"I must get a shoe shine," said Tavia, as they stepped on the platform of the big depot. "Just wait here. I won't be three minutes."

"We only have five," Dorothy told her, "and if you are late--I must go on. Cologne is going to meet us away out from camp."

"Oh I'll be back," promised Tavia, and then she was lost in the throng.

CHAPTER VII

CAMP C.C.

"There is not another train out this evening," Cologne was telling Dorothy. "Wasn't it perfectly dreadful for her to leave you!"

"I expected something like that to happen from the start," Dorothy replied. "Tavia has a faculty for missing trains. I wonder what she will do?"

"There is just a chance that she may be able to make the way train, and switch off at the Junction, then, if she is lucky, she may flag the sh.o.r.e train and get to this spot about midnight. But what would she do then? Better stay out in civilization until daylight."

"I feel dreadfully, Rose-Mary, that she should give you so much trouble. I sometimes think Tavia ought to be----"

"Spanked," finished the girl, with a smile. "Well, with all her faults we love her still," and she tightened her hands on the horse reins.

"Let us hope she will be more fortunate than we antic.i.p.ate."

"Isn't this lovely!" exclaimed Dorothy, as they started over the hill in the depot wagon. "These are real Maine woods, aren't they?"

"Not the big-game kind. Those are farther out. But wait until you see our camp. Then you may say lovely!"

"And your camping suit," went on Dorothy. "Surely I may say lovely to that. It is perfectly splendid, and your cap is so becoming!"

"Think so? Yes, I like the cap, and it's handy. I've got one for you and one for Tavia--if she ever gets here to claim it," and Cologne handed the cap to Dorothy for close inspection. It was a jaunty blue affair with the letters "C.C." in gilt. These, Cologne explained, might stand for anything, but they mostly stood for Camp Cologne, or Camp Cozy, or Camp Clamor, although some of the members wanted it Camp Capital, Cologne said.

"We will end up by making it 'See See,'" declared Dorothy, "for it does seem one or other of us is constantly calling upon some one else to see something--there is lots to see."

A party of other campers came trooping along the shady roadway.

Cologne knew them, and hailed them pleasantly.

"They are our neighbors," she said, "and they have the nicest brothers! I just want you to meet Teddy--he is too funny!"

"Don't you think that variety would suit Tavia better than me?" asked Dorothy. "I thought you always picked out the real good kind for me, the sort that wear collars all summer," and Dorothy laughed at the idea, for the day was warm, and the thought of a stiff collar was rather incongruous.

"Well, he must be nice, at any rate," replied Cologne, as they turned into a lane, a short cut over the woodland. "But, say, Dorothy, do you know I believe that fellow--the one who rode the farmer's horse--is out this way? I saw some one who had that same queer gait, and who wore his hat on the side of his head, and I am almost sure it was he.

I was not near enough to see his face, but there is something so characteristic about his swing, I am sure I could not be mistaken. Did Tavia tell you anything about the letter?"

"No," replied Dorothy slowly, "but I do hope he is not going to spoil our camping days. I should never feel safe with him loitering about the woods. What could fetch him away out here?"

"Well, this is a great rendezvous for swell invalids and nature lovers," Cologne told her, "and of course, it may be a mere coincidence. I even might be mistaken."

"Let us hope you are," said Dorothy fervently. "I would not mind so much--but Tavia--Oh well, you know how queer she is."

"Yes, indeed I do, but never mind, Doro, we are going to have the time of our lives this summer, and we must not go into the missionary business for it's awfully wearing."

"It's quite a long drive out here, isn't it? I shouldn't think you would often take it after dark?"

"Oh, we never do, unless we have a whole party and go merry-making.

But this evening I fear we will have to go for Tavia. Isn't it too provoking? It spoils my plans for to-night."

"I wonder what ever could have kept her? She had five minutes, and I warned her."

"Likely she saw something interesting, and determined to make those five minutes grow into ten. She has no respect for time, I know that, and as for the railroads, why it would tickle her to miss a train and make trouble for the next one."

"Oh, there are the tents! I see the white specks over that way. And there is the little lake!" exclaimed Dorothy.

"Yes, we are getting there. Come on, hurry up Jeff" (this to the horse), "we must get home by five and we have only three minutes. I promised mother to be back at five, and punctuality is an unbreakable rule of our camp. We made it so because we have always found that tardiness is the ruination of all good summers; even camp life must have rules," and Cologne urged the steed to a little faster gait.

"Is this your own horse?" asked Dorothy.

"No, but we have him for the summer. Mother insisted on us having a real old timer--safer, she thinks."

"And he knows all the roads, that's something," added Dorothy. "If we should get lost he could find our way home for us."

"Indeed, he could. I often give him the lines, and he goes along to the post office, and back again, without the slightest prompting. Here we are!"

Cologne drew up, not in front of a canvas tent, but beside a fine old barn.

"Is that the--tent--the camp?" asked Dorothy.

"Yes, but just wait until you see how we have it settled. There's mother," as Mrs. Markin appeared at the door and extended the most cordial welcome to Dorothy.

Swinging aside the great old-fashioned door, that opened in two parts, Cologne ushered Dorothy into the camp.

"Oh, how perfectly splendid!"

It was like a picture from an art magazine. The real rafters--no boxed-shaped beams set up like an uncovered porch roof--but rafters, that hung down low, fragrant with the scent of hickory, soft in tint, and brown with the polish and glow of years. Then the big field stone fire-place, with the "side walk" all around it, and the pieces of rag carpet!

"I have never seen anything so perfectly splendid!" chimed Dorothy, "how ever did you find such a camp?"

"The mater's idea," replied Cologne, enthused with Dorothy's delight.

"There used to be a big house on this farm, but it was burned down.

Mother knew the place and we got it. Isn't it a perfect mansion? Mater would not hear of us sleeping in the open--says tents fly away in the night. Let me show you the whole house."

The first floor--for there was a loft--was laid out in a living room, with many luxuries even to a hired, old-fashioned, square piano; the chairs, Cologne explained, had been bought at a second-hand shop along the mountain road; and the man who kept the shop was so surprised to have a call for such odd chairs and tables that Mrs. Markin was able to pick up some splendid pieces for a mere trifle. Then the sleeping rooms, Mrs. Markin's and her daughter's, besides the guest room, were on the first floor, while Jack, the big boy of the family, had his "bunk" on the loft, and up there also was a "bunk" for any of Jack's friends who might pay him a visit.

The first floor rooms were divided by cretonne part.i.tions, or curtains, made secure top and bottom, and the coloring of these screens gave the place an ideal tone in color. The kitchen was outside under a lean-to tent.

And the dining room! A broad porch with an uncovered roof. A canvas flap was hung over the roof to be used, or thrown aside, just as the weather ordained. The table was a matter of two "horses" and three planks, and the seats were of the same brand, only in a lower grade.

The cover was of oilcloth, and the dishes were some wooden and some white enamel.

"You see," said Cologne, "Mother did not want us to be working always, so she made the table service a la Indian. We burn most of the dishes when we've used them, and they keep our camp fire going, or rather, they only start it. Then the metal plates are so easy to wash, and so hard to break. Oh, we have camping down to a system! I hope you will like the system."