E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Hagop Hagopian, and Project
Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
or, The Wohelo Weavers
By Hildegard G. Frey
Author of
"The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods",
"The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House",
"The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring."
1916
"Speaking of diaries," said Gladys Evans, "what do you think of this forone?" She spread out a bead band, about an inch and a half wide and ayard or more long, in which she had worked out in colors the main eventsof her summer's camping trip with the Winnebago Camp Fire Girls. Thegirls dropped their hand work and crowded around Gladys to get a betterlook at the band, which told so cleverly the story of their wonderfulsummer.
"Oh, look," cried "Sahwah" Brewster, excitedly pointing out the figures,"there's Shadow River and the canoe floating upside down, and Ed Robertsserenading Gladys—only it turned out to be Sherry serenading Nyoda—andthe Hike, and the Fourth of July pageant, and everything!" TheWinnebagos were loud in their expressions of admiration, and the "Don'tyou remembers" fell thick and fast as they recalled the events depictedin the bead band.
It was a crisp evening in October and the Winnebagos were having theirWork Meeting at the Bradford house, as the guests of Dorothy Bradford,or "Hinpoha," as she was known in the Winnebago circle. Here were allthe girls we left standing on the boat dock at Loon Lake, looking justthe same as when we saw them last, a trifle less sunburned perhaps, butjust as full of life and spirit. Scissors, needles and crochet hooksflew fast as the seven girls and their Guardian sat around the cheerfulwood fire in the library. Sahwah was tatting, Gladys and Migwan wereembroidering, and Miss Kent, familiarly known as "Nyoda," the Guardianof the Winnebago group, was "mending her hole-proof hose," as shelaughingly expressed it. The three more quiet girls in the circle,Nakwisi the Star Maiden, Chapa the Chipmunk, and Medmangi the MedicineMan Girl, were working out their various symbols in crochet patterns.Hinpoha was down on the floor popping corn over the glowing logs andturning over a row of apples which had been set before the fireplace towarm. The firelight streaming over her red curls made them shine likeburning embers, until it seemed as if some of the fire had escaped fromthe grate and was playing around her face. Every few minutes she reachedout her hand and dealt a gentle slap on the nose of "Mr. Bob," a youngcocker spaniel attached to the house of Bradford, who persistently triedto take the apples in his mouth. Nyoda finally came to the rescue anddiverted his attention by giving him her darning egg to chew. The roomwas filled with the light-hearted chatter of the girls. Sahwah wasrelating with many giggles, how she had gotten into a scrape at school.
"And old Professor Fuzzytop made me bring all my books and sit up atthat little table beside his desk for a week. Of course I didn't mindthat a bit, because then I could see what everybody in the room wasdoing instead of just the few around me. The only thing I prayed for wasthat Miss Muggins wouldn't come in and see me, because she has taken asort of fancy to me and makes it easy for me in Latin, but if I everfall from grace she won't pass me. But of all the luck, right in themiddle of the Fourth Hour when everybody was in the room studying, inshe walked. I saw her as she opened the door and