Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
Author of The Polly Brewster Books, The Little Washington Books
CHAPTER ONE--THE DANDELION PATROL CHAPTER TWO--AN UNEXPECTED PROPOSITION CHAPTER THREE--THE OLD CAMPSITE CHAPTER FOUR--BEGINNING THEIR CAMP LIFE CHAPTER FIVE--RUTH MEETS WITH DIFFICULTIES CHAPTER SIX--FIRST LESSONS IN SCOUT WORK CHAPTER SEVEN--HEPSY JOINS THE SCOUTS' UNION CHAPTER EIGHT--SUNDAY VISITORS CHAPTER NINE--THE CABINET MAKERS CHAPTER TEN--A FOURTH OF JULY OUTING CHAPTER ELEVEN--IN BLUEBEARD'S CAVE CHAPTER TWELVE--AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE CHAPTER THIRTEEN--THE CAPTURE CHAPTER FOURTEEN--THE REWARD FOR COURAGE CHAPTER FIFTEEN--A FURNITURE SHOWER CHAPTER SIXTEEN--A VISIT TO GRANNY DUNSTAN'S CABIN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN--NEW MEMBERS CHAPTER EIGHTEEN--THE SCOUTS MEET JOHN DUNSTAN
[Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon turned the flashlight over the ground about them (Frontispiece)_]
"Dear me, I never saw so many old dandelions in my life!" exclaimed Juliet Lee, as she tugged mightily at a stubborn root.
"Seems to me there are ten new weeds ready to spring up the moment we pull an old one out," grumbled Ruth Bentley, standing up to straighten her aching back.
"Forty-six for me! I'll soon have my hundred roots out for the day!" exulted Elizabeth Lee, Juliet's twin sister. As she spoke, she shook a clod of loose earth from a large dandelion root, and threw the forty-sixth plant into a basket standing beside her.
"You handled that root exactly as an Indian would a scalp before he ties it to his belt," laughed Joan Allison, another girl in the group of four so busily at work weeding a vast expanse of lawn.
"Oh, me! I don't b'lieve we _ever_ will earn enough money this way to pay our expenses in a Girls' Camp!" sighed Ruth, watching her companions work while she stood and complained. "Doesn't it seem foolish to waste these lovely summer days in weeding Mrs. Vernon's lawn, when we might be having glorious sport in a Girl Scouts' Troop?"
"We'd never be admitted to a Patrol or Troop if we had to confess failure in pulling up little things like dandelions," ventured Elizabeth, without raising her eyes from her task.