."
"Yes, and get yourself lost," grumbled Sam; "so's we'd have three to hunt 'stidden o' two!"
"You are done up, Sam," said Bert Fayre, kindly. "You stay here, and we three will drive ahead a little."
"Wal, I'll jest give one more howl, and see if that ketches anythin'."
Long Sam stood up on a log and gave a high pitched, long drawn out shout, that seemed as if it must penetrate the farthest depths of the forest.
"Now one, all together, like that," he said, and the four voices, joined in a mighty shout and then waited in breathless silence.
"I heard 'em!" Sam cried out; "I heard 'em! Now all you keep quiet!" And then Sam's voice rang out once more in a sharp short shriek. He listened and then exclaimed; "Yep! I heard 'em! Come on!" And with long strides he started anew into the blackness of the woods.
The others eagerly followed. They had heard no sound, but their ears had not the marvellous acutenessof the Adirondack guide, and without a word they hastened to keep up with Long Sam's pace.
"Sing out again!" Sam cried, several times, and at last the others could hear the faint high shrieks of Dotty and Dolly.
It seemed an endless journey, but at last the search party came upon the two girls.
"Oh, Father!" and Dotty threw herself into his arms, while Bert made a grab for Dolly and Bob danced around the group in glee.
"You're a nice pair!" observed Long Sam, who was no respecter of persons, when acting in his capacity of guide. "What d'you cut up such a trick as this for? You might 'a'knowed you'd get lost!"
"Now Sam, don't scold," said Dolly, well knowing that the bluff chap was really talking roughly to hide his glad emotion at the rescue.
"You ought to be scolded all the same, but I s'pose your folks is so glad to get you back that they'll just make the world and all of you."
And Sam's prognostication was verified. Following Sam's lead the party trudged through the woods, all so jubilant at the happy ending to their search, that scolding was not even thought of. And indeed why should it be? The girls had done nothing wrong, unless perhaps they had wandered a littledeeper into the forest than it was advisable to go without a guide. But Dotty was positive it would never happen again. And when they reached camp and found Mrs. Rose and Genie waiting for them and a most appetising supper spread out by Maria, the two refugees found themselves looked down upon as heroines and were quite willing to accept the rôle.