“You don’t mean that you have come to join the camp, do you!” questioned Miss Elting.

“Of course, I have,” retorted Crazy Jane.  “What did you think I had come for?  Meadow-Brook is like a graveyard since you girls went away.  Oh this is great, isn’t it?  We’ll rattle the bones of this old camp, won’t we?”

Harriet laughed merrily.  Miss Elting looked grave.

“Does Mrs. Livingston know—­did she know you were coming?”

“Of course, she did.  Dad looked after that.  Where is she.  She’ll be delighted to see me, I’ll wager.”

“Yeth,” nodded Tommy who had joined them.  “The’ll be tho glad that thhe’ll cry her eyeth out.  How long are you going to thtay?”

“As long as you do.  Now let’s get that car unloaded and start something.  This place is so quiet it gives me the blues.”

Margery threw up her hands in despair, Harriet smiled amusedly, Miss Elting shook her head hopelessly.  Jane darted off with long strides.  She had grabbed a hand of the protesting Tommy and was fairly dragging the little girl along with her.  It was a strange figure that Mrs. Livingston, who stood talking with Jane’s father, saw approaching her, and during the weeks that followed she was to understand quite fully why Jane McCarthy’s friends had named her “Crazy Jane.”

CHAPTER XIV

CRAZY JANE IS INTRODUCED

“Oh, how do you do?” greeted Jane when her father had introduced her to Mrs. Livingston.

Mrs. Livingston extended her hand to Jane.

“I hope you may be happy with us,” said the Chief Guardian.  “We shall do our best to make you so.  What do you think of our forest home?”

“Stupid place, but I think I’ll will be able to start something to stir up these sleepy old woods.”

A shade of annoyance passed over the face of the Chief Guardian, then gave place to a tolerant smile.  She read Jane McCarthy at a glance and in her saw much that was worthy of development.

“Come here, girls, and help me unload this stuff,” called Jane, turning her back on the Chief Guardian.  “Dad must get out of the woods with the car before dark or he’ll break his precious old neck.  Dad wouldn’t be worth a cent with a broken neck, so help me to get him started on his way home.”

Harriet and Miss Elting were the only ones who accepted the invitation.  First, Mrs. Livingston pointed out the tent where Jane was to live, then Jane backed her car down to it see-sawing to avoid obstructions, until finally sending the car back a few inches too far, she crashed through the tent entrance, smashing the end pole, bringing the front of the tent down over her head.

“Good gracious!  That’s too bad.  I never did such a clumsy thing in my life,” declared Jane.  “Here, Dad!  Settle the damages with Mrs. Livingston.  Anything broken in there?”

“Nothing particular.  The tent is wrecked.  That’s all,” sarcastically answered Patricia Scott, who was standing near to Jane.  “However, don’t let a little thing like that trouble you.”