many rubber bands have you, Helen?"

"Oh, a dozen or twenty," the latter replied.

"Well, we'll proceed to cut half a dozen Y-forks and make them into
catapults. We'll start out at once. Hazel, you get a hatchet, and,
Marie, you get a saw; the rest of you get your combination knives."

In a few minutes they were in the thick of the timber, searching the
small trees and saplings for Y-forks to serve as catapult handles. In
half an hour they returned with a dozen of varying degree of symmetry
and excellence.

Then the work of assembling the parts of these miniature engines of war
began. Some of the girls exhibited a good deal of mechanical skill,
while others made moves and suggestions so awkward as to occasion much
laughter.

"Well, anyway," said Marie after she had been merrily criticised for
sewing up the "mouth" of a "pocket" so narrowly that a stone could
hardly fly out of it; "there are lots of boys who would make a worse job
sewing on a button. Don't you remember last winter at a button-sewing
contest, Paul Wetzler cast the thread over and over and over the side of
the button--and he didn't know any better."

"That's a very convenient way to dodge a joke on you, Marie," said
Violet. "But just because boys don't know anything is no reason why we
shouldn't."

"Whew! some slam at me," Marie exclaimed. "I'm very properly squelched."

After half a dozen catapults had been made, the girls practiced slinging
stones for an hour and several of them developed considerable skill. In
this way it was determined who should have the preference in the use of
these weapons.

Then at the suggestion of Miss Ladd, a dozen slings were made to be
tied about the waist for carrying a supply of stones, some the size of
an egg, for throwing with the hand and pebbles for use in the catapults.
After these were completed, the girls went down to the beach and
gathered a plentiful supply and took them back to the camp. Then a score
or two of these stones were deposited in the slings, and the latter were
put in convenient places in the tents on short notice. The catapults
also were turned over to those of the girls who proved most capable of
using them skillfully.

The last item of preparations on the program of the day consisted of
completing plans for a succession of night watch reliefs. As Katherine,
Hazel, Azalia, and Ernestine were assigned to special scout duty
immediately after dusk, they were excused from assignment on any of