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Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith, 1856-1923

"A Summer in a Canyon"

Oh, delight! There's Don S. D. M.
F. H. N., and Phil has found Pancho to help unload.'
'Isn't it lucky that we decided on the place for Elsie's tent, and
saved it in case she should ever come?' said Bell. 'Now Philip and
Pancho can set it up whenever they choose. And isn't it fortunate
that we three stayed at home to-day, and refused to fish? now we can
plan everything, and then all work together when they come back.'
Meanwhile Polly was tugging at an immense bundle, literally tooth and
nail, as she alternated trembling clutches of the fingers with
frantic bites at the offending knot.
Like many of her performances, the physical strength expended was out
of all proportion to the result produced, and one stroke of Philip's
knife accomplished more than all her ill-directed effort. At length
the bundle of awning cloth stood revealed. 'Oh, isn't it beautiful?'
she cried, 'it will be the very prettiest tent in camp; can't I blow
the horn?'
'Look, mamma,' exclaimed Bell, 'it is green and grey, in those pretty
broken stripes, and the edge is cut in lovely scollops and bound with
green braid. Won't it look pretty among the trees?'
Aunt Truth came out to join the admiring group.
'O-o-o-h!' screamed Polly. 'There comes a piece of the floor.
They've sent it all made, in three pieces. What fun! We'll have it
all up and ready to sleep in before we blow the horn!'
'And here's a roll of straw matting,' said Phil, depositing a huge
bundle on the ground near the girls.


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