“You walked nine miles to Green’s Landing!” exclaimed Mrs. Grayson in astonishment.  “But, my dear, why didn’t you wait and let your father drive you down in the morning?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss a single night in camp for anything in the world!” replied Jean.  “I would have walked if it had been twenty-nine miles.  I nearly died of impatience before I got here, as it was!”

Mrs. Grayson beamed on the enthusiastic camper; the old girls sang a lusty cheer to the new girl who was such a good sport; and, twinkling and beaming in all directions, Jean sat down on the floor with the others to hear the camp councilors introduced.

Dr. Grayson began by quoting humorously from the Proverbs:  “Where no council is, the people fall, but in a multitude of councilors there is safety.”

One by one he called the councilors up and introduced them, beginning with his daughter Judith, who was to be gymnastic director at the camp.  Miss Judy got up and made a bow, and then prepared to sit down again, but her father would not let her off so easily.  He demanded a demonstration of her profession for the benefit of the campers.  Miss Judy promptly lined all the other councilors up and put them through a series of ridiculous exercises, such as “Tongues forward thrust!” “Hand on pocket place!” “Handkerchief take!” “Noses blow!”—­performance which was greeted with riotous applause by the campers.

Miss Armstrong was called up next and introduced as “our little friend from Australia, the swimming teacher, who, on account of her diminutive size goes by the nickname of Tiny.”  Tiny was made to give her native Australian bush call of “Coo-ee!  Coo-ee!” and was then told to rescue a drowning person in pantomime, which she did so realistically that the campers sat in shivering fascination.  Tiny, still grave and unsmiling, sat down amid shouts for encore, and refused to repeat her performance, pretending to be overcome with bashfulness.  Dr. Grayson then rose and said that since Tiny was too modest to appear in public herself, he would bring out her most cherished possession to respond to the encore, and held up the gaudy blanket that Katherine and Oh-Pshaw had already made merry over in the tent, explaining that Tiny always chose quiet, dull colors to match her retiring nature.  With a teasing twinkle in his eyes he handed Tiny her blanket and then passed on to the next victim.

This was Pom-pom, the dancing teacher, who was obliged to do a dance on the piano stool to illustrate her art.  Pom-pom received a perfect ovation, especially from the younger girls, and was called out half a dozen times.

“Oh, the sweet thing!  The darling!” gushed Bengal Virden, going into a perfect ecstasy on the floor beside Gladys.  “Don’t you just adore her?”

“She’s very pretty,” replied Gladys sincerely.

“Pretty!” returned Bengal scornfully.  “She’s the most beautiful person on earth!  Oh, I love her so, I don’t know what to do!”