soft, down-filled sleeping bag, took off her boots, and changed from her shorts to the long-legged jeans. Pushing into her boots, she left the tent. She hurried toward the fire, hoping she wouldn't trip on the laces.
Her cup was still on the stump where she'd left it after dinner. 'All set,' she said.
'Coffee?' Scott asked.
'You bet.' She held out the cup. Scott spooned in granules of instant from a plastic bag, then poured hot water into her cup and gave it a stir. Steam rose against Karen's face as she took a sip. 'Ah, that's good.' She sat on the stump, and drank more.
Benny, she saw, already had cocoa with a couple of marshmallows floating on the surface.
'How about some songs?' Alice suggested.
They started with 'Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.' Then it was 'Shenandoah.' Flash led them in 'Danny Boy,' to which he knew all the words, and seemed almost tearful as he sang of the boy returning to his father's grave.
'Let's get into something more upbeat,' Scott said when that one ended. In a loud baritone, he started 'The Marine Corps Hymn' and everyone joined in, their voices booming.
' 'The Caisson Song'!' Nick called out.
Then 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' then, 'Dixie.' When that was done, the Gordons sang a song about a logger who stirred his coffee with his thumb.
'That puts me in mind of Robert Service,' Scott said. ' 'There are strange things done in the midnight sun. ' '
' 'By the men who moil for gold,' ' Karen said along with him, smiling that they both knew the same poem. They continued with it, line after line, one remembering what the other forgot until they finally got Sam McGee cremated on the marge of Lake LaBarge.
Their performance drew applause, and a two-fingered whistle from Julie.
Alice urged the twins to recite 'Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.'
'Sissy stuff,' Flash said when they finished. 'How's about this one? 'You may talk o' gin and beer/When you're quartered safe out here,/And you're sent to penny-fights and Aldershot it. ' '
Karen knew 'Gunga Din' by heart, but she kept silent as he proceeded. He messed up the middle badly. Nobody seemed to notice, though.
'Bravo!' Scott called, clapping as he finished. 'Benny, why don't you do one?'
The boy shrugged. He glanced shyly at Karen.
'Come on,' she urged him.
'Well. Is The Raven' okay?'
'Great! I love Poe.'
Benny leaned forward on his rock, and set his empty cup on the ground between his feet. 'Well, here goes.' He began to recite the poem in a low, ominous voice. When the raven spoke, he screeched its 'Nevermore' like a demented parrot.
Rose giggled. Heather elbowed her for silence.
Benny ignored them. He spoke slowly, a haunted look on his firelit face as if he'd become the lonely, tormented man of the poem. He grew frenzied, then furious. ' 'Quit the bust above my door!' ' he cried out. ' 'Take thy beak from out my heart and take thy form from off my door!' '
When he finished, there was silence. Everyone looked a bit stunned. Until he stood up, grinning, and bowed. Everyone clapped. Even Rose. Even Julie.
'Terrific,' Karen told him. 'That was great!'
'Do you know some others?' Rose asked.
'Maybe,' he said. 'Maybe tomorrow night.'
'Let's tell stories,' Julie suggested. 'Anybody know a really scary one?'
'How about 'The Hook'?' Nick asked.
Rose wrinkled her nose. 'That's an old one.'
'I could tell you something,' Karen said, 'that happened to a friend of mine. It happened just a few years ago when she was camping with some friends — not very far from here.'
Heather's eyes widened. She looked frightened already. Flash leaned forward, took a burning stick from the fire, and lit a cigar. Benny turned to face Karen.
'We don't want to give the kids nightmares,' Scott told her, smiling.
'I'd better not tell it.'
'Come on,' Nick said.
'Yeah,' Julie said. 'You can't quit now.'
'Well. they were camping in the mountains not far from here. It was a cold night, with the wind howling and moaning through the trees. Sandy — that was her name — sat close to the campfire with her two friends, Audrey and Doreen. I would've been along, but I'd sprained my ankle a few days earlier and had to stay home. Lucky for me, as it turned out.'
'Is this really a true story?' Benny asked.
'Let her talk,' Julie said.
Karen leaned closer to the fire. She felt its heat on her face, the cold on her back. 'The three of them huddled close around the fire to keep the cold away. They sang and told ghost stories, none of them wanting to leave the fire's cheery warmth. Slowly the flames dwindled. Sandy put on the last piece of firewood. Soon, that, too, was nearly gone. 'Well,' Sandy said, 'why don't we hit the sack?' The others were against it, though. They'd frightened themselves so much with the ghost stories that the tent, off in the darkness, looked like a creepy shadow.
' 'What if someone's hiding inside?' Doreen asked.
' 'Oh, that's ridiculous,' Sandy said.'
Karen glanced at Benny. He was staring, wide-eyed, at his tent across the clearing.
'Well, they decided to stay up for a while longer. But the fire was nearly dead, only a few flickers still lapping around the charred remains of wood. If they were going to stay up till their jitters passed, they would have to replenish the supply of firewood. Since nobody wanted to go alone into the dark woods around the campsite, they decided to all go together.
'But they had no flashlight. The flashlight was in the tent. 'I'm not going in there,' Doreen said.
' 'Me either,' Audrey said.
'Sandy was frightened, too, by this time, but she told herself it was silly. So she volunteered to get the flashlight. She left Audrey and Doreen sitting by the fire, and crossed the dark clearing toward the tent. She crouched in front of it. Her heart was pounding like crazy, but she wasn't about to let herself be scared off. Then she got an idea that made her grin. She almost laughed, but kept quiet and lifted the tent flap. Inside, it was as black as a cave. She almost lost her nerve, but took a deep breath and crawled in.
'Suddenly, she screamed. She screamed again, a piercing shriek of terror so loud it made her ears hurt. 'No!' she cried out. 'No! Please!
'What was it?' Benny whispered. 'What got her?'
'Not a thing,' Karen answered. 'This was Sandy's idea of a practical joke. Like lots of practical jokes, though, this one backfired. Once she was done screaming, she found the flashlight. She crawled out of the tent, all set to yuck it up about the great gag she'd pulled on her friends. But they were gone.'
'She scared 'em off,' Nick said.
'That's what Sandy thought. She walked around the clearing, calling out to them. 'Hey you guys!' she yelled. 'I was kidding! Come on back!' But they didn't come back.
'Sandy sat by the campfire. Only a glow remained, by now, and she was cold. 'Come on,' she finally called. 'Enough is enough.' But Audrey and Doreen still didn't return.
'At last, she left the campsite and walked into the dark woods, calling out for her friends. With each step, she half expected the girls to leap out at her screaming, to pay her back for the scare. But they didn't. She kept searching, wandering farther and farther from the camp.
'Finally, she spotted them in a moonlit clearing. They stood motionless as she hurried toward them. 'What're you doing way out here?' she asked. They didn't answer. They didn't speak a word. When she reached
