Lucy was so excited when she heard her dad say they were going camping! She, her brother Alex, and her parents were going to spend a whole week in a wooded area where they could cook under the stars, swim in rivers, and hike all day long. She could hardly wait!
Of course, there were preparations to be made. It was decided that they would take along their family tent. That way, they could all sleep under the same canvas and tell spooky tales about the monsters who might come up and sniff at the tent zippers at night!
“It’ll be hot inside a tent with all of us,” murmured Alex. “I wish we could take our motor home that has air-conditioning.” But Lucy thought their tent was perfect and stout enough to keep out all the monsters of the forest.
Then the question arose about what they would pack. Lucy on her hunting trip out with Carrie, her best friend, had watched the boys shooting frogs with Indian arrows they had made themselves. She had never dreamed of it before, but she decided she would like to learn how to make them, too, and was quite sure they would come in handy in the woods.
“They could catch frogs or help us to cut walking sticks,” she said. She described how the boys had taken green woods, cut shallow slits in one end and bent the wood back, stapling it down with a sharp nail. Thus an arrow was made, and she thought if they had some, Alex could try making them, for he was always making something or other with bits of wood.
Then into the basket went tin plates and zak dishes. There were, of course, a few articles for personal use, a fishing pole, and the chickens that would be needed before they could reach the nearest town.
“We won’t need a drinking vessel,” said father. “We can drink out of our hands in a pinch.” Of course, the back to nature idea suited Lucy, and she was pleased to hear him say so.
“Then let’s take our electric stove,” she said, “and dish things. It’s so easy to clean.”
Father pondered. “They’re better suited for going on picnics. I guess we won’t take them.”
Lucy sighed, but said no more.
“And you might also leave out the pickaxe,” added mother. “Are you planning to excavate the whole place?”
So they did without the electric stove and pickaxe.
On the day before their journey all was in readiness, and father, mother, Alex, and Lucy piled into the car with a sleeping bag apiece and half the things they had packed needing their hands to carry them.
“I suppose the bicycle is strapped onto the back,” shouted mother.
“No, it isn’t,” screamed father, just as he made the turn for the road where they could pick up Billy. “I clean forgot it. We’ll have to go back or attend to that part of the business on our way and come back here tomorrow.”
Their first camp was, of course, made under a big maple tree. Besides the bicycles, which they had obtained on the way, father had brought along one of the little ones from before. He and Alex paid no more attention to Lucy than if she had not been there. Quite beyond the bounds of reason is the demands put on the parents of children of the present day!
There was the tent pegs to be hammered in, the tent to be set and swept, the dishes washed and wiped, the camp-fires made and cooking done, and Lucy, the little unaccustomed, was expected to help out in every possible way. With her big sun-hat on and an aunt in each hand she launched her into the water at the appointed place; stowed her mother in on a smooth river bank; and got back to father, who had pitched their tent and washed and wiped the dishes, and was now busy measuring the choicest spots for tents out of copies of the boys’ model magazine. He soon began to sniff.
“Heyday,” he exclaimed, “are we not cooking our supper?”
Lucy looked about her. Right under her nose were the potatoes, onions, and beets dad had bought up and started cooking for supper two hours before! She quickly darted for them to find them just a trifle burnt, which was the last straw. Everything was just so! And why could she not have had a cheerier father!
Thus things continued for several days, with everyone grumbling over this or that excepting father, smiling under the worst of circumstances. But at the end of the week, when they were about to start on their return journey, they had to confess to themselves that in spite of it all they had enjoyed their week to the full.