CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A VISIT TO GRANNY DUNSTAN'S CABIN

Mr. Gilroy's "suite of rooms" was put in order by the men before they went back to Elmertown, and not only the walnut bed helped furnish the chamber, but several other pieces of furniture were carried back from the stack beside the shed, and placed to add a look of comfort to the "room."

When all was done and the visitors were ready to leave, the scouts declared they would accompany their relatives down the slope and pass judgment on the "suite" to be occupied by their guest.

"It may be healthy to sleep out under the trees like this, but I prefer a plaster ceiling," laughed Mr. Lee, waving his hand at the open woods that was to be Mr. Gilroy's chamber.

"That's because you never tried Nature's ceiling. Once you sleep out in the open, you will never want to try indoors again," replied Mr. Gilroy.

"I'd better not try it, then. I have to remain at home and see that some one provides the 'pot-boiler,'" returned Mr. Lee.

The visitors climbed into the jitney and said good-by, and the scouts turned to go up the hill again, when Mrs. Vernon remarked: "Now that you have a boarder to look after, you must pay more attention to your cookery. Mr. Gilroy must not regret having accepted our invitation to camp with us for a few days."

"But our invitation had 'a string' to it, Verny," added Julie laughingly.

"That's true--I said I would take 'pot luck' and teach the scouts many camping tricks to boot!" declared Mr. Gilroy.

Sunday morning at breakfast Mrs. Vernon said she was very anxious to meet young Dunstan, for he might have met her son in the Aviation Service. Then she had to tell Mr. Gilroy about it.

"I thought I would like to drive down to Freedom later in the day, Mrs. Vernon, and see if there was any mail for me. It was to be forwarded from Junction, you know. If you would care to go and ask about Dunstan, we might make a little party of it," suggested Mr. Gilroy.

"Yes, Verny, let's!" exclaimed the scouts.

"I am willing, as there seems little else one can do," added Mrs. Vernon.

So Hepsy was hitched to the buckboard and the campers climbed in. As they started down the trail, Ruth remarked: "We ought to be thankful the posse found our hamper and seat in the Cave, and brought it back to camp."

"Yes, or we'd have to ride on the floor of the buckboard," added Joan.

"We'd have more room there than on this seat," retorted Julie, who was clinging to the iron rail.

"We can take turns walking if we are too crowded," suggested Mr. Gilroy, who shared the back seat with two scouts.

"We'll have to do that, anyway, when Hepsy comes to a hill," laughed Mrs. Vernon.

So with light banter the party rode to Freedom; there they were received like heroes, for every inhabitant of Freedom had clipped the papers and saved the items that mentioned the capture of the convicts. While Mr. Gilroy went with Lemuel to get his letters, Mrs. Vernon asked if young Dunstan had been heard from.

"Not yet, but sometimes he takes the Crest Trail to hum. In that case, he nary comes nigh Freedom," replied an old native.

"Where does the Crest Trail start?" asked Mrs. Vernon.

"Wall, that's the way Mr. Gilroy went from Junction. It runs along the top affer one gits halfway up from Junction."

As this description was not very accurate, the Captain decided to trust to Mr. Gilroy's ability to lead them there. So she made a proposition to Mr. Gilroy. The girls did not hear what it was, so they knew nothing of the outing planned for the morrow.

"I think it will be fine, Captain, and I will see the man who has charge of the stable," returned Mr. Gilroy, in a low voice.

Soon after this Mr. Gilroy went down the main street and turned in at the livery stable. He was not gone long, however, and when he returned, he nodded satisfactorily to Mrs. Vernon.

That night Mrs. Vernon said to the scouts: "You must all go to bed early, as we have a jaunt planned for you to-morrow. Breakfast must be out of the way quite early, as we hope to start from camp about eight o'clock."

"Where are we going, Verny?" asked Ruth.

"I heard Verny asking about Dunstan's Cabin, and I bet she plans for us to walk there," quickly added Julie.

Mrs. Vernon smiled at this added proof of Julie's mental alertness, but she shook her head as she said: "Not a walk, but a ride."

"A drive, you mean," corrected Joan.

"No--just what I said. There will be horses from Freedom brought to camp before eight to-morrow, if it is clear," explained Mrs. Vernon.

"Good gracious! I haven't any habit!" exclaimed Ruth.

"We will ride in the bloomers we wear at camp," said the Captain.

"I never knew there were enough saddles in Freedom for all of us," laughed Julie.

"That is what I went to find out," said Mr. Gilroy. "The man, Mark, who has charge of the stable, told me he could hire some from the farmers round about. He is going to bring up the horses in the morning and take them back in the evening."

"What will he do meantime, to kill time here?" asked Joan.

"He said he would make some bird-boxes for you, and nail them up in various trees, so you can entice the birds to nest here."

But the scouts had not yet studied bird-life, so they were not aware that the nesting period was past. They delighted in the news that they were to have bird-houses, however.

When Mr. Gilroy took up his flashlight to go down to his "Royal Suite," as the scouts called the walnut bedstead, Joan said: "Shall we escort you down the trail?"

"Oh, no! I can find the bed, all right. It is such a huge affair that I would have to be blind not to see it in the dark."

The scouts were soon in bed after this, and honestly tried to go to sleep, but the new adventure planned for the morrow kept them awake. After telling each other what they would wear and how well they could ride horses, one after the other quieted down, and, last of all, Mrs. Vernon was able to sleep.

It was past eight when Mark was seen coming up the trail leading a line of horses, saddled and ready to ride. Stopping at the Royal Suite, he waited for Mr. Gilroy to get upon the largest horse. Then they continued to the camp.

The girls had breakfast out of the way, and were anxiously waiting for the horses, so Mark had quite an audience as he rode up on the plateau.

The scouts seldom had opportunity to ride a horse when at home, and now they commented on the different animals. Julie instantly said: "I choose the brown one--he is so shiny."

"Seems to me they look awfully tall," whispered Betty.

"They be the usual size, miss," said Mark, who overheard.

"Maybe they won't seem so high when we get up," added Joan.

Mrs. Vernon laughed. "That is always the first thought of an amateur rider--how high up the saddle seems!"

Mr. Gilroy assisted the Captain to mount, then he helped the girls up. Mark had an extra horse, and now he said: "I brung my own hoss ez I figgered I'd best lead the way as fur as Crest Trail. After that it's easy going and you can't miss Dunstan's Cabin."

"All right, Mark--lead on," said Mr. Gilroy.

"As the hosses is all safe fer ridin', the scouts needen' fear 'em. They ain't colts ner air they skittish," said Mark.

Mr. Gilroy smiled, for he surmised as much. The mounts, in fact, seemed aged enough to be pensioned for the rest of their lives.

As Mark led the way up the trail, he described Granny Dunstan and her abode. "She's most a hunerd years old, an' she's allus lived in that cabin. This boy is her great-gran'son, but his folks lives in a town some forty mile away. He come to stop wid' Granny when she got so old, an' he likes the woods life."

"But he enlisted, you say, to fight the Germans," said Mrs. Vernon, eagerly.

"Yeh! He keeps up to th' times, an' hes books and papers up thar. When the _Lusertani_ was sunk he got reel mad, an' come down to Freedom an' wanted to git a crowd of young uns up to go and shoot the Huns. But they diden' want to go so fur from hum. Then he got his dander up an' says: 'I'll jine myself, then. You'll hear of me some day!' And off he goes. Some folks said he oughter have stayed wid his Granny, so a few of us druv up to ask her about it. Golly! she mos' made us deef with her shoutin' at our bein' slackers, cuz she said her boy was the onny true Yank in Freedom!

"She made us feel mighty small when she shouts out: 'Yuh call yer town Freedom! Bah--it ain't nothin' but a handful of cowards. It oughter be called "Slack town."' We got away pritty soon affer that, an' folks ain't so anxious to visit Granny as onct they was."

This explanation gave the scout party a good idea of the old woman they were about to visit, and Mrs. Vernon said:

"Do you think we should have told her we wanted to call?"

"Oh, no! she don't mind strangers. She goes about her chores jes th' same ez ef no one was there," said Mark.

The seven horses padded softly up the grassy trail, and when they reached the cross-trail near the top of the mountain Mark reined in his mount.

"Now, yeh foller that trail to the crest an' then turn t' th' left. Foller the road clear on till yeh come to the Cabin."

Mark waited and watched until the last horse had disappeared on top of the mountain, then he rode back to camp to wait. The scouts continued on the trail, passing noisy streams that ran madly over rocks or fell over cliffs. The birds and flowers were many-hued and beautiful, so that every step of the way was enjoyable. Mr. Gilroy rode in front, and the Captain at the rear of the line.

After a ride of about three miles along the Crest, Mr. Gilroy stopped his horse and looked at a tiny cabin half-hidden under vines and giant trees. It sat back from the trail about twenty feet, and might have been passed by unless one was looking for it.

"Isn't that lovely?" Joan said.

"Yes, in summer; but think how dreadful it would be in winter," added Julie.

"She doesn't live here all winter, does she?" asked Ruth.

"Yes; Mark says she won't leave the place, although her granddaughter--the aviator's mother, you know--begged her to move down to her home," explained Mrs. Vernon.

"The roof's as green as the grass," now said Betty.

"It's moss on the old shingles," said Mrs. Vernon.

"Mark told me that folks at Freedom say the old lady has a heap of money hidden away in this old cabin, and no one knows where except her great-grandson, who will be the heir," said Mr. Gilroy.

"But that is all conjecture, Mr. Gilroy, as no one has ever heard a word about it from Granny or her boy," added Mrs. Vernon.

"I think it is idle gossip, for how could the old dame make the gold up here? It would take all she could earn with her herbs to pay for her living," admitted Mr. Gilroy.

"Does she sell herbs?" asked the scouts, eagerly.

"Mark said she is the greatest Nature physician ever found around here. If the medical men can't cure a sickness, they send for Granny Dunstan, and she gives the patients a drink of simples and they recover quickly.

"She used to sell these remedies all over the countryside, but of late years she doesn't come down to the towns like she used to. Her boy sells his pelts instead, so that is why the people said she had gold enough."

"I'm glad you told us this, Mr. Gilroy," said Mrs. Vernon, "as I should like the scouts to learn from the aged woman how she gathers and prepares the tea and balms."

The riders dismounted and tied their horses to trees, then followed Mr. Gilroy across the grass to the cabin. The door stood open but not a sound was heard from within.

"Just look at this construction!" cried Julie. "She's used stones, logs and everything in the walls."

"And the growing trees were used for corner-posts of the house," added Mrs. Vernon, examining the odd structure.

Mr. Gilroy rapped politely on the door, but no one replied. Again he rapped louder, and a shrill bark sounded from a distance back in the woods.

"I guess she's out in her garden," said Mr. Gilroy.

"I heard a funny grunt from the little shed at the back of this room," whispered Julie.

"Let's go around the corner of the cabin and see if she is back there," suggested Mrs. Vernon.

So they followed Mr. Gilroy, and all had to laugh when they found the grunt came from a sow with a litter of little pigs. She was queen of the shed that leaned against the cabin, so the scouts watched her with interest for a time, then turned to follow after Mr. Gilroy and the Captain.

But the sow grunted excitedly when the little ones ran after the visitors. They thought there would be something to eat, and having never seen strangers before they knew no fear of them. The angry grunting of the old mother hog made the dog bark again from the woodland, and soon after a bent-over form could be seen coming from the woods.

A hound bounded before her, barking shrilly at the trespassers, until the old woman shouted: "Be quiet, Bill!"

Instantly the dog dropped behind his mistress, and Mr. Gilroy lifted his hat as he greeted the aged dame.

Mrs. Vernon went forward also, and said: "We came to see you, Mrs. Dunstan; I heard your boy was an aviator in France, and I felt an interest in meeting and talking with you and him. My boy was one, too, but he was shot down."

This was an opportune introduction, as nothing melted the old lady's scorn and indifference to visitors like the interest one took in aviation.

"Now, this be a real treat! Them folks at Freedom won't dare to come and see me since we went to war!" declared the centenarian in a strong voice.

Granny Dunstan squinted keenly at the visitors to make sure they were truthful, and, finding they seemed earnest, she led the way to the cabin.

"I rickon we better sit outside; the cabin's too small to hold more'n three of us," announced Granny, as she turned to address her visitors.

Her criss-crossed wrinkled face seemed to roll up with that grin, showing shrivelled toothless gums. Yet the aged face was attractive, with a subtle kind of wholesomeness seldom seen in old people. Mrs. Vernon said, later, that it must be the result of living alone with Nature and her children for so many years.

"You said you had a boy what was aviator in France?" questioned Granny, the moment the scouts had seated themselves.

"Yes, and when I heard your boy had been over, I was anxious to meet you both," said Mrs. Vernon.

"Wall, my boy's got a cross from France, an' now he's ben sent for to go to Washin'ton and meet some big folks what's here visitin' from France. I tell you, John's a right smart soljer!"

The proud old dame wagged her head briskly as she gazed from one to the other of her hearers. Then she suddenly changed the conversation.

"Yeh hed a long, long ride from Freedom, didn't yeh?"

Mrs. Vernon explained that they were camping and had only traveled from the plateau that morning.

"Oh, ye'es must be the gals John tole me about one day--he said thar war some tramps loose on the hill and he wisht yuh knew it so yuh could keep a dog to warn 'em off. In fack, he wuz agoin' to git yuh one, but he had to leave so quick-like."

Granny was very entertaining, and before the scouts left, she had shown them many of her preparations, witch-hazel being one of her remedies. She treated them to drinks of birch-beer, and gave them vials of winter-green flavoring, and peppermint oil, to be used in candy-making.

"I'd like to bring my girls up again, Granny, to have them learn more of your art of chemistry. The proof that you have found the secret of living long and well is evident in your strength and power to enjoy life as you do," said Mrs. Vernon, as they said good-by.

"An' I'll tell John about you havin' a boy over thar, an' he'll be sure to come and see yuh," said the old lady.

"I'll be so happy to become acquainted with him. Who knows, but he may have known my son and can tell me something of his life there. We have never been able to learn much," said Mrs. Vernon, pathetically.

Granny Dunstan placed a bony hand gently on her visitor's arm and looked volumes with her bright little eyes. Then and there, age, position, and all earthly claims disappeared, and the scouts were given a wonderful sight in beholding a perfect spiritual communion between two entirely different humans.

On the ride back to camp, Mr. Gilroy said: "Well, I wouldn't have missed that visit for anything."

"If 'imitation is the sincerest flattery' then we are flattering Granny Dunstan, for we are going there again to learn the things she knows," said Mrs. Vernon.

The scouts found that Mark had erected several bird-houses, and as they stood watching him line up his horses again, to lead them back to Freedom, they plied him with questions about Granny Dunstan.

"Mark, does she keep all those pigs for meat in winter?" asked Ruth.

"No, she fatten's 'em en sells 'em fer groceries en' other needs. Her pork fetches more'n enny other round th' country."

"How do you account for that, Mark?" asked Mrs. Vernon.

"Cuz it is such sweet and clean meat. Them pigs fatten up on acorns and nuts. And that makes the finest tastin' flesh, yuh know."

After Mark left camp, the girls still talked of the old lady and her wonderful knowledge of woodcraft. Mr. Gilroy and Mrs. Vernon stood at a short distance, conversing in low tones. Finally they came over and joined the scouts.

Mr. Gilroy said: "I want to thank you scouts for all you have done for me, not only in saving my life, but in entertaining me later."

Julie looked anxiously up at him and said, "You sound just as if you were going to leave."

Mrs. Vernon and he laughed: "To tell the truth, I am."

"There--I knew it! It's that old walnut bed!" cried Ruth.

"Oh, no," laughed Mr. Gilroy. "It is because I must keep important appointments at home. You see, I merely got off at Junction when I heard of the Cave, and here I've been ever since."

"You had as good a time here, as elsewhere, haven't you?" demanded Julie.

"Better than I've had in years, but now I must go on. But I want to make a proposition to which your Captain agrees.

"Next summer, as soon as school closes, I want you girls to visit my place in the Adirondacks. The reward of money you will receive will pay all expenses for fares and outfits, and I will try to be as fine a host as you were hostesses. Will you?"

"You said you were from New York?" argued Joan.

"So I am--when I am at home. But I spend most of the year in my Adirondack camp. You see, I am an ardent Boy Scout admirer, and every summer I have a crowd of boys camp in the mountains with me. As I have several thousand acres there, we won't interfere with you girls. In fact, I have just been telling your Captain that I am going to write to Headquarters and offer my place to the Girl Scouts for any number of camps they may see fit to start. I can make it very comfortable for them, as my workmen have cut good roads through the woods and many trails are worn over the surrounding mountains. If you'll agree to establish a flourishing Troop by next spring, I will agree to give you the time of your life."

When Mr. Gilroy finished, the scouts were too delighted to speak for a time. Then Julie sprang forward, and threw her arms about his waist. She hugged him so unexpectedly, but withal so tightly, that he gasped for breath. Every one laughed, as it expressed their sentiments exactly.