The Radio Girls at Forest Lodge: The Strange Hut in the Swamp

“I don’t know much about your Aunt Emma, Burd, but I am quite certain I shall adore her.”

Burd Alling, pudgy and good-natured, looked at Amy Drew and slowly grinned.

“Good for you, Amy,” he said, returning to his plate of ice cream with renewed vigor. “People either hate Aunt Emma or love her. I am glad you have decided on the latter.”

“She must be a strange sort of person, your Aunt Emma,” said Jessie Norwood, the third of the little party seated around the table at the Dainties Shop. “I like people who have positive characters.”

“Oh, Aunt Em is positive enough, if that is what you like,” chuckled Burd. “The worst thing about her is that she doesn’t seem to approve of that characteristic in others.”

“You say this Aunt Emma of yours owns this place called Forest Lodge?” Jessie interrupted eagerly. “Where is it, Burd?”

“In a forest, I suppose,” murmured Amy Drew.

“How bright you are,” scoffed Burd. “Forest Lodge is on Lake Towako, about forty miles from New Melford,” he added to Jessie. “Aunt Em wants to spend a week or two up in the woods, and she was bemoaning the fact, by letter, that she had no one to go with her. I mean, no ladies. Of course, I’m already booked to go.”

“How about us?” interposed Amy, smiling her sweetest. “Wouldn’t we do?”

“Would you like to?” cried Burd, his face lighting up over the idea.

“Amy, how could you propose such a thing!” interposed Jessie, demurely. “Don’t you know you practically asked for an invitation?”

“Leave out the practically and you will have it,” returned Amy, unabashed. “Besides, didn’t you hear Burd say his poor dear aunt would be lonely away up there in the woods by herself? Be charitable, Jessie! Be charitable.”

“But, say, if you girls really think you would like to go, I know Aunt Em will be more than glad to have you,” said Burd. “She will greet you as gifts from heaven.”

“Well, Jess may look like an angel, but I am sure I don’t,” remarked Amy, paying fond attention to the remaining portion of her George Washington sundae. “Never mind the compliments, Burd. Tell us more about your aunt.”

“Do you think Nell Stanley could go too?” broke in Jessie, eagerly. The prospect of a two weeks’ added vacation at Forest Lodge was becoming alluring.

“Sure thing! The more the merrier,” Burd answered, heartily. He finished his ice cream and motioned to Nick, the clerk, to bring more George Washington sundaes. “She is a jolly old soul and never is happy unless completely surrounded by young folks.”

“Oh, is she so very old?” asked Amy.

“We-ell, not so old as to be exactly decrepit,” said Burd, judicially, though his eyes were merry. “She can still hop around pretty lively when occasion requires. But I will not tell you another word,” he added, his round face as severe as so habitually merry a countenance could ever become. “Whatever else you learn about the lady, you will have to learn from her personally. I refuse to give away a blood relative.”

“But, Burd, all this is so very wonderful!” cried Jessie. “I never dared hope we would have another chance for fun this summer before school opens.”

“Oh, Jess, remind me not,” commanded Amy, with a groan. “As Miss Seymour would say, ‘Why intrude so gloomy a thought upon this joyous hour?’”

The Miss Seymour of whom Amy spoke was a teacher of English in the high school which Jessie and Amy and their friend, Nell Stanley, attended.

The Radio Girls had returned from a wonderful vacation on Station Island only a few days before this story opens. And now had come this possibility of spending the short remainder of their school vacation at a typical hunting lodge in the heart of a forest. Small wonder that with this alluring prospect before them they could not bear the mention just then of school and studies, for to their eager minds the possibility of the visit looked like certainty.

“Have you told Darry yet?” Jessie asked, and Burd favored her with a look that was almost pitying. Darry, or Darrington Drew, to give him the benefit of his full name, was Amy’s brother and Burd Alling’s closest chum. The two boys, though utterly unlike in looks and disposition, were inseparable.

“Sure, I’ve told Darry,” he said, in reply to Jessie’s question. “His enthusiasm over the project knows no bounds. Says it has been his lifelong ambition to get in close contact with the forest rangers and study their methods of fighting forest fires.”

“Oh, do they have fires up there, too?” queried Amy.

“Wherever there is a forest, there are bound to be fires once in a while,” Burd informed her, from the heights of his superior wisdom. Darry and Burd, being in college, were several years older than the high school girls, and it was seldom that they missed an opportunity to impress that fact upon Jessie and Amy. “That’s where the forest rangers come in. And, believe me, sometimes they have their work cut out for them, too.”