PAGE

"Would you prefer to sit here and dream, Betzy, or go back
with me and eat sandwiches" 16

"We are lost, come find us" 98

"Where--which way did you hear them?" questioned Joan 211

GIRL SCOUTS IN THE ADIRONDACKS

CHAPTER ONE

THE FRIDAY JINX

"Are we ready to start, girls?" called Mrs. Vernon, the Captain of
Dandelion Troop of Girl Scouts, as she glanced at her protegees seated
in two large touring cars.

"Ready! Why, Verny, we've been waiting for you these ten minutes,"
retorted Juliet Lee, one of the original members of the troop.

"And we're just crazy to be off before that black cloud overhead adds to
mother's fear lest I never come home again," added Ruth Bentley, another
of the first four girl scouts of Elmertown.

"Well, then, it seems that all the baggage and outfit we need with us on
the trip is safely stowed away, eh, Jim?" said Mrs. Vernon, looking at
the driver of the other car.

"Everything that I found waiting to be packed when I drove up to the
side door," replied the chauffeur.

"All right! Then we're off, folkses, but we'll send you word the moment
we arrive at Old Forge in the Adirondacks," called Mrs. Vernon, to the
crowd of relatives of the various girls, all gathered to watch the
scouts drive away.

"Good-by! Good-by!" now shouted many girlish voices, and "Good-by!
Good-by!" was shouted back as the two seven-passenger cars started on
the long journey.

Mrs. Vernon led the way in her luxurious automobile, and as they turned
the bend of the road, where the last of the group still watching on the
Vernon lawn was lost to sight, she laughingly remarked:

"I never thought a crowd of girls could get ready for such a long outing
in so short a time."

"It all depends on how badly the girls _want_ to be ready, Captain,"
retorted Joan Allison, the fourth girl of the number who founded
Dandelion Camp of Girl Scouts the summer before.

"Say, girls! I just felt a drop of rain from that inky cloud!" Betty Lee
warned. She was Julie's sister, and they were two who had first
suggested a scout organization.

Mrs. Vernon slowed down and turned to the scouts. "Shall we stop to put
on the rain-curtains?"

"Mercy, no! It's only a sprinkle, and we're not sugar," exclaimed Joan,
glancing at the sky.

The other girls followed