"Okay," the girl smiled wickedly, "Pat Period."

Throwing her another warning glance as a second twitter of giggles ran through the group, Pat put her arm around the frightened girl's shoulders and began to lead her toward the shower cabin.

"All of you come with me now," she called. "Our group was scheduled to be in the showers five minutes ago, so we'll have to hurry. Mrs. Marchant gets very upset if one group holds up another for any reason."

"Are there any bears in these woods?" the young camper asked as she hurried alongside Pat.

"No!" she laughed. "Of course not!"

"Any snakes?"

"No! Only the harmless kind – the little ones – and they're more scared of you than you are of them. Nothing's going to come in your cabin, honey, except maybe a squirrel. You're not afraid of squirrels, are you?"

"No…"

"You're going to be a big girl this summer, aren't you? So when your parents ask Mrs. Marchant what kind of camper you've been, she'll be able to tell them a good one?"

"Yes." The girl nodded her head anxiously, looking up into Pat's face with an expression that was almost worshipful. It was a common thing for the youngest campers to develop an attachment for their Big Sister, Pat knew. The danger came when Big Sister liked little girls too much in return and wanted to move the attachment onto a physical level. There was no danger of that happening with this girl, but Mimsy Colberg was another matter.

"These are the showers?" Roxanne complained loudly, as soon as the group of girls had entered the cabin. "You expect us to take showers here?"

"What's wrong with it?" Pat challenged.

"Just look at the place! There's no privacy at all!" She motioned with her hand toward the gang showers on either side of the cabin. Six spray nozzles had been set in the walls opposite each other, enabling a dozen girls to shower at the same time. "At the camp I went to last year, they had tiled booths with curtains…"