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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20106.txt b/20106.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d52ab1d --- /dev/null +++ b/20106.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4158 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, How Ethel Hollister Became a Campfire Girl, +by Irene Elliott Benson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: How Ethel Hollister Became a Campfire Girl + + +Author: Irene Elliott Benson + + + +Release Date: December 13, 2006 [eBook #20106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW ETHEL HOLLISTER BECAME A +CAMPFIRE GIRL*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +HOW ETHEL HOLLISTER BECAME A CAMPFIRE GIRL + +by + +IRENE ELLIOTT BENSON + + + + + + + +Chicago +M. A. Donohue & Company + + + * * * * * * + + +CANOE AND CAMPFIRE SERIES + +Four Books of Woodcraft and Adventure in the Forest and on the Water +that every Boy Scout should have in his Library + + + By ST. GEORGE RATHBORNE + + CANOEMATES IN CANADA; or, Three Boys Afloat on the Saskatchewan. + THE YOUNG FUR-TAKERS: or, Traps and Trails in the Wilderness. + THE HOUSE-BOAT BOYS; or, Drifting Down to the Sunny South. + CHUMS IN DIXIE; or, The Strange Cruise of a Motor Boat. + CAMP MATES IN MICHIGAN; or, With Pack and Paddle in the Pine Woods. + ROCKY MOUNTAIN BOYS; or, Camping in the Big Game Country. + + +In these four delightful volumes the author has drawn bountifully from +his thirty-five years experience as a true sportsman and lover of +nature, to reveal many of the secrets of the woods, such as all Boys +Scouts strive to know. And, besides, each book is replete with stirring +adventures among the four-footed denizens of the wilderness; so that a +feast of useful knowledge is served up, with just that class of stirring +incidents so eagerly welcomed by all boys with red blood in their veins. +For sale wherever books are sold, or sent prepaid for 50 cents each by +the publishers. + + + * * * * * * + + + Copyright, 1912, M. A. Donohue & Co. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + + I--A Fashionable Mother 7 + II--Ethel Hollister 14 + III--Grandmother Hollister 18 + IV--A Pink Tea 23 + V--An invitation to Aunt Susan 29 + VI--Aunt Susan Arrives 41 + VII--Aunt Susan Makes Friends 48 + VIII--Ethel is Invited to Visit 51 + IX--Ethel and Aunt Susan Start 55 + X--The Journey 58 + XI--The Next Day 62 + XII--Ethel Learns to Cook 65 + XIII--A Little Drive 68 + XIV--Some Confidences 72 + XV--A New Ethel 81 + XVI--Aunt Susan's Trials 84 + XVII--Cousin Kate Arrives 88 + XVIII--Selecting the Costume 90 + XIX--Ethel Meets Her Uncle and Aunt 97 + XX--Gathering of the "Ohios" 103 + XXI--The Trip up the River 109 + XXII--An Evening in Camp 115 + XXIII--The Legend of the Muskingum River 120 + XXIV--Ethel's First Day in Camp 141 + XXV--Ethel's First Lesson 144 + XXVI--A Loss and a Dinner 147 + XXVII--A Discovery 153 + XXVIII--Mattie's Story 159 + XXIX--Mattie Starts Afresh 167 + XXX--Aunt Susan Comes 172 + XXXI--Back To Aunt Susan's 175 + + + + * * * * * * + + + CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES + + HOW ETHEL HOLLISTER BECAME A CAMPFIRE GIRL + ETHEL HOLLISTER'S SECOND SUMMER AS A CAMPFIRE GIRL + CAMPFIRE GIRLS MOUNTAINEERING + CAMPFIRE GIRL'S RURAL RETREAT + CAMPFIRE GIRLS IN THE FOREST + CAMPFIRE GIRL'S LAKE CAMP + + List Price 75c Each + + + * * * * * * + + + +HOW ETHEL HOLLISTER BECAME A CAMP FIRE GIRL + +CHAPTER I + +A FASHIONABLE MOTHER + + +"No indeed, Kate!" ejaculated Mrs. Hollister emphatically, "Ethel has no +time to join any Camp Fire Girls or Girl Scout Societies. She has her +home and school duties, while her leisure is fully occupied. At present +I know with whom she associates. As I understand it, these girls form +themselves into a Company with a Guardian or Leader. They wear certain +uniforms with emblems on the waists and sleeves, as well as a ring and +bands of beads on their heads, all of which savors of conspicuousness, +and it seems to me ridiculous." + +"But, Aunt Bella," replied her niece, "think of what it makes of these +girls. It teaches them to take care of themselves. They very often +sleep out of doors for two months and get an honor for it." + +"Yes, imagine a delicate girl like Ethel doing that," rejoined Mrs. +Hollister. "Why, she'd contract pneumonia or consumption right away." + +"But if she were delicate she wouldn't be allowed to do so unless by the +advice of a physician. Then for one month she's obliged to give up sodas +and candies between meals." + +"Yes, and isn't that silly? Why, any girl can do that without belonging +to a society." + +"Well, they become healthy and strong; they play all kinds of out of +door athletic games; they swim, dive, undress in deep water, paddle or +row twenty miles in any five days; they learn to sail all kinds of boats +for fifty miles during the summer, ride horse back, bicycle, skate, +climb mountains, and even learn how to operate an automobile." + +"There, Kate, stop; you make me nervous. Now what good is all such +exercise to a girl?" + +"Why, it gives her the splendid health so necessary to every woman, and +oh! if only you'd read about it. You won't listen, but they learn how to +cook, how to market, to wash and iron, and keep house, how to take care +of babies,--and don't you see if a girl marries a poor man she can be a +help to him and not a hindrance? Then they have to be kind and +courteous, to look for and find the beauties of Nature until work +becomes a pleasure and they're happy, cheerful and trustworthy. They +give their services to others and learn something new all the time." + +"My dear Kate," said her aunt, "nowadays a girl has all she can possibly +do to fit herself for her future position in society; that is, if her +family amounts to anything socially. Why should a girl learn to cook and +market unless she intends to marry a poor man, and I don't propose that +Ethel shall ever do that. And as for being so athletic, I don't approve +of that either. It's all right for a girl to ride. Ethel is a good +horsewoman; she learned from a splendid riding master. She plays +tennis, golf, and can swim; so you see she has nearly all the +requirements of Camp Fire Girls." + +"Oh, Aunt Bella, she has hardly any. Why, look at the Boy Scout +movement--how marvellous it is and how it has grown. It has become an +institution, and in England when several Boy Scouts while camping out +were drowned, the Government (think of it) sent out a gunboat--sent it +up the Thames to bring their bodies back to London. Think of the +National recognition. Why, it's spreading so that every boy will become +a Scout before long. And the good that they do no one knows." + +"Well, my dear," said the elder lady, "you are an enthusiast, and +naturally as you are a 'Captain' or 'Guardian,' as they call it, your +sympathies are all with the organization. But to me it's like marching +with the suffragettes. It belongs to the women who favor 'Woman's +Rights,' but not for a girl like Ethel." + +"But you certainly approve of the 'Scout' movement, don't you? Why, boys +are joining from every rank of life." + +"Ah! my dear," broke in Mrs. Hollister, "that's the great trouble. They +_are_ from every rank, and that's why I object. Had I a son I should not +care to have him become interested in it, and for a girl like Ethel to +rub shoulders with 'Tom, Dick and Harry,' it's simply not to be thought +of. No, when she marries I trust it will be to a man who can afford to +give her enough servants to do the work, a chauffeur to run her +automobile, and a captain to sail her yacht. I hope she'll have a +competent cook to bake her breads and prepare the soups, roasts, salads, +and make preserves. I should feel very badly if she had to wash and +iron, wipe her floors, or do any menial work. Were such a thing to +happen, I hope I shall not live to see it, that's all. No, kindly drop +the subject. Ethel is but sixteen. She'll have all she can do to finish +at Madame La Rue's by the time she's eighteen. You know how hard your +Uncle Archie works to obtain the money to pay for Ethel's education, and +how I manage to keep up appearances on so little. It's all for Ethel. It +means everything for her future. She must have the best associates, and +when she graduates go with the fashionable set. We are very poor and she +must marry well and have her own establishment. All of this Camp Girl +business would be of no earthly benefit to her. It's only a fad and I +believe not only that, but the 'Scout' movement will die a natural death +after a while. Young people must have some way to work off their +superfluous energy; these Societies help them to do so. Now remember, +Kate, you have a fairly well-to-do father and you need not worry over +your future. Not so poor Ethel. That I have to look out for. Please do +not refer to this subject again, especially before her. I mean it and +shall resent it if you do. I'm sure you'll respect my wishes in the +matter." + +"Of course, I shall, Aunt Bella," replied Kate, "but were you to more +thoroughly understand this new movement I'm sure you'd view it +differently and change your mind. The Boy Scouts have done so much good, +and now this Camp Fire Girl is going to be such an improvement over the +ordinary girl. She's going to revolutionize young women and make of +them useful members of society--not frivolous butterflies--and it will +be carried into the poorer classes and teach girls who have never had a +chance, so that they may become good cooks and housekeepers and love +beautiful things. And their costume is so pretty and sensible. Oh! I +wish you could see it with my eyes." + +"To me, my dear, it is very like the Salvation Army. They wear badges +and uniforms, and they too do much good, I am told. Yet I shouldn't care +to have my Ethel become a member of that organization. But +hush--remember your promise--not a word. Here she comes." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +ETHEL HOLLISTER + + +A young girl entered. She was lovely with the beauty of a newly opened +rose. Her features were exquisite. Her rippling brown hair matched her +eyes in color. Her complexion was creamy white with a faint touch of +pink in either cheek. Although her figure was girlish it was perfectly +formed and she carried herself well; still she looked delicate. + +The mother and daughter were alike save where Mrs. Hollister's face was +hard and worldly, Ethel's was soft and innocent. + +"Well, dearie," said her mother, "here's an invitation for you from the +Kips. Dorothy will celebrate her fifteenth birthday on Saturday with a +luncheon and matinee party." + +"Oh, how perfectly lovely," exclaimed the girl, showing her pretty teeth +as she laughed. "Dorothy is such a dear. Why, she hardly knows me. +She's only been at Madame's half a term." + +"Never under-rate yourself, Ethel," spoke up Mrs. Hollister. "Remember +that you belong to one of New York's oldest families. Although you have +but little money, people are sure to seek you not only for your family +name but because you are an acquisition to any society." + +Ethel blushed painfully while Cousin Kate gazed out upon the budding +leaves on a tree in front of the Hollister house. By a keen observer her +private opinion might be read in every line of her face. She loved Ethel +and her grandmother--old Mrs. Hollister. She pitied her Uncle Archie, +but she despised her Aunt Bella and rejoiced that at least none of that +lady's blood flowed in her veins. She worried over Ethel who, +notwithstanding her mother's worldliness was as yet unspoiled, for the +child inherited much of her father's good sense. Still under the +constant influence of a woman of Mrs. Hollister's type it would be +strange if the daughter failed to follow in some of her mother's +footsteps or to imbibe some of her fallacies. + +"I'm going up to tell Grandmamma," said Ethel, and bursting into the room +she kissed the old lady. + +"Listen, Grandmamma, I'm invited to Dorothy Kip's birthday--a luncheon +and matinee party." + +"That's lovely, my darling," replied the elderly woman. "When does it +come off?" + +"Next Saturday, and I presume we'll go to Sherry's to lunch. Think of +it! I've never been there--I'm so glad," and she danced around the room. +"And my new grey broadcloth suit with silver fox will be just right to +wear. You know the lovely grey chiffon waist over Irish lace that Mamma +has just finished, and my grey velvet hat with rosebuds and silver fox +fur--won't it be stunning?" + +"You'll look lovely, I know. But where is Cousin Kate?" + +"Oh, she's with Mamma. I entered the room while they were in the midst +of an argument and they stopped suddenly. I guess it was about me. You +know how set Mamma is in her way, and she was reading the riot act about +something. As Kate leaves here tomorrow, shouldn't you think that Mamma +would be too polite to differ with her? But no, she was talking quite +loudly. I wish I might go home with Kate. I'd like to see her father and +mother; they must be lovely. + +"They are," replied Grandmother Hollister. "Your Uncle John is my oldest +boy, and he has the sunniest nature imaginable." + +"Yes, and Kate does something in the world," replied the girl. "I wish I +might belong to her Camp Fire Girls that she has told you and me about. +But Mamma--why! I shouldn't even dare suggest it; in fact, she doesn't +dream that I know about Kate's being the Guardian of a Company. I feared +that she might be rude if I spoke of it and might say something to +offend Kate. Well, goodbye dear, I just wanted to tell you," and with +another kiss Ethel left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +GRANDMOTHER HOLLISTER + + +Old Mrs. Hollister's room was on the third floor back. It was large and +sunny, but considering that she owned the house it was rather peculiar +that she had such an inferior room. She and her sister Susan were the +only children of Josiah Carpenter, a wealthy man living in Akron, Ohio. +Upon his death the girls found themselves alone and heiresses. Alice, +while visiting in New York, met Archibald Hollister, who belonged to an +old and respected family but who was of no earthly account as a business +man. His handsome face won pretty Alice Carpenter. He was not long in +spending nearly all of her fortune, but he really was considerate enough +to contract pneumonia and die before he obtained possession of her +house, which fortunately was in her name and unmortgaged. + +She had two sons--John, Kate's father, who lived in Columbus, Ohio, and +Archibald with whom she now made her home. Archibald loved his mother +and begged her to let him pay her rent for the house, but she replied +that if he would pay the taxes and keep the house in repair it would +equal the rent. + +Her sister Susan still lived in the same town where they had been born. +She had never married. People told Archibald Hollister that his Aunt +Susan was a millionaire. Every investment that she made was successful. +She had adopted and educated two orphan boys, one of whom had died, +while the other was finishing college, after which he was to become a +lawyer. Aunt Susan seldom wrote of herself. She corresponded with Alice +(Grandmother Hollister) about twice a year, and at Christmas she +invariably sent her a generous check. + +Grandmother Hollister and her son were alike in many ways. They were +free from all false pride and privately they considered Mrs. Hollister a +snob, and worried lest Ethel should become one. Archibald seldom +asserted himself, but when he did his word was law. While his wife was +a social climber he was exactly the opposite. He had been known to bring +home the most disreputable looking men--men who had been his friends in +youth and who were playing in hard luck. He would ask them to dinner +without even sending word, and his wife would invariably plead a sick +headache to get rid of sitting with them. She dared not interfere nor +object for she was just a little afraid of him and she realized that in +nearly everything he allowed her to have her own way. + +Mrs. Hollister told Ethel privately that both here father and +grandmother were old fashioned. Although living in a handsome house they +kept but one maid. Mr. Hollister's salary was but a little over three +thousand, and at times they had hard work to make both ends meet. Ethel +attended a fashionable school and hardly realized what the family +sacrificed for her. She made many friends among the wealthy girls of the +smart set. Thanks to her mother's skill and taste she was enabled to +dress beautifully, but youth is thoughtless and she was just a little +too self centered to see that her parents were depriving themselves for +her. + +Mrs. Hollister gave bridge parties, and once every two weeks a tea for +Ethel. Upon those days she hired two extra maids. It was pitiable to see +how she strove to keep up appearances. There was a young man whose +sister went with the set of girls who came to Ethel's teas. His name was +Harvey Bigelow. One of his sisters had married into the nobility. He had +a large Roman nose and a receding forehead, but Mrs. Hollister was +delighted when one afternoon Nannie Bigelow--his sister--brought him to +the house. He was only nineteen and at college. Ethel disliked him from +the first. + +"Why, dear, why are you so rude to Mr. Bigelow? He's a gentleman," said +Mrs. Hollister. + +"Yes, Mamma, but I simply cannot endure him," replied the girl. "For one +thing his nails are too shiny, and that shows his lack of refinement. I +don't care if his sister married the King, he's common--that's all." + +It was then that Mrs. Hollister would declare that Ethel was exactly +like her father and grandmother. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A PINK TEA + + +Although old Mrs. Hollister owned the house and nearly all of the +handsome antique furniture, Mrs. Archie seemed often to forget that +fact, and from her manner one might infer that the lady regarded her +mother-in-law as a sort of interloper. The old lady would allow her to +go just so far, after which she would suddenly pull her up with a sharp +turn and admonish her with such a cutting rebuke that Mrs. Archie would +blush painfully and apologize. But while antagonistic on most points +they each agreed on Ethel. Even Grandmother felt that her +daughter-in-law was wise in trying to fit the girl for the smart set, +where she would have social position and money, and she even sided with +the wife against her son, who considered it all wrong. + +One afternoon Archibald Hollister came home early and ran right into the +"Pink Tea" crowd. Old Mrs. Hollister, tastefully gowned in black and +white, sat in the library where the maids brought up refreshments to +her. A young musician whose mother had been a schoolmate of Mrs. +Hollister's, and who was poor, played the piano from four to seven for +the small sum of three dollars. Everything went off pleasantly. The +maids acted as though they were really fixtures in the house. The +refreshments were excellent. No wonder with the line of autos before the +door people considered the Hollisters wealthy, "but plain and solid with +no airs, etc." + +Old Mrs. Hollister enjoyed young people's society, and they all voted +her a dear. She'd invite their confidences, and before leaving each girl +would come up to the library for a chat with Grandmother. + +"Oh, Mrs. Hollister," said Lottie Owen, a girl of Ethel's age, "have you +heard about the 'turkey trot?' We can't dance it any more,--it's been +suppressed." + +"How does it go?" asked the old lady. "I've read something of it." + +"Well, just wait,--I'll get Nannie Bigelow and we'll dance it for you." + +Thereupon the two girls would show Grandmother Hollister the steps. + +"That's something like the 'Boston Dip,'" responded she very much +excited. "Why, when I was a girl my mother took me away from a cotillion +one night because they danced it," and she grew pretty as she excitedly +told of her younger days. + +"I bet you were lovely, Mrs. Hollister," said Nannie. "Ethel will never +be as pretty as you were. We were looking at your portrait in the +drawing room. You must have been fascinating, and as for Mr. +Hollister--your husband--well, he was just a dear." + +The old lady blushed. Here Lottie spoke up: + +"Yes, and people say you were such a belle. Old Mr. Tupper was at our +house and met Ethel, and he told us a lot about you. But here's Mr. +Hollister," and they rushed forward to greet her son. + +"Well, well!" he exclaimed gallantly, "I didn't expect to get into such +a garden of roses. And you, too, Mother--why, you've actually grown +younger." + +"That's just what we tell her," said Nannie. "We've been dancing the +'turkey trot' for her," they whispered, slyly kissing her goodbye. + +These were happy afternoons for Grandmother, after which she and her son +would sit and chat. + +"It sort of livens things up to have young people about, doesn't it, +Mother?" he said, taking a cup of tea and a sandwich. + +"Yes, Archie, it certainly does; but you look tired." + +"I am, Mother," replied the man, "I wish Ethel was finished with her +school and happily married. This strain is telling on me and I suppose +poor Bella suffers from it even as I do." + +"It's too bad, Archie. I don't like this sailing under false colors. +People imagine Ethel a wealthy girl. Probably they think she'll inherit +my money. Of course, they never dream that I'm penniless and that you +have a salary of only three thousand a year; but so long as we keep out +of debt I don't know as we are doing wrong." + +"Has Kate gone?" he asked. + +"Yes, she left this morning. Bella took her to the train. She's gone to +visit her mother's people in Tarrytown. Kate's a nice girl." + +"She's a sensible girl. I only hope that Ethel will grow into as good a +woman as Kate Hollister," said Archibald. + +"You see, Kate has a new fad," began Grandmother--"not a fad either; its +purpose is too earnest to call it that. She is the head of a Company of +girls called 'Camp Fire Girls.' They are something like the 'Boy Scout +Organization.' The object is to make girls healthy. It gives them +knowledge; it causes them to work and learn to love it; it makes them +trustworthy; they begin to search for beauty in Nature and they're +perfectly happy. I remember that much, but the sum and substance of it +is that it teaches a girl everything that is useful. Kate is the +Guardian of one Camp Fire section. They meet weekly and from what she +tells me it must be a great thing. Kate spoke of it to Bella but she +ridiculed it and forbade her to speak of it to Ethel. She declares it is +like the Salvation Army, etc., and Kate promised not to, I think she +had hoped to secure Ethel for one of the girls next summer." + +"Well, there's no need of us trying to oppose Bella," said her son. "She +is determined that Ethel shall make a brilliant match and in her eyes +this would be a waste of time. No, Mother, the best thing for you and me +to do is to travel along the lines of the least resistance. +Come,--dinner is ready. I'll help you down." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +AN INVITATION TO AUNT SUSAN + + +One afternoon Mrs. Hollister called Ethel into her room. After closing +the door she said, "Ethel, I have written to your father's Aunt Susan, +who lives in Akron, to come here and make us a visit. You know she's +Grandmother's only sister, and I think it will do them both good to see +each other. Grandmother is delighted and I expect that Aunt Susan will +accept," and Mrs. Hollister calmly drew on her gloves. + +Now, as her mother was not in the habit of considering her grandmother's +comfort, and as the two women were seldom of one accord, Ethel looked at +her furtively and with a puzzled expression of countenance, but that +lady acted not the least embarrassed. It seemed strange to Ethel that +all at once she should wish to cheer up her mother-in-law by inviting +her country sister to visit them, but the girl simply said: + +"That's lovely, Mamma," and went up to her room to study. + +Although she disliked to credit her mother with such artifices, she +finally hit upon a solution of the object of the invitation. It must be +that it was Aunt Susan's money she was after, and why? Suddenly, it all +came to the girl--it was to get Aunt Susan to like her (Ethel, her +grand-niece) and make her her heiress, if not to all at least to a part +of her fortune. + +Ethel sat and gazed at the pretty room in which Mrs. Hollister had spent +so much time decorating and making attractive. In her heart there was a +desire to denounce her mother. Then, when she realized that it was all +being done to benefit herself, she could feel nothing but pity for the +woman whose one thought in life was for her daughter. She thought: "She +will even tell people that I am Aunt Susan's heiress, and I must sit by +and know that it is untrue. Everything is untrue in this house. Oh, how +I wish I could get away from it all!" But to her grandmother she told +her suspicions. + +"Never mind, my lamb," said the old lady. "I know Susan well enough to +say that she will love you for yourself, and probably she does intend to +leave you and Kate half of her fortune at least. If it serves to help +your mother socially, why Susan wouldn't care--she'd only laugh. Susan's +very keen and sharp, my child. No one can make her do what she doesn't +care to. Now don't you worry over anything. When she comes just be kind +and polite to her and help make her visit pleasant." + +"But, Grandmamma, I should die of mortification if she even conceived the +idea that mother had that in her mind when she asked her here for a +visit. Oh, I couldn't endure it. Please never let her know what I +suspect. Will you promise, or I cannot look into her face." + +"Your Aunt Susan shall never suspect such a thing from me. I promise," +replied Grandmamma Hollister. "I am only too glad to see her once more. I +could almost forgive your mother for any duplicity in it so long as she +can come, for Susan and I are growing old and it will not be many years +before one of us goes. But, Ethel, don't expect to see any style. Aunt +Susan is a plain country woman. It may be a trial for you to have to go +out with her." + +"Oh, never, if she's like you, Grandmother," said the girl, kissing her, +"and she is your own sister. She must be like you. But there's Nannie +Bigelow and Grace McAllister. I wonder what they want." + +"Hello! Ethel," called two young voices, "we're coming up. Your mother +said we might." + +"All right, girls; I'm in Grandmamma's room," replied Ethel, "come in +here." + +After greeting the old lady affectionately they began: "What do you know +about it?" said Grace--"here Dorothy Kip has joined a new Society called +the 'Camp Fire Girls,' and from the first day of vacation--May +fifteenth--until October she's going to live in the woods and camp out." + +"Yes," broke in Nannie Bigelow, "I'm just crazy to belong but Mamma +won't let me because she heard that two of the girls who are to be in +the Company live in the Bronx in a small flat and go to public school. +But Connie Westcott's aunt is to be the head or 'Guardian,' and these +girls are in her Sunday School class. She likes them and insists upon +their becoming members. Isn't it ridiculous, Mrs. Hollister, that just +because these girls are poor they're not considered fit to associate +with us by some mothers, and I mean mine. As if I was half as good as +they. Why, my great-grandfather was a shoemaker. Papa told me all about +it, and he was a dandy good shoemaker, too; but Mother gets furious when +I refer to it," and Nannie threw herself in a chair before the open fire +that Grandmother Hollister always kept lighted save in warm weather. + +"I know my mother wouldn't let me join," said Ethel. "Why, Kate +Hollister is the Guardian of a Company in Columbus, Ohio, and Mother +wouldn't allow her to speak of it even. She says it's like the Salvation +Army, and such ridiculous nonsense. Oh, dear! all the mothers are alike, +I'm afraid. We'll never have real fun until after we're married or +become old maids." + +Just then they were interrupted by the arrival of Connie Westcott, +Dorothy Kip, and two or three more of Ethel's young friends, to whom +they explained the subject under discussion. + +"Well, my mother will let me join," said Connie, "and Dorothy's has +allowed her." + +"Yes," broke in Dorothy, "I was sure Mother would allow me to if Miss +Westcott was to be the Guardian." + +"It must be a fine organization," said Mrs. Hollister, knitting steadily +with the yellow lace falling over her still pretty hands. "I wish we had +known of something like that in my young day. Why, it must be like one +continuous picnic." + +"I'll tell you what they do," said Sara Judson, "they first learn how to +put out a fire. Supposing one's clothes should catch; they could save +one's life. Then, in summer, or through the ice in winter, they rescue +drowning people who have never learned to swim. They know what to do for +an open cut; for fainting; how to bandage and use surgeon's plaster. +They can cook at least two meals, mend stockings, sew, etc., and keep +one's self free from colds and illness. They sleep in the open, and my! +what fine health it gives a girl, and it makes a perfect athlete of her. +She can cook and bake, market, and know just how to choose meats and +vegetables. She can become a fine housekeeper as well, and learn how to +make lovely gardens. Why, I'll bring you a book, Mrs. Hollister. I +couldn't begin to tell you how wonderful it is. If a girl lives up to +all the rules and can learn everything that is taught she's a wonder, +that's all. So I hope some day Ethel can join, even if later." + +"Oh, I'll never be allowed to join, girls. I'm to be a parlor ornament," +and Ethel's eyes filled with tears. + +"Never mind," said Constance White, "how desolate the home furnishings +would be without lovely bric-a-brac." + +"Yes," replied Grandmother Hollister, "whatever position a girl occupies +if she fills it creditably she will have done her duty." + +"I know that Ethel will be the head of a large and magnificent +establishment," said Nannie Bigelow. "She's just the style of a girl." + +Ethel half laughed and dried her eyes on her Grandmother's handkerchief. + +"I don't care," she faltered, "think of living out in a camp and sitting +around the fire telling stories. And I shall never be allowed to do it." + +"Now you buck up, old girl," said Dorothy Kip abruptly. "Oh, excuse me, +Mrs. Hollister, but sometimes I just love to use slang. You go ahead and +wish hard for what you want and you'll get it. I always do. Say, don't +you know that you can influence others to think exactly as you do? By +wishing with all your might you can will it to be done." + +Everyone laughed. Dorothy was an odd roly poly pretty girl of fifteen. +She was the only sister and idol of four brothers whom she copied in +every way. The newest slang was invariably on her tongue, and the family +laughed at and petted her. In their eyes everything she did was perfect. +She was a general favorite at school, but Madame La Rue declared that she +would never become a perfect lady while her brothers lived at home; but +she was kind-hearted and generous. Mrs. Hollister, Senior, liked her +immensely. She always called her "Grandma." + +"Do you know what I'm going in for?" she asked of the old lady. "Well, +I'll tell you--it's babies!" Everyone laughed. + +"You needn't laugh. Next year I'm going to take all of my spending money +excepting ten dollars and hire two rooms and a kitchenette. Dad gives me +sixty dollars per. I'm going to take thirty-five for rent and the boys +will help me furnish. Then I'm going to beg my friends for contributions +and open a Day Nursery. Of course, I'll have to get a woman for fifteen +dollars a month to take care of the babies, and the mothers can pay four +cents a day for each child." + +"Why, Dorothy Kip," exclaimed the girls. "You couldn't get any servant +for fifteen dollars a month." + +"I can, and don't you forget it. Old Susan Conner, who used to be my +brother Tom's nurse, has offered to come for fifteen dollars. She likes +me and she's willing to help me in this charity. We've talked it all +over. Susan is some class now and has her two-room-and-bath apartment. +She's old and hasn't much to do and she has enough to live on, so she's +offered to come; and I'm going to spend just ten dollars on myself each +month in place of sixty for candy and soda and such nonsense. No one +knows of it but Susan and I. I'm going to beg for oatmeal and rice and +bread of the grocers with whom we've traded for years, and if they +refuse I'll influence Mother to leave them. Then I think Dad will help +me out on milk and anything needed. I'll confide in him." + +"That's a fine and magnificent idea, Dorothy," said Mrs. Hollister, "and +you'll become a public benefactor." + +"Well, you see, Mrs. Hollister, I like the little kids and I've seen +such pitiful faces on some where the sisters have had to take care of +them while the mothers worked. So I made up my mind I could take ten +little ones anyway. Then the mothers' four cents will be forty cents a +day. That will pay for some, of the food. Oh! I'm going to become a +beggar and ask every friend to help me. Maybe it will fail but I can +try. The boys will give, I'm sure." + +"Yes, Dorothy, and I bet you'll succeed," said the girls. "We'll help, +too." + +Then each girl pledged herself for what she could afford to give. + +"Well, you're awfully good, I'm sure," said Dorothy. "I never dreamed +you'd all come forward. You're certainly sports, every one of you, and +I'm obliged more than I can tell you." + +"Who knows," said Grandmother Hollister, "but when you're grown up, +you'll have a large house, and it may be called 'The Kip Day Nursery' +and each of you girls here may be lady managers. They all grow from +small beginnings. And, Dorothy, you may put me down for ten dollars," +said Mrs. Hollister. + +"Oh, say, you're a thoroughbred, you are," and the girl kissed her +impulsively several times. + +Now Grandmother Hollister had been saving that particular ten for a new +lace scarf. It had been sent to her on her birthday by her son John, +but she couldn't resist giving it. She could do without the scarf, and +ten dollars would buy a couple or more warm rugs for the babies to sit +on, for little ones like to sit on the floor. + +The girls stayed in her room and chatted until dusk. They talked as +freely before the old lady as before one another. + +That evening Ethel asked her grandmother if there wasn't some way by +which she could get away that summer and go to visit Cousin Kate. + +"I'll think it over," replied Grandmother; "you certainly need the +country. You look thin and peaked." + +"Yes, and Mamma will take me to Newport or Narragansett, and I hate it. +Why, it's just like New York. You meet the very same people and I never +cared for the water as I care for inland or mountains. Do think out a +way, Grandmamma. You always manage to do everything just right." + +"I'll try," replied Mrs. Hollister. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AUNT SUSAN ARRIVES + + +The next morning there came a letter of acceptance from Aunt Susan. She +would arrive on Friday. This was Thursday. Grandmother Hollister hummed +a little song as she went up stairs. + +"It will do Mother lots of good," ejaculated Mr. Hollister. "It was kind +of you, Bella, to think of that." + +Mrs. Hollister blushed. Ethel watched her as she slowly sipped her +coffee. Mrs. Hollister was a peculiar woman. She was truthful and frank +when she wished to be. Now she realized that her husband trusted and had +faith in her and that Ethel was furtively watching her, so she said: +"Well, Archie, perhaps I was a little selfish in asking Aunt Susan. +Perhaps I did it to help Ethel a bit as well as to please Mother. Aunt +Susan is wealthy. Now why shouldn't Ethel come in for some of her money +as well as that adopted boy?" + +"Why, Bella," said her husband, "is it possible that you had only that +idea in your head when you invited my aunt here?" + +"No, not entirely. I knew that it would please your mother, and I could +kill two birds with one stone. That's why." + +Ethel saw a peculiar look come upon her father's face. She had noticed +it when he brought home his disreputable looking friends to dine and +when her mother objected. He turned to his daughter. + +"Ethel," he said, "I wish you to help and make your Aunt Susan's visit +very pleasant. I would like you to take her out and show her everything, +and Grandmother must go along also. You will be doing me a great favor +if you will." + +"Papa, I'll do my best to make it pleasant," replied the girl, kissing +him. + +Then, without looking at his wife, Mr. Hollister left the room, followed +by his daughter. + +"So that was her object!" he exclaimed, as Ethel helped him on with his +coat. "What would Aunt Susan think were she to know? Your mother wishes +you to ingratiate yourself with my aunt so that she'll leave you the +lion's share of her money. Why, she'd probably leave my brother John and +me a remembrance anyway, and you and Kate would benefit by it. Well, +this is a strange world, my child. I wish your mother was less politic, +but I presume it is done for you, Ethel, so we mustn't be too hard on +her. She's a good mother to you, my dear, and has great ambition for +you. I only hope that you'll be happy. Never marry for money +alone--that's a sin--remember." + +"I will, Papa," said the girl blushing. "I may never marry, and then you +and I can live together. Wouldn't we have fun?" + +Aunt Susan arrived. Ethel gazed at her spellbound. She had the kindest +face she had ever seen, but oh! how old fashioned she looked. Her grey +hair was drawn tightly back into a cracker knot. In front she wore a +bunch of tight frizzes under a little flat velvet hat with strings, +something of the style of 1879. Her gown was of black made with a full +skirt trimmed with black satin bands. She wore an old-fashioned plush +dolman heavily beaded and covered with fringe. Her shoes were thick like +a man's, and to crown all she carried a fish-net bag. She didn't seem to +realize that she looked behind the times. + +Ethel thought that her teeth and eyes were the loveliest that she had +ever seen on a woman of her age, for she was grandmother's senior. She +and Mrs. Hollister looked enough alike to be twins. They fell upon each +other's neck and wept. Ethel was mentally hoping that Aunt Susan would +purchase some modern clothes or that none of her fashionable friends +would meet her, for among them were some who would laugh at the old +lady, and the girl felt that she'd die of mortification and anger,--not +the girls with whom she was intimate and who came to see her daily, but +the girls who belonged to the exclusive set, and with whom Ethel and her +friends seldom went as they were much younger. + +The day following Mrs. Hollister phoned for a taxi, and to Ethel's +horror she ordered an open one. Ethel was to take Aunt Susan and +Grandmother for a drive. She dared not demur. Had she not promised her +father to do everything for Aunt Susan? Could she hurt her dear +grandmother's feelings? And last of all, she would not admit to her +mother the fact that she was ashamed of Aunt Susan's appearance. No, so +she went. + +As it was early in April and cool, upon this occasion Aunt Susan wore +ear tabs, over which she tied a thick, green veil, when it grew warmer +in the sunshine she removed the veil. They drove up Riverside to Grant's +Tomb, where Aunt Susan insisted upon getting out. Fortunately Ethel +encountered no one whom she knew, but as they were driving up Lafayette +Boulevard they passed Estelle Mason, one of her swell friends. The +chills ran up and down Ethel's spine, while she sat with her lips +compressed. The girl bowed and deliberately giggled. Even grandmother, +who looked lovely, grew red. But Aunt Susan seemed not to notice it. + +"I am a snob just like mother," thought the girl. "I ought to be ashamed +of myself. I'll never speak to Estelle again, the rude upstart! They +say she prides herself on her family, but I can't see that her good +blood has made a lady of her," and into Ethel's eyes came tears. + +"Ethel, my dear," said Aunt Susan, "you're looking badly. Your cheeks +are flushed. Do you feel ill?" + +"No, Aunt Susan," she replied. "I always grow red when riding in the +wind." + +Grandmother had seen it all and pitied the girl. + +"Deafness comes early in the Carpenter family," persisted Aunt Susan. +"Here, take this veil, dear, do, and tie it over your ears." + +But Ethel declined, and to her joy the ride was soon over. + +In the privacy of her room Grandmother Hollister confided to Ethel that +really Aunt Susan ought to dress differently. + +"I understand how you felt, dear," she continued, "when you met that +rude Mason girl and she laughed, but there's bad blood there. I know all +about her and her grandparents. My dear child, her grandmother used to +be a waitress way out West where her grandfather owned mines, and he +boarded at the house where she worked, fell in love and married her. +Probably there's where she gets her rudeness." + +"Why, Grandmother, how did you know that?" asked Ethel. + +"There's little I don't know about the fine old New York families, my +dear. Remember I married into one and I heard a great deal." + +After that Ethel felt comforted. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +AUNT SUSAN MAKES FRIENDS + + +In less than a week Mrs. Hollister had circulated the report that Aunt +Susan was an immensely wealthy but eccentric old maid, and that Ethel +was to be her heiress. The report spread like wildfire. Then Mrs. +Hollister took the girl and told her that she must begin and make +herself invaluable to Aunt Susan, so that she alone would inherit her +immense fortune. + +"Of course," she said, "she'll leave your Cousin Kate some if it, but +why should that adopted son get the lion's share? You might just as well +have it." + +Ethel had to go everywhere with Aunt Susan,--she who so disliked +anything savoring of the conspicuous. She could hear the sneers and +laughter of Estelle Mason's set of girls and could see their looks of +amusement. At first she rebelled, but the dislike of offending her +grandmother and fear of disobeying her mother made her meekly submit, +and like a martyr she went. + +Aunt Susan was such a lovely character that Ethel was ashamed of +herself, for everything seemed to please her so, and she kept dwelling +upon the fact that the family (especially Ethel) was so kind that she +should never forget it. But although she bought expensive gifts for the +three women, they dared not suggest her spending anything on herself. +Something kept them from it and told them that she might become offended +and leave the house. + +Gradually the friends of the Hollisters' came and fell in love with Aunt +Susan. She was such a lady and had such charming manners. Besides, +knowing her to be a wealthy woman, they accepted her with her peculiar +gowns, even inviting her to teas, etc. Never did an old lady have such a +fine visit. Harvey Bigelow was most attentive to her, Aunt Susan +declaring him to be a likely fellow, and wondering why her niece Kate +didn't fancy him. + +She spoke often of Thomas Harper--her adopted son and protege. He was a +fine lawyer and was devoted to her. She received letters from him twice +a week, from which she read extracts. Mrs. Hollister declared that he +was crafty and after Aunt Susan's money, and it seemed to worry her not +a little. She even started in to insinuate as much to the lady, who +gazed at her peculiarly until Grandmother took her alone one day and +said: "If ever you expect to make Aunt Susan fond of Ethel you are going +to work the wrong way. She's very sharp, and if you speak ill of Thomas +Harper you'll show your hand--I warn you. + +"She'll do as she chooses and you can't compel her to do otherwise. +She's fond of Ethel now for herself. I warn you, Bella, not to let your +greediness make Susan know you as you are. I'd like her to keep the +good opinion of you that she has at present." + +Mrs. Hollister knew that her mother-in-law spoke the truth and she said +nothing, but left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ETHEL IS INVITED TO VISIT + + +One morning in May, as the last days of Aunt Susan's visit were drawing +to a close, she said to Mrs. Hollister: "Bella, Ethel tells me that her +vacation begins next week. Now I've been thinking it over. The child +doesn't look strong. She needs country air. I don't mean your +fashionable places, but where she can live out of doors in a simple +gown, play games, and take long walks, etc. Now you've given me such a +pleasant time that I'm going to invite her to go home with me. I'll wait +for her school to close and we can start from here Saturday." + +Mrs. Hollister was overjoyed. Of all things that was what she had most +desired and, too, it would save them much expense, for a summer's trip +to a fashionable hotel made a large hole in Archibald Hollister's +salary. + +"Yes, indeed, Aunt Susan, she will be simply delighted to go," replied +the lady. "I'll get her ready at once." + +"She'll need nothing new," called out Aunt Susan. "We're very plain +people. We live simply, and her gowns and hats will seem like visions of +Paris fashions to the girls in our town. Then I shall ask Kate to come +for a visit as well. And, by the way, Bella, come back; I wish to say +something. You know my niece Kate goes up into Camp this summer with her +girls. Now I should like Ethel to go along. It is a great movement--this +Camp Fire movement--and it will do the child lots of good, for she +strikes me as very delicate." + +Mrs. Hollister gasped. + +"Yes," she replied, "Kate spoke to me of it but I shouldn't care for +Ethel to join." + +"Why not?" asked Aunt Susan. "It certainly is the most creditable thing +any girl can join. It's a wonderful institution. What objection can you +have?" and she looked at her niece tentatively. + +Mrs. Hollister reviewed the situation as she stood there. It would not +do for her to air her objections to Aunt Susan. She was just a little +afraid of that lady and wished her to have a good opinion of her, so she +continued reluctantly: "Well, you see, Aunt Susan, it is such a +strenuous life, and Ethel is not over robust. I'm almost afraid it might +do her more harm than good." + +"Nonsense, Bella," replied Aunt Susan, "that's the most shallow +objection you could advance. I should deem it a personal favor if you'll +give your consent." + +Now Mrs. Hollister dared not withhold her consent, and yet she was +angry. That Ethel was at last to be entrapped into belonging to that +detestable Organization was what she had never dreamed could take place. +She was caught and trapped; there was no help. Even though she gave her +consent, after Ethel came home in the fall she could talk her out of it. +So she said with a of show amiability: "Since you desire it, Aunt Susan, +I'll consent, but I don't approve of it at all, I must admit." + +"Thank you," replied Aunt Susan. "I think you'll feel differently when +you see Ethel upon her return home this fall. All of the girls in Akron +are joining. They're crazy over it." + +Mrs. Hollister replied that she was open to conviction and should be +glad if Ethel derived any benefit from it. + +"But what shall I buy for her to wear?" she asked. + +"I will attend to her outfit," replied Aunt Susan. "It is not +expensive." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ETHEL AND AUNT SUSAN START + + +Ethel was overjoyed that permission had been obtained to allow her to +become a Camp Fire Girl. + +"Isn't Aunt Susan clever to have been able to have gotten Mother to +change her mind?" + +Grandmother smiled but said nothing, but when alone Mrs. Hollister said: +"Ethel, remember that you are in line for Aunt Susan's money. +Grandmother says she admires you and thinks that you have shown her +great courtesy--says you've been kindness itself to her--so it has paid, +hasn't it, dear? Now your visit will do the business, and you'll +probably come in for the lion's share. Of course, you are only sixteen, +but who knows what may happen? When you finish school you may become the +Duchess of Everton's sister-in-law--think of it--and I alone shall be +responsible." + +"Oh, Mamma," replied Ethel, growing red, "you know I am only a young +girl yet. Besides, I loathe Harvey Bigelow. He talks through his nose +and is vulgar." + +"Nonsense," replied her mother, "look at all of the young men of today, +especially among the rich. Are they so very good looking?" + +"Yes," replied Ethel, "I think Dorothy Kip has four fine looking +brothers, and I know lots of good looking young men, but I can't endure +Harvey Bigelow although I love Nannie." + +"Well, Harvey averages well as to looks, and think of his position and +family, and you a poor man's daughter. If you'll be guided by me, my +dear, I'll put you above them all. Were your father to die what could +you do? Should you like to be a saleswoman?" + +Ethel was angry but she knew that her mother spoke wisely. She, too, +loved money and position, as well perhaps as Mrs. Hollister, but she was +not quite so worldly. + +The Saturday arrived at last and they started for Akron. Although Ethel +felt ashamed to admit it, owing to Aunt Susan's conspicuous appearance, +she dreaded the train ordeal, but there was no help for it. She did +speak of it to her mother, who calmly surveyed her daughter and replied: +"Ethel, I fear you are a snob." + +The girl regarded her mother with astonishment, who without +embarrassment calmly continued: "Did you ever see me act as though I was +ashamed of your aunt?" + +And as Ethel thought, she was forced to admit that she never had, for +Mrs. Hollister was a strange anomaly. Her snobbishness seemed to lie in +the desire to rise socially--to take her place with the best--but she +never had seemed to even take exception to Aunt Susan's appearance; in +fact, she felt that people would consider it the eccentricity of a +wealthy woman. She went with her everywhere and never was ashamed, +therefore her reproof to her daughter was sincere. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE JOURNEY + + +The journey was very pleasant. Ethel enjoyed it. Aunt Susan removed her +hat and tied the objectionable green veil around her head. This didn't +seem quite so out of place. As they talked Ethel noticed that Aunt Susan +was wonderfully well informed on every subject. She was like an +encyclopedia, and her conversation was most interesting. + +As they were nearing their destination many of her townspeople passed +through the train. They greeted her most heartily with: "Well, well, +Mrs. Carpenter, we have missed you. Had a pleasant time?" + +"How's my boy?" she asked of one man. + +"My, but he's fine," rejoined the man,--"won a big case the other day. +Haven't you heard about it? Sears, the automobile man--someone accused +him of infringing on his patent, and he--Sears--sued him. Tom won the +suit. Everyone is congratulating him," etc. + +Each person had some report of Tom. + +"They seem to love Aunt Susan," thought Ethel. "It only goes to show how +much people think of money. Perhaps were she poor they wouldn't notice +her." But wasn't her own mother a money-worshipper, and didn't she +herself care for people who had it? "I suppose it's the way of the +world," she thought. + +The train slowed into the depot. A tall broad-shouldered athletic +looking fellow entered the car and grasped Aunt Susan by the waist, and +as he lifted her almost from the floor he kissed her affectionately +saying: "Oh, my! but Aunt Susan I've missed you," and his voice rang +manly and true. + +Ethel liked his face. He had keen but pleasant grey eyes, a square jaw, +large mouth and fine teeth. "But alas!" she thought, "how terribly he +dresses, with his loosely tied black cravat, a slouch hat, low collar +and wide trousers--like types of eccentric literary men seen on the +stage and in pictures." + +He was absolutely devoid of style, yet everyone seemed to look up to him +and lots of pretty girls blushed unconsciously as he returned their +bows. Aunt Susan must have spoken to everyone who passed. They all +seemed to know her well. + +As they drove up and alighted at the door of a small plain house she +must have noticed a disappointed look in her niece's eyes, for she said: +"Your Grandmother and I were born here, my dear. That large house on the +hill once belonged to me, but I disposed of it and moved here. I love +the associations. Although it is very primitive. I trust you may be +happy in it while visiting under its roof." + +And indeed it was primitive with its wooden shutters and piazza with a +stone floor made of pieces of flagging. The rooms were low-ceilinged +with windows of tiny panes, whose white muslin curtains were trimmed +with ball fringe made by Aunt Susan. There were ingrain carpets on the +floor and old-fashioned mahogany furniture--the real thing, not +reproductions. It was massive and handsome with exquisite hand carving. + +Ethel's floor was covered with the old-fashioned rag carpeting and rugs +to match. Vases of roses were on the bureau and stand, evidently put +there by "Mr. Thomas" as she called him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NEXT DAY + + +She slept as she had never before slept and was awakened in the morning +by the robins that sang in the white blossomed cherry trees. It was so +lovely that she lay quite still to listen. Then she arose, but before +dressing she gazed out of the window. They were over a mile from the +town. The path up from the gate was bordered on either side by spring +flowers. Immense trees hid the road from view but she could hear the +toot of the motors in passing and it all seemed strange, for the house +was over one hundred years old, and everything, even to the pump in the +yard, was so old-fashioned. + +Ethel looked sideways at the house on the hill in which Aunt Susan told +her she had once lived. It was immense,--more like an Institution. +Probably it had been sold and remodeled, and perhaps was something of +the sort now, thought Ethel. + +She dressed and went down stairs. Aunt Susan must have been up some +time, for the house looked so clean, and the odor of roses was +everywhere,--roses on the old-fashioned piano, on the mantel, and on the +breakfast table. + +Ethel ate heartily, everything tasted so good. Old Jane, the maid of all +work, had been with her Aunt Susan ever since her father's death many +years before, and she was a woman who cooked most deliciously. Ethel +wondered why Aunt Susan kept but one maid, although she ceased to wonder +at anything after Aunt Susan had finished breakfast. + +"Tom lives in Akron at the hotel," said she. "He has many clients, some +of whom can only consult him in the evening, and that's why he cannot +stay here with me. But until I left for New York," she continued, "I had +the village school teacher for company. You see, although this place +belongs to Akron, there are many children who cannot journey back and +forth to school, so we have a little schoolhouse near. The teacher +usually boards with me, and with Jane in the kitchen I am well +protected." + +Ethel pondered. She had solved the mystery. Aunt Susan was a miser, of +that there was no doubt. Imagine a woman of her immense wealth taking a +boarder and living as she did. Ethel wondered if at night when everyone +was sound asleep she counted her money as misers do; and perhaps it was +on this very mahogany table that she emptied the bags before counting. + +"What they had to eat was of the best and she enjoyed the ham and eggs +and freshly churned butter. After a while she started up stairs, but +Aunt Susan was ahead of her. + +"Oh, Auntie, I wanted to make my own bed." + +"Well, dear, you may after today, if you will. Jane is pretty old to go +up and down stairs." + +The change was so complete that Ethel felt like a new girl. + +"I don't care if she is a miser," she thought, "she's just lovely and so +like Grandmother; and I'll have a happy time, I know." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ETHEL LEARNS TO COOK + + +Here is a page from her letter to her grandmother: + + "Oh! my dear Grandmamma, you don't know how happy I am--not being + away from those I love, but things are so different. I get up early + and after breakfast I help Aunt Susan with the housework, for her + maid is too old to go up and down stairs. I have learned to + churn--to make butter and pot cheese as well. I dust, make my bed, + and sweep my room. (Don't let mother see this. She may consider + that I am doing a servant's work). + + "I am invited everywhere and lovely people call, but that is + because I am the niece of a wealthy woman. And yet people's love + for Aunt Susan seems so genuine--not as though they were toadying + to her for her money. And Grandmamma, 'Mr. Tom,' as I call + him,--Tom Harper--is the finest man I ever met. He is a man--not a + man like Harvey Bigelow, mind you,--and people respect him and look + up to him. He comes here every other night. He has a buckboard and + on Sundays he takes me for long drives. Doesn't he love Aunt Susan + though? He told me that there never lived such a good and unselfish + woman, and then he told me of all that she had done. + + "His brother and he were left orphans without a penny. His father + was a clergyman and his mother and Aunt Susan had been friends for + years; in fact, he says, 'My mother had been one of Aunt Susan's + pupils.' I must have shown surprise for he answered when I said + 'What?'--'Yes, before her father died she taught in the High + School.' Did you know it, Grandmamma? Well, she did. She's awfully + intelligent and now I know the cause of it. Why, she's like a + walking dictionary. + + "Mr. Tom said that his father and mother died inside of a month, + and he and his little brother Fred were left alone. Then brave Aunt + Susan, who had loved his parents, came forward and legally adopted + them. Think, Grandmamma,--but for her they might have had to go to + the Orphan Asylum and wear blue gingham uniforms. + + "Then Aunt Susan sent them each to college. Poor Fred contracted + typhoid fever and died during his third year. Mr. Tom and Aunt + Susan say he was lovely--so gentle and sweet. It is sad to die so + young, isn't it? But Mr. Tom graduated from college and studied law + with Ex-Judge Green, and if you will believe it, all of the Judge's + practice came to him at his death--Judge Green's death I mean--and + he told me that he could never repay dear Aunt Susan for her + goodness to him and to his brother. It was more than that of a + mother, for they were not of her blood. + + "I'll close now, for Mr. Tom has come to take me for a long drive. + I hope the girls get in to see you often. What do they think of + Mamma's giving me permission to join Cousin Kate's Camp Fire Girls? + Isn't it great? + + "With love and lots of kisses to all, + Your affectionate grandchild, + Ethel." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A LITTLE DRIVE + + +That afternoon when Tom took Ethel for a drive he asked: "Do you see +that large house on the hill?" + +"Yes," replied the girl. "It used to belong to Aunt Susan, didn't it?" + +"It did," replied the man, "and she presented it to the town of Akron +for an asylum for partially insane people--men and women who have +hallucinations only--so that by gentle and humane treatment they may be +helped if not permanently cured, for she believes that many who might +gain their reason are made hopelessly insane by ill usage. She not only +gave the house and land but she added to it a couple of wings, and she +has created of it a most charming Sanitarium. I'll take you there +tomorrow. You see, Aunt Susan gave it out that if the prominent business +men of Akron could raise fifty thousand dollars she would give fifty +more, making the sum total of one hundred thousand dollars as a fund for +the future support of the Asylum, and by George!" said the young man, +"they raised it. So you see so far as money is concerned they are +independent. The capital is invested in bonds and stock, and the Asylum +is run with the dividends, and is well run, too. Aunt Susan is the +head--the President--and at any moment she may surprise them and walk +in. The patients are treated with courtesy and a great many are +discharged cured; in fact, nearly all. It accommodates only fifty +patients--twenty-five of each sex. There's a continuous waiting list and +it's seldom that one isn't greatly benefited after having gone there." + +No wonder Aunt Susan was beloved by the inhabitants, for Tom told Ethel +that she was invariably the first to help anyone in distress. + +"So she wasn't a miser, after all," thought the girl--"She gives away +everything in charity and she saves her money to do so." + +Ethel couldn't fail to observe that Aunt Susan was growing fond of her +and her conscience smote her. She felt that she was a hypocrite. Even as +she pondered she held in her hand a letter received from her mother +which advised her to be tactful and make herself agreeable and +invaluable to the old lady,--alter her gowns and make and trim her hats, +etc. "You're clever, and from helping me sew you have become proficient +and have acquired considerable knowledge of dressmaking. If she's +miserly and won't buy new, my child, you can flatter her by remodeling +her old gowns, etc. Then she'll grow to depend on you. She'll consider +you a good manager and feel that her money will not be wasted by you. +Then, when you marry we'll go abroad to associate with peers and +duchesses and members of the nobility. You'll feel that your period of +imprisonment with Aunt Susan has brought forth fruit." + +With a flushed face Ethel read and reread her mother's letter. She +blushed with shame. Already she had remodeled some of Aunt Susan's +gowns. She was glad that she had done so before the letter came. From +an old silk tissue skirt she had fashioned her a lovely neckpiece with +long ends. She had also made her a dainty hat of fine straw and lace. +She had persuaded her to allow her to dress her hair which grew quite +thick on her head. First, as her hair had originally been black, she +washed and _blued_ it, making it like silver. Then, parting it in front, +she waved it either side and coiled it loosely in the back, and really +Aunt Susan looked like another woman,--most lovely and aristocratic. Tom +was delighted with the metamorphosis and insisted upon Ethel's taking +twenty dollars from him to buy her aunt a new stylish wrap. + +"Oh, I'm so glad it all happened before I received this," she said to +herself, tearing up the letter. "At least I'm not so contemptible as I +might have been had I done as Mamma suggested, for gain only." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SOME CONFIDENCES + + +Aunt Susan now looked up-to-date, younger and happier, and she was most +grateful for everything that Ethel had done for her. They all went to +theaters, moving picture shows, and twice a week Tom would hire a motor +and they'd take long drives far into the country. + +Ethel now knew why Aunt Susan loved the man so dearly. She praised him +constantly and the girl thought: "Well, if as Dorothy Kip expresses it +he's doing these kind acts to 'build character' with Aunt Susan, at +least he's an excellent actor." + +They visited the Insane Asylum. It was like a lovely summer hotel and +the nurses were most solicitous and polite to the patients. Ethel could +understand how they might be cured,--how their poor tired and sick +brains were rested and strengthened by humane treatment. It was a +wonderful revelation to the young girl--this charity of Aunt Susan's. +What a good, worthy woman, and after her death what a reward awaited her +if we are to be rewarded according to our good deeds. + +Ethel was changing. She had lost a good deal of her worldly pride. +Cousin Kate was expected the following week and she was looking forward +to trying on her Camp Fire costume, and to the happy days that were to +come. + +One morning Aunt Susan sat by the window sewing. She looked actually +lovely, or at least Ethel thought so, and longed for Grandmamma to see +the change that she had wrought. As she gazed upon the old lady she said +to herself: "Perhaps, it is because I'm growing so fond of her." + +Aunt Susan had on a white silk sacque that Ethel had made, trimmed with +rare old lace ruffles at the wrist and collar, while her hair was very +white and pretty. There was a gentle breeze blowing in at the window, +and little curly locks fell upon her forehead. + +Ethel was knitting a sweater. She had learned the stitch in the town +where she had bought her wool, and she was making one for her mother. +In after years she never knitted that she didn't think of the +conversation that took place between Aunt Susan and herself. The ground +was covered with white petals of apple and cherry blossoms and it was as +though the snow had fallen in May. She remembered everything connected +with that conversation, and later in life she could close her eyes and +hear the robins calling and see the butterflies flitting among the +bushes, for that morning was the turning point in her life. + +"Aunt Susan," began the girl, knitting very rapidly, "Mr. Tom tells me +that his mother was your pupil. Did you teach very long?" + +"Yes, Ethel," she replied, "I taught for years. Father, although a rich +man, expected his girls to do something, and there he was wise. He +always said that a girl should have some occupation the same as a boy; +then, when ship-wrecks came, they'd know how to swim. In other words, +when one's money was taken away there would be something to fall back +upon. Your grandmother took music lessons and taught for a while, but +she was pretty and during her first visit to New York, Archie Hollister +fell desperately in love and married her. Tom's mother was a fine +character and my favorite pupil. In so many ways Tom resembles her. She +was clever and bright, and so is Tom. Why, Ethel, he has more than paid +me for what I have done for him and Freddie. Today he's not twenty-five +and he's one of our cleverest lawyers. I shouldn't be surprised if some +day Ohio would send him to Congress. You know some of our cleverest men +come from this state,--presidents and statesmen--and Aunt Susan's +cheeks grew pink with excitement. + +"And dear little Fred," she continued--"he was more like a baby. He sort +of clung to me; but, Ethel, they were like my own children, and you've +no idea how happy they made me." + +"Aunt Susan," said Ethel, with her cheeks aflame, "don't think me +impertinent but you seem different from an----" + +"An old maid," laughed Aunt Susan, "that's what you dared not say." + +Ethel nodded and continued: "From the different photographs I have seen +of you, you must have been lovely. Why have you never married?" + +Aunt Susan blushed and said in a low voice: "Ethel, I have been +married." + +The girl started. + +"Haven't you noticed that people call me _Mrs._ Carpenter?" + +"Yes," replied the girl, drawing nearer with wonder in her eyes, "but I +know several maiden ladies who are called 'Mrs.' Mamma has a second +cousin--she's dead now, I mean--but I remember her. She speculated in +Wall Street and had an office, and she insisted upon being called Mrs." + +"Yes, I've heard of women like her," replied Aunt Susan, "but I married +a man by the same name, although no relation. Has your grandmother never +spoken of him?" + +"Never," replied the girl. + +"Well, Alice has always hidden the family skeleton, but I will tell you +all about it. + +"When I was about thirty-six years of age I married Robert Carpenter. I +was alone and wealthy. I loved him and tried to make his life happy, +but he drank. He had inherited that habit from his father, and drinking +led to gambling. He grew worse and worse. One night under the influence +of drink he came home and seemed determined to pick a quarrel. Seeing +that he was irresponsible I made no reply to his very insulting remarks. +That angered him beyond endurance. He struck and threw me across the +room. Then he left the house. + +"Over on the hill by the Asylum is the grave of my little son who was +born and died that night." + +Ethel started. + +"Yes, my dear, I have been a wife and mother. Of course, I knew nothing +until the next day. I recovered consciousness but Robert had gone. He +had taken all of my money that he could find in the house and he had not +gone alone. His companion was a disreputable woman from the town." + +Aunt Susan paused and looked over toward the little grave on the +hillside. + +"It seemed," she continued, "as though God, who knew my sorrow at losing +my little one, sent me my two dear boys--Tom and Fred. They came into my +life when I most needed them and were my greatest comfort, for I was a +lonely woman, my dear. One day I received a letter written in a strange +hand saying that my husband was ill and not likely to live--that he +wished for me, to ask my forgiveness, and he begged me for God's sake to +go to him. I went. He was in Detroit in a squalid boarding house. I was +shocked at the change. I had not realized that a man could so lose his +good looks as he had done. I took him to a clean place kept by a woman +who had been highly recommended. Upon my arrival he wept bitterly and +begged my pardon. Then I was glad that I had never divorced him as my +friends had advised, for the poor man had been deserted by his companion +when the money had gone. He had kept on sinking lower and lower, ashamed +to appeal to me until when what he thought to be his last illness came +upon him he sent for me to ask my forgiveness." + +"Did you give it?" asked the girl. + +"Yes, Ethel, I did, and I gave it freely, because for the year past he +had been stone blind. I was so glad that I could cheer him up and make +the few remaining days of his life liveable." + +"Did you ask him of his companion?" asked Ethel. + +"No, he never spoke of her, nor did I. Had he wished to have told me he +would have done so. Robert had many loveable traits--yes, many noble +traits--but it was drink that ruined him. He was not mercenary. I had +money, but until he began to drink he was too proud to take it from me. +He was truly fond of me and would have married me had I been poor, but +of course after he had started the downward course he lost his pride. + +"Well, I joined him in Detroit and stayed until after he died. His sight +never returned, but I read to him and cheered him up, and I had the +satisfaction of knowing that I made the last part of his life happier. +That's all, my dear. It is almost too sad to tell to a young girl." + +Ethel sat and gazed upon her,--the woman who had shown such mercy to a +brute,--a wife deserted by her husband,--a mother never able to feel the +hand of her little child upon her cheek,--a woman whose life had been +spent in helping others, with no thought of self. The tears came into +the girl's eyes. She seemed to behold a bright halo about Aunt Susan's +head, and it filled her with awe. Suddenly she saw herself as she really +was,--the daughter of a selfish, mercenary mother, whose sole ambition +was for her future position in life. And this was her mission--to visit +this noble woman with a view to ingratiating herself and becoming her +heiress,--to make her think she loved her,--to make herself +indispensable to her. Yes, those were her mother's words. She had +destroyed the letter lest it should be seen, but she knew it by heart. +The young girl saw it all. Her lips quivered and she felt so utterly +unworthy that she fell on her knees and buried her face in Aunt Susan's +lap, sobbing bitterly. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A NEW ETHEL + + +"Oh! Aunt Susan, you don't understand and I am afraid to tell you, but I +am such a wicked girl--such a hypocrite, and so unworthy of your +relationship and love. I am a cheater and a waster. My life is all lies +and sham. It always has been lies and sham. I wish to tell you +everything so that you may see me as I am. + +"I came here to get into your good graces--to win your love that thereby +I might gain your fortune and marry into one of our old families--a man +of great social prominence--and I've been trying to make you like me and +make myself necessary to you. I've tried to give you the impression that +I was clever so that in case you wished to make me your heiress you +would not hesitate for fear that I might be extravagant and a +spendthrift. I can't tell you how bad I am. I've been ashamed of being +seen with you on account of the queer way you dressed. I'm not fit to +put my head in your lap--no, I'm not fit to stay under your roof any +longer," and Ethel's sobs were pitiful to hear. She became hysterical. +Then Aunt Susan took her in her arms. + +"Child," she began, "don't cry. You have told me nothing new. I +understood from the first why you came home with me. You have many noble +traits of character. Your grandmother and I thought that under different +influences you might become a splendid woman. It was she who suggested +my inviting you. You are a good girl, Ethel, and above all you have a +kind and tender heart. You are a Carpenter in spite of your mother, and +anyone bearing my father's name can not go far from right. You have +shown that this morning. Now, my dear, in this world environments have +much to do with one's character, and you have never had a chance, my +poor little girl," and Aunt Susan kissed and soothed her as a mother +might have done. "Now forget it all, my dear child, just as I shall +forget. Let us begin anew from this morning." + +"But, Aunt Susan," sobbed the girl, "I feel so unworthy, and you are so +sweet to forgive me. I should think you'd hate me and want me to leave +your house. But, believe me, I do love you--I love you as dearly as I +love Grandmamma and Papa. Excepting in books I never knew that any one +woman could be so good and self-sacrificing as you are. Oh, will you +believe that I don't want your money, and that I only care for your +respect and forgiveness, and your love, if you can give it?" + +"Yes, my dear, I believe every word that you say. I believe in you from +now on," and Ethel threw her arms around Aunt Susan's neck and wept for +joy. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AUNT SUSAN'S TRIALS + + +"And now sit down, my dear, and I will tell you something. First you can +never be my heiress, for I have no money to give away or leave to +anyone. Tom supports me entirely. You look surprised and I don't wonder. +I never told your grandmother. She is old and, owning the house in New +York as she does, would probably insist upon my living with her; and +until a year ago I had hopes of recovering some of my property that I +had been cheated out of, but I have given it up. I love pretty gowns and +pretty things as well as anyone, but I am saving the money that Tom +insists upon giving me to spend on myself for him. I wish to leave him +something at my death. Now I will tell you about it and how I lost my +fortune. + +"At the time I adopted the boys I was a very wealthy woman. Previous to +that year I had given away a great deal for charity, but I had a hobby +and that hobby was to establish a humane Insane Asylum. I had seen so +much cruelty practiced in different institutions where I happened to +know some of the inmates, and I had heard of such shocking treatment +received by patients, that I resolved to establish a reform. I gave my +handsome home for the Asylum. I spent large sums in fitting it up, so +that it might seem like a beautiful resort to the poor souls, and as Tom +told you, I succeeded in what I undertook. The boys went through school +and college,--or Tom did, and poor Fred would have graduated had he +lived a year longer. It was sad that he had to die, and so young, too." +Aunt Susan wept as she told of his death. + +"Perhaps, you remember, Ethel, of reading or of hearing your father +speak of the failure of the Great Western Cereal Company four years ago. +No? I was under the impression that your father owned a few shares of +stock. Well, all I possessed in the world was invested in that Company. +It produced the greatest excitement known in years; in fact, throughout +the entire West there were panics. Everyone who had a little money saved +up bought stock. The dividends were enormous, but they were bogus; that +is, they were paid to each one from his or her own money. It was one of +those unprincipled concerns. They had been after me for a long while. +They knew that I was honest, wealthy, and respected, and that my name +would attract. At first, I put in only a few thousand; then, as it +prospered, I put in more, and finally I put in all that I possessed, for +I wished to make another fortune that I might build more 'Homes' and do +greater good to suffering humanity. The week before its failure what do +you think? Three of the principals sailed for Europe. Two were caught, +tried and are now serving a long term in prison. Two others committed +suicide. Being one of its directors, when the bubble burst I gave up +everything I possessed to help pay some of its poorer creditors, but it +only went a little way; and I, too, was a victim with the rest. Had I +confided my business to Tom he would have advised me not to invest in +it, for Tom has a wonderful way of advising people for the best, but I +kept it a secret so that when he should come of age I could surprise +him, for then I intended to give him full charge of all my affairs. So +you see, Ethel, I may have appeared close and penurious, but now you +understand why. Tom, although getting on finely, works very hard for +every penny, and at times he is almost too generous." + +"Oh, Aunt Susan," said the girl drying her eyes, "I feel happy now that +you know all and don't despise me. I'm glad that you're poor and that I +shan't get any of your money. I only wish that I might go to college. +Yes, I'd work my way through to get a good education so that I could be +able to earn my living and not take everything from poor Papa, who works +so hard," and Ethel kissed the old lady many times. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +COUSIN KATE ARRIVES + + +Ethel was too loyal to read her mother's letters to Aunt Susan who +always smiled when she received one, but Mrs. Hollister wrote often +asking her how she was progressing. + +"Aunt Susan writes Grandmother that she has grown to love you very +dearly, Ethel, and I see that you have followed my advice like my own +daughter. It is now the sixth of June; probably, you will go with Cousin +Kate to camp soon. I wish it was all over. I don't like the idea at all. +It will throw you in with a common set of girls, I'm sure. We have saved +quite a little this summer by staying home. The girls come in when they +are in town and Grandmother enjoys their visits. Mrs. Bigelow and I met +on the Avenue. She inquired all about you and I told her that upon Aunt +Susan's death you would probably be a very wealthy girl. She admires +you immensely and she told me in confidence that Harvey says when you +are a few years older and 'come out' you will take Society by storm." + +Everyone in the younger set of Akron liked Ethel. She acted in private +theatricals; she sang and played, attended teas, and was sought after +for bridge. She gave card parties, and the young people raved over the +quaintness of the old-fashioned house. She took long walks with Tom. She +inveigled him into high collars and discarding shoestring ties or +wearing cravats in a bow with loose ends. She even persuaded him to give +up slouch hats and dress more up-to-date. He and Aunt Susan dubbed her +the "Rejuvenator and Reformer," and she was contented and happy. + +Cousin Kate arrived and Ethel was overjoyed upon seeing her, she looked +so fine and strong. Her father came with her just to see 'Archie's +girl,' and Ethel loved him instantly. He was so like her father that the +tears came into her pretty eyes when at the depot she kissed him +goodbye. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SELECTING THE COSTUME + + +"You like Father, don't you?" asked Kate of Ethel, as they briskly +walked toward the shopping district. + +"Like him!" replied the girl, "why, Kate, I just love him. He reminds me +of Grandmamma and Papa, but he's more like Grandmamma." + +"He _is_ like her," replied her cousin, "and I tell you, Ethel, he's +just a dear. But, by the way, wasn't Aunt Susan clever to get your +mother to consent to your becoming a Camp Fire Girl? I was so surprised. +You see I had already spoken to Grandmother and you about it. Then I +thought I'd tell Aunt Bella and get her interested in it, and ask her to +let you join _my_ Camp Fire, for Uncle Archie promised me that you +should come out to Ohio and make me a visit. I had it in my mind that +were you to come this summer it would be lovely for you to go with us +to Camp, but do you know, Aunt Bella didn't like it a little bit; in +fact, she became very angry, nor could I convince her of the virtue of +the Camp Fires nor even the Scouts. She made me promise not to mention +the subject again, and on no account in your presence. As I was her +guest, I promised. What knowledge you had you received before. In this +case the 'end has justified the means,' and it was consummated by Aunt +Susan, so it's all right. But here we are. This is the store where they +take orders for Camp Fire costumes. It will take four days to make what +you need. We'll have to hurry them as we leave in five." + +"Oh, Kate," began Ethel in a worried voice, "do you think that I should +let Aunt Susan pay for them. She was awfully generous to offer, but when +I accepted I thought that she was wealthy, you know, and now it's +different. I really feel as though I should not accept." + +"Do you wish my advice?" answered Kate. "You accept them. Why, you might +offend her by refusing. It's her pleasure to start you in this good +work. She obtained your mother's consent and she wishes to present you +with an outfit. Oh, no, it would not do to even demur. Besides, they are +very inexpensive. If you wish, the ceremonial gown of khaki color you +may buy yourself. It can be purchased by the yard and it's of galatea +which is cheap. You are clever with your needle and you can embroider it +with beads and shells. You can also make the leather trimming in no +time, and there's your costume complete. But let her pay for the other. +So come in and be measured." + +The girls selected a blue cloth skirt with pockets. The skirt buttoned +all the way up and down the front and back. They selected two +blouses--serge and galatea--each matching the skirt. The waists were cut +open in the neck. They also ordered a pair of blue serge bloomers to be +used in camping or hiking. These with a hat completed the purchase. + +The hat was of blue cloth with a silver grey "W" on a dark blue +background. The "W" meant "Wohelo" and could be used as a cockade. The +saleswoman explained to Ethel that an emblem of two brown crossed logs +was to be worn on the chest of the blouses. Honors gained in water +sports might be embroidered as decorations around the collar. The same +crossed logs woven into a blue background were used as sleeve emblems. +Ethel saw the sample suit and was charmed. The decorations were unique +and stylish. + +"Please send them direct to Columbus," said Kate, as she paid the bill, +and turning she said to Ethel: "You will be there, and it will save +time. They generally fit perfectly; if not, as you know something of +sewing, we can alter them to fit." + +"I guess I do know something of sewing," replied Ethel. "I can do +beautiful work and I can ride horseback, and I'm at home on a 'bike'." + +Cousin Kate laughed. + +"Well, I'm glad of that, for at first when you start in you'll be a +Wood-Gatherer. Three months is the regular time, but you will be living +in camp and will probably be able to fulfil all requirements in a +month. Your knowing these things will help you too." + +"Tell me something about it, Kate," said Ethel on their way home. "After +you have been a 'Wood Gatherer' you become a 'Fire Maker'?" she asked. + +"Yes. When you first enter, the Guardian of your Camp Fire gives you a +silver ring on which is engraved a bundle of seven fagots, representing +the seven points of the law. You give her the size, your address, etc., +and she gets it at Headquarters for you, announcing your desire to +become one. You must promise not to sell nor give it away. It may belong +only to a Camp Fire Girl. Upon your right arm, as you already know, are +the crossed logs, etc. When you become a Fire Maker you may add the +orange color to your Wood Gatherer's emblem. This color represents +flame, and when you advance to the position of Torch Bearer you may add +a touch of white which represents smoke from the flame. Then, while you +are in that class, you may wear the Fire Maker's bracelet. 'Fire' is the +symbol of our organization. For decorative purposes it may be +represented by the rising sun. + +"Now the symbol of membership is the tall pine tree. That stands for +simplicity and strength. Of course, you know the watchword--'Work, +Health, and Love.' The first two letters of each form the one word +'Wohelo.' After joining you'll learn everything. + +"Honors are symbolized by different colored beads--'Health craft,' +bright red beads; 'Home craft,'orange; 'Nature love,' sky blue; 'Camp +craft,' wood brown; 'Hand craft,' green; 'Business,' black and gold; and +'Patriotism,' red, white and blue. These, and the seven laws, are +represented by the seven fagots on the ring. The beads are strung on +leather and may become part of the ceremonial dress. + +"Now the name of my Camp Fire is 'Ohio.' It is an Indian name and means +'beautiful.' You know Ohio is called the 'Buckeye State,' Buckeye +meaning 'Ohio Horse-Chestnuts.' Unlike your horse-chestnut, our tree is +small and its flower is red. So our 'totem' or symbol is Buckeye,' or +the 'Horse-Chestnut.' + +"The girls are to meet at our house the night before we start. Then you +can learn the sign, how to keep count, and the different poems you are +to say; and the 'Wohelo' ceremony, toasts, songs, etc. This is all that +I shall tell you now. Our camp is near the Muskingum river. We have no +very high elevations in Ohio. The highest is only about fifteen hundred +feet. Where we go is a pleasant stretch of woods. There we camp out for +a month or so. A clearing has been made; we can put up tents and be very +comfortable. It is not far from a small town and the girls can walk in +when they choose. Other 'Camp Fires' will be there as well, so there +will be no lack of society. But, my dear girl, if I were you I'd join +one in New York and keep steadily at it. It's the only way to become +proficient and gain honors and advancement, and that's your aim, isn't +it?" + +"It is, Kate," replied the girl, "I shall surely join this fall. An aunt +of one of the girls in our set is a Guardian of eight girls or more, and +she's simply lovely. I shall certainly keep it up--never you fear." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ETHEL MEETS HER UNCLE AND AUNT + + +Aunt Susan was most interested in the description of the costume, its +symbols, etc. Ethel thanked her gratefully for her gift, impulsively +kissing her many times. The elderly woman had grown very fond of the +girl and dreaded parting with her, but she knew that the new work she +was about to take up would be of the greatest benefit to her, not only +then but in the future, for Ethel had softened wonderfully. She had lost +all of her false pride and worldliness. It was as though a new girl had +arisen from the ashes of the old one, and now she stood revealed as +Nature had intended her--without sham,--and knowing that it was she who +had helped to bring it about, Aunt Susan was happy. She was proud of the +two girls--her grandnieces,--Ethel with the delicate beauty of a bud, +while Kate appeared and reminded her of a full blown rose. She was tall +and finely formed, with hair that envious people often termed red, but +it really had escaped being red and was auburn. The girl wore it in +coils around her shapely head. Her eyes were of the softest brown, while +Ethel's were of a deep blue. Each girl had regular features and fine +teeth. They resembled each other to that extent that they were often +taken for sisters, and Tom was proud of them as well and was delighted +to take them out. + +"Why," he'd say, "when I'm out with you two girls everyone makes such a +fuss over me that I really feel as though I was 'somebody,' and I know +it's all on your account. The fellows come up and say 'Harper, old man, +I haven't seen you for an age,' or, 'Harper, I heard of you through so +and so last week. I wish to congratulate you on that case, etc.' But I +know what it means,--they want an introduction to you girls--and I strut +around like a peacock." + +But the day for their departure arrived only too soon: + +"I'll write every other day to you, Auntie," called Ethel from the car +window. + +"How about writing to me?" shouted Tom. + +"Once a week to you, Tom," laughed Ethel. + +Uncle John Hollister met them at the depot and Ethel at once fell in +love with Kate's mother, who seemed more like the girl's sister. They +vied with one another to give Ethel a good time and she enjoyed every +moment. She met the Camp Fire girls, some of whom were charming. Two of +the girls--Mattie Hastings and Honora Casey--she did not care for. To +her they seemed unlike the others and she found herself saying mentally, +"They are extremely common; I wonder where Kate picked them up," +immediately after which she would become ashamed. + +"I'm going back into my old ways," she thought. "These girls are to be +my sisters and companions. I _must_ like them." + +Honora had a large red face, partially freckled. Her voice was loud and +coarse. She seemed to be one of the "nouveau riche," as Ethel's mother +was wont to say of people grown suddenly wealthy and prosperous. Yet +Ethel was not alone in her dislike of the girl. No one seemed to care +for her, although each member treated her politely. + +Mattie Hastings had small eyes that never seemed to look you quite fully +in the face. She had also an obsequious manner. At times it was fairly +repellent. + +"I wouldn't trust her," Ethel said to Kate one evening. + +"She's not popular, I admit, and her manner is against her, but, Ethel, +I have never found a fault in her; that is, one I could criticise. She +is very quick to learn and seems ambitious. She came to me and asked if +she might join. They are poor but her people are respectable. Now Honora +Casey's parents are the wealthiest people here. They came into their +wealth suddenly. The father is a builder and contractor. The mother is +hurting the girl by her method of trying to get into society. She fairly +pushes everything before her. Mr. Casey, or Pat Casey, as he is called, +is a good-hearted Irishman. He is sensible and knows that it is his +money that buys everything, even social standing, for although much +respected he is a man of no education, nor has his wife any more than +he, but she tries to bluff it through, therefore she is not popular. +Nora has been educated, or half educated, at a Convent. She never +graduated, but she's so good-hearted one can overlook her mother's +faults. You see, Ethel, it takes all sorts of people to make a world. We +must try to excuse their failings and see only the best in them. Of +course, you know we are an old family of good standing and can go where +we choose. Perhaps it was on that account that Mrs. Casey made Nora join +my Camp Fire Girls, but she seemed most anxious that she should. It +doesn't matter much. She'll make a fine woman if she sticks to her work. +You see, our organization is most democratic. One has only to express a +wish and she may become a member." + +"The other girls are lovely," said Ethel. "I think Patty Sands is +charming." + +"Isn't she?" responded Kate. "Her father is an ex-Congressman. He is +Judge of the Supreme Court. He didn't care for politics--refused the +second term." + +"Yes, I suppose it is poor taste for me to even criticise the girls, but +every once in a while the old bad habit comes back and I forget my good +resolutions. At heart they are probably far better girls than I, but I +do wish that Mattie Hasting's eyes were not so close together." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +GATHERING OF THE "OHIOS" + + +That evening the girls met in Kate Hollister's library. Although it was +June and there was a log fire in the fireplace it was not warm. The +girls carried a small flag upon which the word "Ohio" was embroidered, +and underneath appeared a horse-chestnut. Each girl had made her own +flag and they were well done. + +That afternoon Kate had taken her cousin to the Camp Fire counsel, +where, upon her signifying the desire to become a member, the silver +ring had been presented to her. + +After order had been established and the roll called, Kate, who made a +dignified Guardian, began to address the girls, formally introducing +her cousin, the new member. Then Ethel repeated the following: + +"It is my desire to become a Camp Fire Girl and to obey the Law of the +Camp Fire, which is + + Seek beauty, + Pursue knowledge, + Give service, + Be trustworthy, + Hold on to health, + Glorify work, + Be happy. + +"This Law of the Camp Fire I will strive to follow." + +Then she took her seat while Kate arose and explained the Law, phrase by +phrase, after which Ethel stood before her and repeated the Wood +Gatherer's Desire, whereupon she taught Ethel the "sign" which was made +by flattening the fingers of the right hand against those of her left, +which indicates crossed logs. From the first position, Ethel raised her +right hand and followed the curves of an imaginary flame. Kate explained +that this sign was used by the early American Indians. It may be made +easier by placing the fingers of the right hand across those of the left +with the forefinger slightly raised. Ethel learned how to use the sign +and practiced it, after which Kate presented or awarded honors to the +various girls who had worked for them. They were only the different +colored beads, but each girl's eyes beamed with happiness as she +received them. + +Then they showed Ethel the "Count" book, in which were kept records of +their work and play. The leaves were of brown paper and laced together +with a leather thong or cord. The cover was of leather also. Symbolic +charts for recording the requirements of the Fire Maker and Torch +Bearer, as well as for nearly two hundred Elective Honors, were parts of +the book. The book contained ninety-six pages. It was arranged for a +group of twelve girls. Should the group grow larger, more leaves could +be added. Three leaves for each girl were in the first part of the book. +These were for recording the honors and requirements, making thirty-six +pages. The balance of the pages were for the records of events, +pictures, and pen and ink sketches, etc. + +The totem of the Camp Fire is as painted on the brown leather cover. It +should always tell some legend or story--some natural industry or beauty +which is true to the locality in which the Camp Fire is located. The +"Ohio" Camp Fire totem was a large horse-chestnut under the word +"Buckeye." The first leaf was left blank; the second was the title leaf +upon the top of which appeared the name of the Camp Fire, and at the +bottom the date of the first council fire; following the title leaf each +girl fills out her group of three leaves. On the first she will write +her name, date of birth, parents' names, birthplace, and present +address. She also puts down the date as she attains each rank, using for +the month the Indian name. On the next leaf were symbols of all Elective +Honors, and these were painted in colors corresponding to the beads +received. The third leaf for each girl was for her individual +symbol,--the chosen name with its meaning,--for each girl naturally +wishes to own some name by which she may be known. She may hold some +desire which to her may mean the way in which she may give of herself +the best. Perhaps some poem has lines which she feels are a response to +her desire. Not only could these girls write what happened and insert +photographs of their excursions, but they were at liberty to make pen +pictures along the margin of the leaves of the book--all Indian signs +from a moon to a snake, telling of a trip to Rat snake Pond, etc. They +were to use the rhythm of Hiawatha, which after a little practice becomes +the natural language for some girls and it adds much to the interest of +the Count; for instance, + + "Supper over, now they hasten + To their wigwams, all excitement, + And from hence soon reappearing + Now true Indian maidens seem they," + etc. + +"Now that we have initiated our new member," said Kate, "and have +explained to her about the Count book, etc., we shall postpone the rest +of the ceremonies until we reach Camp, as I know that each one of you +will need your rest. So we'll meet at the train for the boat landing at +eleven tomorrow. I hope it will be a fair day. Take plenty of wraps +along for it is cold tonight and it bids fair to be so tomorrow." + +Then saying goodnight to each as they left the room, Kate and Ethel +found themselves alone in front of the dying fire. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE TRIP UP THE RIVER + + +It turned out to be a lovely day. Ethel was most excited. The tents, +cooking utensils, pillows, cots, etc., had been sent two days before by +freight. The trunks alone remained to be taken to the boat, and they +were only steamer trunks. + +Uncle John went along to see them safely on board the train that +connected with the small boat that plied daily up the Muskingum river. + +"If you get homesick, little one," he said to Ethel, "you come right +back to us. Don't you stay if you don't like it." + +"Oh, Uncle John, how could I get homesick with Kate?" she replied; "but +I shall miss you awfully." + +The whistle blew and away they went. It was a pretty sail and the girls +were in a happy frame of mind. Nora Casey looked like one immense +freckle. She was in high spirits and now and then relapsed into a jolly +brogue caught from her parents, for Nora was born in America. + +"Faith and it's sailing that I enjoy," she said to Ethel, coming up the +stairway from the deck below. "I'm afther taking some pictures of the +river for our Count book." Then catching herself she talked perfectly +correct without the slightest trace. + +They watched the banks on either side, dotted now and then by pretty +houses and thriving fields of buckwheat and clover. + +Patty Sands sat by Ethel. They were very congenial. The rest of the +girls chattered together. Mattie Hastings sat beside Kate Hollister and +regarded her with adoring looks. Nora chatted excitedly; once in a while +Kate would check her exuberance of spirits, as her voice could be heard +by people on the shore. Said Kate: + +"Girls, there are several beautiful legends connected with this river. I +read a new one the other day. At our first Camp Fire I'll relate it. We +can copy it in our book under our totem. Suppose each of you girls write +an original legend and read it aloud some rainy night." + +"Good for Miss Hollister!" cried Honora. "We will." + +So they promised. + +Soon the journey came to an end. A four-seated buckboard stage had been +engaged by Uncle John to meet the party and carry them up the steep hill +into camp. + +"Oh, isn't this jolly?" said Ethel enthusiastically. "What lovely +woods!" + +And indeed they looked like a picture with the June sunshine every now +and then bursting through the trees. The road was narrow but it was a +good road for walking. The old buckboard creaked and groaned with its +load of eight girls, their Guardian, and the driver. Every once in a +while the horses would stop and the driver dismount and with his +handkerchief wipe off the white sweat that looked like soapsuds. + +"He's a kind man," said Kate. + +Then when his handkerchief was too wet to use he would pick up handfuls +of grass to use for their comfort, after which he would get up on the +seat and drive them again, but he must have stopped ten times before +reaching the clearing where the Camp was to be. + +"Oh, look!" cried Patty. "Miss Hollister, our four tents are up." + +"Yes, that's Father's surprise," she rejoined. "He sent up one of his men +yesterday so that we need have no trouble." And turning to Ethel she +said: "Usually we have to hire a man in the village to come up and do +such work, but Father has anticipated us this time." + +"Isn't he lovely?" said the girls in unison, jumping like children from +the wagon and peeping into each tent. There were all the baskets ready +to be unpacked, and following the buckboard came the trunks. + +They quickly removed their hats, etc., and bade the driver goodbye, who +by the way was now using handfuls of leaves to clean the animals; after +which each one was assigned her task. + +"Patty Sands, you may unpack and wipe the china. Mattie Hastings, you +may put it in place. Ethel, you may watch this time, as you are a +tenderfoot. Nora, you arrange the blankets, towels, and linen in order, +will you?" And so Kate kept each girl working. + +Mollie Long made the cots; Sallie Davis put the cooking utensils in +place; Edith Overman and Edna Whitely began gathering sticks for the +fire. + +"Oh!" ejaculated Ethel, "that's my task, isn't it? I'm the Wood +Gatherer," she said. + +"The first day a tenderfoot is our guest," replied Mollie Long, +laughing. "You wander away and think of the story you'll have to write +and read aloud." + +"In other words," broke in Nora, "go way back and sit down." + +But Ethel watched the girls work. It was a revelation to her. They +seemed more like boys. + +"Why," explained Edna Whitely, "if necessary we could drive the stakes +and put up our tent, couldn't we, Miss Hollister?" + +"Yes, I hope you'd be able to," she said. "I think women do far harder +work than that every day." + +Kate had changed her gown for a pair of bloomers and was working hard +running back and forth giving orders like a general. By twilight every +trunk was unpacked and in its place. Each girl had changed her gown and +the Camp Fire was ready to light after tea. Then came preparations. In +one tent there was an oil stove. Outside stood a barrel of oil. It was +an extra tent to be used as a kitchen. Two upright stakes with one +running across, upon which were many hooks, served to hold all of the +kitchen utensils. They hung from it as naturally as though in a real +kitchen. One of the packing boxes became a serving table and afterwards +did duty for a sink. In the center of the kitchen was a long table made +of planks laid upon a wooden horse at either end. When pleasant the +girls preferred to eat outside, sitting Indian fashion, but when rainy +the kitchen tent made an admirable shelter. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +AN EVENING IN CAMP + + +The supper was prepared by the Fire Makers,--Edith Overman, Patty Sands, +and Mattie Hastings. Patty baked a couple of large pans of delicious +biscuits. Mattie made tea and eggs scrambled with cheese. Edith Overman +boiled some rice for dessert so that each flake stood alone and was +creamy, upon which the girls put butter and sugar or butter and maple +syrup. Later in the season they picked berries and had them for tea. + +The meal was well cooked and they enjoyed it. Ethel cleared the table. +Sallie Davis and Mollie Long washed the dishes, while Nora and Edna +Whitely tidied up the tent, after which the fire was lighted with the +usual ceremony. Ethel as a Wood Gatherer insisted upon bringing the +twigs, wood and kindling. The Fire Maker--Edna Whitely--arranged them +ready to light. Kate chanted a command to Mollie Long and Nora Casey, +who were Torch Bearers. + +In the meanwhile each one seated herself around the fire. Mollie and +Kate then came forward, and by rubbing two sticks together ignited the +paper under the shavings, and soon there burst up a beautiful flame. +Then the girls arose and repeated: + + "Burn, fire, burn, + Flicker, flicker, flame, + Whose hand above this blaze is lifted + Shall be with magic touch engifted + To warm the hearts of lonely mortals + Who stand without their open portals: + The torch shall draw them to the fire, + Higher, higher, + By desire. + Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone + Flame fanned + Shall never, never stand alone; + Whose house is dark and bare and cold, + Whose house is cold, + This is his own. + Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame, + Burn, fire, burn." + +After which Edna repeated the Fire Maker's song: + + "As fuel is brought to the fire, + So I purpose to bring + My strength, + My ambition, + My heart's desire + My joy + And my sorrow + To the fire + Of humankind; + For I will tend, + As my fathers have tended, + And my fathers' fathers + Since time began, + The fire that is called + The love of man for man, + The love of man for God." + +They gave toasts, told stories and sang songs. Edith Overman had a keen +sense of humor and she told some anecdotes that were exceedingly droll. +Ethel and Edna Whitely vied in asking conundrums. Kate Hollister then +related her capital story, "The Legend of the Muskingum." + +"Before I begin," she said, "for Ethel's benefit I wish to tell you +something of the origin of the Camp Fire. This I read in a New York +magazine. + +"'If we go back as far as possible we come to a primitive time when +human life centered about the Camp Fire. It was, and is still, the +center of family life, and today it is around the fire that the family +and friends gather. The fire gives warmth and cheer to the home. The +day's work is begun with fire. When the fire is out the house is +cheerless. Fire stands for Home--for the Community Circle and New +Patriotism. It was also in these primitive days that the first grand +division of labor was made. The man,--the provider and defender of the +family--went out into the wilderness to hunt, while the woman stayed at +home to keep the pot boiling, and in spite of all of the changes in +social life that division has remained to a very large extent until this +day. + +"'Some years ago, when the Boy Scout movement first started, it began +with the Camp Fire. No doubt one reason for its popularity was the fact +that it gave the boys opportunity to play what was in the old days the +man's game--that of hunter, trapper, and soldier. + +"'Boys may be Scouts, but you girls are going to keep the place to which +the Scout must return. And now this movement, similar to the Boy Scouts, +has been started for girls. It started also with the Camp Fire, and the +organization thus formed is the Camp Fire Girls.'" + +Everyone clapped their hands. + +"When I read the above," said Kate, "I learned it by heart, knowing that +all of you would be interested to know the true significance of the Camp +Fire. And now for the Legend." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE LEGEND OF THE MUSKINGUM RIVER + + +"Long years ago there lived a brave Indian chief called Wa-chi-ta; in +fact, he and his tribe inhabited a portion of this state--perhaps in the +vicinity of these very trees. + +"He was a kind and humane man, and his wife, Ona-pas-see, was like him +in that respect, therefore they were dearly beloved by their subjects. +They had three fine sons but no daughter, so when a little girl came to +them they were exceedingly happy and there was great rejoicing. + +"'As she is fair and beautiful to behold we will call her O-hi-o,' said +the Chief. ("As we know, Ohio means 'beautiful,'" said Kate.) + +"So little O-hi-o waxed strong and grew into a woman worthy of her name. +She was idolized by Ona-pas-see and spoiled by Wa-chi-ta. + +"After the manner of all maidens, when she arrived at the marriageable +age from miles around came many braves to pay their respects. They +brought her rare and costly gifts of silver, copper, and gold--of beads +and bears' claws, as well as the skins of the fox, squirrel, and ermine. + +"O-hi-o smiled sweetly and accepted her gifts with pretty speeches of +thanks, but of the young men she would have none. Her parents worried +not a little, as they wished to see her settled in life, living in her +own wigwam. Her brothers talked with her upon her duty, but she only +smiled, showing her pretty teeth and arranged her headband of beads, +using for a glass the clear stream near the wigwam. + +"The squaws declared that she would never marry--that soon would go her +youth and good looks; then the braves would seek some maiden younger and +fairer. But O-hi-o only shook her head and ran to her father to be +kissed. + +"'She is proud,' they said, gazing after her, 'No one is good enough for +her. She will meet with her punishment--watch.' + +"Then behold! there came to the village one day a young +warrior--Mus-kin-gum by name. He came from a tribe many miles distant, +bearing a message from its Chief to Wa-chi-ta. + +"O-hi-o sat near her father. She was embroidering a wampum belt with +different colored beads and shells, skilfully fashioning birds, +butterflies, animals, etc. As she glanced up shyly, lo! her eye caught +the eye of the young brave. The blood flew into her cheeks and her heart +started in to beat as though it would burst. While delivering his speech +to Wa-chi-ta young Mus-kin-gum grew scarlet and embarrassed. + +"That was the beginning. It was in June. The birds sang their love songs +and the air was filled with mysterious romance and sweetness. Permission +had been granted by Wa-chi-ta to Mus-kin-gum to pay his addresses to his +daughter O-hi-o, and when he told her of his love he said: + +"'Why confess it? You have known since the day in the wigwam when our +eyes met and my soul fell captive to your beauty and sweetness.' + +"Then, when upon the mountain sides the trees hung out their yellow, +gray and scarlet banners, with great pomp and ceremony these two young +people were wed, and the festivities lasted for days. Everyone was happy +because Wa-chi-ta was happy, and all of the tribe loved Wa-chi-ta. + +"As for O-hi-o and Mus-kin-gum, they were content. They lived in a fine +wigwam and adored each other. While her husband was in the woods +shooting game or fishing, Ohio would sit in the doorway and watch for +his return, and as for him, his eyes were constantly roving towards the +valley where he could see the smoke coming from a certain wigwam; and +when it came in volumes as though from a freshly started fire, his heart +would rejoice, for then he knew that O-hi-o was preparing the supper and +it was time to return. + +"And so these two who loved each other lived in one continual honeymoon +until the arrival of little Mus-kin-gum--a strong, lusty, little fellow +looking not unlike Wa-chi-ta, which pleased his grandfather only too +well. It was his father's delight to attend to his education, and his +father was not only beloved by his tribe but feared by his enemies. So +he wished to teach his little son to be honest, kind and fearless. He +wished him to be brave and able to lead his tribe into battle--to die +for them if necessary. He taught the boy to aim well and shoot with a +bow and arrow, and when he was about seven years old it was his delight +to accompany big Mus-kin-gum on his shooting expeditions--to help him +fish and hunt. Together they would tramp for miles, and O-hi-o would sit +in her doorway and embroider, thanking the Great Spirit that she had two +warriors to look after instead of one; and little Mus-kin-gum would clap +his hands with joy when she'd say: + +"'What has the little warrior shot today?' And her husband would reply: +'He has helped me; he has carried my heavy bow and arrow; and he has +also carried these,' displaying a large string of fish. 'Besides, he +caught two of them.' + +"Of course, they talked in Indian language, which is more beautiful than +ours. + +"Then on their trips Mus-kin-gum would teach his little son how to +distinguish one tree from another by examining its leaves; how to tell +the name of a bird by listening to its call; how to read the signs of +the Indians; how to read from their tracks the whereabouts of the enemy, +the trail of the animals, and the secrets of the woods--the song of the +birds, the whispering of the trees, and the murmuring of the brook; +about the way of flowers, ferns, etc., and the names of the different +nuts and fruits that flower first and then become ripe and fall to the +ground. + +"He taught him about the different animals and how to trap and shoot +them, and lastly he taught him about the stars and the stories connected +with them. Little Mus-kin-gum could point out the Dipper or Great Bear, +the Little Bear, how the last star but one in the Dipper--the star at +the bend of the handle--is called 'Mizar,' one of the horses; and just +above tucked close in is a smaller star--'Alcor' or 'the rider.' The +Indians called these two the 'Old Squaw and the Papoose on her back,' +and the young men would say to the little fellow: 'Do you see the +papoose on the old squaw's back?' + +"Then at once he'd point to them, and the parents would be proud of him. + +"His father also taught him that shaking a blanket in Indian language +meant 'I want to talk with you.' Holding up a tree branch--'I wish to +make peace.' Holding up a weapon--'I am prepared to fight,' and many +others like our own signal of the Camp Fires," said Kate, "which is one +of the oldest of Indian signs." + +"Isn't this a lovely story?" broke in Patty. "I can't wait for its +finish." + +"And it's late; I'll have to talk more rapidly, I fear," replied Miss +Hollister, "or postpone the rest until tomorrow night." + +"Oh, don't," went up a shout of young voices,--"please finish. Why, we'd +keep awake all night if you stopped now." + +Kate laughed good-naturedly and signed to one of the Fire Makers to put +on more wood. Quickly Ethel jumped up and brought an armful, for our +Camp was very ceremonious. Then as the flame burst forth anew she +proceeded: + +"So you can see that little Mus-kin-gum was a loveable child, endowed +with more than ordinary intelligence. His father also told him of the +Great Spirit, and the child listened reverently. He was an unusual +child--bright for his age--and he learned quickly. He was also +affectionate, and Mus-kin-gum became as weak as a woman when the little +fellow would put his arms about his neck or clasp him by the hand. + +"The mother had taught the child a prayer to the Great Spirit. It was +this: + +"'Great Spirit, listen Thou to us; guide us this day; help us, lest we +fall; make our will Thy will--our ways Thy way.' + +"Mus-kin-gum's great fear was that he might lose him ere he grew up to +manhood, for next to O-hi-o he adored his boy. + +"One morning big and little Mus-kin-gum started for the woods. They were +in high spirits as they kissed O-hi-o goodbye. + +"'We will shoot for you a big deer,' said the boy, 'and we will bring to +you many large fish.' + +"O-hi-o smiled and wished them luck. After watching until out of sight +she left her wigwam to spend the day with her parents. It was a warm +June day and it reminded O-hi-o of her courting days. She lived it all +over again, and her heart gave thanks to the Great Spirit for His +kindness--for the wonderful love and happiness that had since been hers +in the possession of her husband and child. And the birds sang as on the +day that Mus-kin-gum first beheld her at the door of her father's +wigwam. She could see his eyes holding her own; she could feel her heart +bounding in her bosom, and the red flushed into her cheek even as it had +done then. + +"She spent a pleasant day talking of her two dear ones and her parents +were never weary of listening. They made her repeat the little prayer +said to the Great Spirit by the idolized grandson. + +"'I must leave now,' she said, 'and prepare their supper. They will be +watching in the valley for the smoke from our wigwam,' and kissing her +parents fondly she left. + +"In the meanwhile it grew dark. + +"'Little one,' said Mus-kin-gum, 'we must hasten. I feel rain in the +air. Look at the clouds and behold it in them ready to fall.' + +"And the little fellow looked and laughed, thinking it fun to be caught +in a shower. They were close to the edge of the woods ready to descend +the path leading to the valley, when suddenly with terrific force the +rain began to fall, followed by a mighty wind that rent the clouds and +rushed through the woods. Thunder pealed loud and long; lightning +flashed, blinding the eyes. Little Mus-kin-gum grew pale and trembled. +Never before had he feared a storm. + +"'It is the voice of the Great Spirit,' he said solemnly, and began to +repeat the prayer. + +"Seeing his fright, his father drew the boy's head to his breast and +held it there so that he might not see the lightning as it flashed with +unusual violence. + +"At last one flash came, and with it went the spirit of brave +Mus-kin-gum. His arms loosened their hold on the screaming child. He +reeled and fell backward--dead. The last bolt had killed him. + +"Then followed peal after peal of thunder. The boy called to him in +vain. He even tried to raise him in his arms. Seeing that it was useless +he threw himself on his breast and moaned, every now and then lamenting +in loud cries. + +"The storm ceased. When, after the night fell, and Mus-kin-gum and the +boy failed to appear, O-hi-o gathered together a band of young men from +nearby and started out to search for them. O-hi-o kept calling, +'Mus-kin-gum, where art thou? My little one--art thou safe?' + +"Then on the air floated a child's voice calling to its mother. + +"Like a deer, O-hi-o flew to the spot. The child was rubbing his eyes. +He had fallen asleep on his dead father's breast and was awakened by his +mother's voice, but he never left his father's body. + +"As O-hi-o drew near she beheld her poor brave handsome Mus-kin-gum +lying with his face upturned to the moon, whose beams fell upon him. +O-hi-o knelt down and kissed her husband but she uttered no cry--only a +dull muffled moan escaped her, for she was the daughter of an Indian +Chieftain and it would not have done. She had been taught to bear pain +without a murmur, but the look upon her face was terrible. The young men +would gladly have died to have brought young Mus-kin-gum to life for her +sake. + +"Then the eldest lifted the child, who still sat by his dead father's +side, and placed him in his mother's arms, and as the little fellow +sobbed and kissed her lo! her eyes filled with tears and she headed the +procession that followed bearing the body of their beloved Mus-kin-gum +adown the steep path that led to her wigwam. + +"And Mus-kin-gum was buried with great ceremony and honors becoming a a +man of his station. But O-hi-o took no further interest in life. The +child now clung to his grandfather, who tried to take his father's +place. Every day O-hi-o would lead him to the grave on the mountain +side, and together they would pray to the Great Spirit. + +"'And I prayed in the woods,' said the boy, 'when the thunder rolled and +the lightning came, but the Great Spirit turned away his face and took +my father.' + +"'He was called to live among the stars,' O-hi-o would reply. + +"'And is he up there?" the child would ask. 'I will look for him,' after +which every night would little Mus-kin-gum stand or lie on the ground +gazing at the stars, declaring at times that he could discern his father +looking down upon them. + +"But alas! from the day of the storm the boy could never again hear the +voice of thunder, nor see the flashes of lightning, without going into +convulsions. Upon the first distant roar he would jump up and down, +scream loudly, and run to his mother, burying his head on her breast, +relapsing into a state of semi-consciousness until the storm should have +passed. It was pitiful, and poor O-hi-o's tears would fall on the boy's +head, for it was thus he had stood before his father while Mus-kin-gum +met his death. + +"As time went on the attacks grew worse. Vainly did old Wa-chi-ta +summon the best known medicine men and old women, but each one shook his +or her head doubtfully. Vainly did the tribe assemble in the Council +wigwam to consult with one another and pray to the Great Spirit for +Mus-kin-gum's son--for his recovery. Nothing seemed to avail. The child +grew worse and worse, never caring to leave his mother's side. + +"Then came a bad year for the Indians. There was a drought. The fruit +fell from the trees while yet in flower. The grass turned brown and +withered. The crops died. The water dried up and there was none for the +cattle. The different tribes met and prayed with no result. + +"'We must die,' they said. 'Behold! the Lake even has gone, and +something must be done.' + +"And the wise men declared that the Great Spirit must be angry with them +and that he demanded of them a sacrifice. The more they talked the more +they believed that it was imperative. 'One life must be sacrificed,' +they said,--'one life for many. That is the only way to save our people. +No rain has fallen in nearly four months. The Great Spirit demands and +must be obeyed.' + +"Then into the midst of the wise men and chieftains came O-hi-o. She was +very beautiful and the braves held their breath as they gazed upon her. +By her hand she led the son of Mus-kin-gum. + +"'I have heard what you said--oh! wise men,' she began. 'I have no wish +to live longer. I and my son are ready to be your sacrifice. My heart is +in the grave upon the mountain side. My son is not strong; his health is +poor. We give ourselves for the good of our people.' + +"Many wept. The wise men regarded her as they might an angel sent by the +Great Spirit. Her parents gazed upon her with pride and adoration. + +"'But,' she continued, 'I would choose the manner of my death. On the +pinnacle of rocks overlooking this valley, where each day that he hunted +in the woods my dear Mus-kin-gum would stand and wave to me, tomorrow +night 'neath the light of the moon, with my son's hand in mine--together +he and I will leap from that rock into the valley below,--the once +lovely valley now so desolate. Do not refuse me,' she cried, as many +protested suggesting others not so young. 'No, I will gladly make the +sacrifice for my dear father's people.' + +"So they counselled together and accepted the offer made by their +Chieftain's daughter. + +"O-hi-o and Mus-kin-gum spent their last day with the old people, who, +while filled with pride, were heartbroken. They clung to the mother and +child, nor were they ashamed to show their love and weakness. + +"'I shall be with my father,' said little Mus-kin-gum. 'You may look for +my mother and me in the stars, Grandpa. I have seen father there. Be +sure and watch; we shall all be together,' and the child smiled as he +kissed his grandparents, whose hearts were breaking. + +"'My two brave ones,' said old Wa-chi-ta, 'if the rain comes to us it +will be you who have sent it.' + +"The tribes assembled from miles around. It was a hot, torrid night, +although the moon shone brightly. All was silent as O-hi-o and little +Mus-kin-gum came forth to the sacrifice. She wore her ceremonial +costume; her long, black hair was flowing and held in by a beaded +headband. She looked so beautiful as she marched up the mountain that +people wept, but she walked proudly with her head erect, leading her +child by the hand, and the little fellow also held his head upright and +seemed without fear. Soon the ledge was reached. Looking down into the +valley below they took their position. + +"'Farewell,' said O-hi-o, 'I do this for the love I bear you, my +people.' + +"Then she kissed the boy many times and, reconsidering, she lifted him +in her arms. The child put his face to hers and clung tightly about her +neck. She whispered in his ear. He raised his head and called aloud: +'May the rain fall and may you all be happy.' + +"Then holding her child close to her heart the brave woman stepped to +the edge, closed her eyes, and leaped into the valley below,--the valley +in which stood her wigwam." + +Kate paused. The girls were hanging breathlessly on her words. Sallie +Davis and Mattie Hastings were crying, while Edna Whitely and Mollie +Long drew nearer. + +"Oh, don't stop," gasped Patty Sands, "please go on, Miss Kate. I'm all +excited." + +Kate laughed. + +"Do let me get my breath, girls. I had no idea it would take me so +long." + +"There fell no rain that night, but the people as they marched down into +the valley thought of nothing but the sacrifice. Probably had it rained +they would not have known it. They were silent, thinking with admiration +of the wonderful act of heroism that they had just witnessed. + +"The next day searching parties started out to seek the bodies of the +mother and child, but not a trace could be found. + +"'The Great Spirit has taken them in the flesh,' they said. 'Perhaps He +is angry that we allowed it.' + +"Everyone grew frightened. None seemed to care to speak. Suddenly a low +peal of thunder was heard, then a louder one, after which came a flash +of lightning. + +"'A storm!" they cried, 'the sacrifice has not been in vain,' and they +fell to their knees. + +"It rained as it had never rained before. It fell in sheets. The cattle +drank greedily and the water was plentiful. After the third day it grew +lighter and the rain slacked. People ventured out of doors, and lo! the +valley with the wigwam of Mus-kin-gum had disappeared. In its place, +behold! a river. Up and down as far as eye could reach flowed the +shining waters. A miracle had been performed, and the wise men came from +miles around. + +"'We will call the river O-hi-o,' they said, 'for it is the soul of her +who has saved us.' + +"And the river spread and grew larger. The braves explored and found +that it was too long to measure. It would take days and days to find the +end; in fact, they doubted that there could be an end. + +"One morning they discovered a smaller river that emptied into the one +they had named O-hi-o. That increased in length as well, but with their +canoes they could paddle a hundred miles. They also noticed a peculiar +thing about this smaller river. Whenever there came a thunder shower the +river would rise and become covered with whitecaps, and rush madly down +like a torrent until it seemed to fairly leap into the Ohio; and one +wise man--the wisest of the tribe--said: + +"'Behold, it is little Mus-kin-gum. Can you not see how the storm +affects him? Was he not so in the flesh? Can you not see how he seeks +his mother's bosom for shelter?' + +"And so the mystery was explained. From the date of the appearance of +the two rivers everything in that part of the country prospered. The +cattle were second to none. The fruit was the fairest and most luscious +fruit ever grown, while the crops--corn, buckwheat, oats, barley and +wheat--could not be excelled." + +("Today the fisheries are the finest and the Grand Reservoir is the +largest body of artificial water in the world--equal in extent to all +others in the state. It is well for you to know that," said Kate, +interrupting the story). + +"And whenever the Indians prayed to the Great Spirit they would thank +him for having sent O-hi-o as a voluntary sacrifice; and each starlight +night old Wa-chi-ta and his wife would search among the constellations +for their three loved ones. Then they, too, passed into the Happy +Hunting Grounds. But with many of the Western tribes the legend remains +until today. + +"For years to come the little Indian children would say to one another: + +"'It's going to storm. Hear the thunder; see it lighten; let us go down +and watch the little Mus-kin-gum get frightened and rush into his +mother's arms.'" + +"That is the end," said Kate. + +"Oh! it is lovely," they all cried, "and we thank you so much." + +"You see," she added, "now I am glad that I called this Camp Fire the +'Ohio.' That is our legend, and we can have a little copy made to annex +to our book." + +Then the Fire Maker came forward and extinguished the dying embers. Each +girl arose and kissed the Guardian goodnight, and retired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +ETHEL'S FIRST DAY IN CAMP + + +The girls slept soundly that night and in the morning were awakened by +the singing of the birds. + +"Oh! how lovely it seems to be here," thought Ethel, as she leaned on +her elbow, "instead of being awakened by the toot of an automobile just +to lie quietly and harken to the birds." She looked around. + +The other cots were occupied by her Cousin Kate, Patty Sands, and Edna +Whitely. Kate opened her eyes and sat up. + +"Have you been awake long?" she asked sleepily. + +"No, Kate, only a few moments. I've been listening to the birds. I +thought Aunt Susan's home was peaceful, but even there one could hear +the autos." + +Kate arose, put on her slippers and wrapper, and sitting on the cot she +began to unfasten her long braids. + +"It is the most restful place I've ever known," she replied. "But, +girls, we're late. Come Patty and Edna." + +Patty Sands sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. Edna snuggled deeper into +the depth of her pillow. + +"Edna, don't go to sleep. There's the bugle now," and the clear notes of +a bugle came floating into the tent. + +"Oh!" said Edna sleepily, "that's Nora Casey blowing. I wish she'd stop; +she has the strongest lungs I ever knew." + +This morning the breakfast was eaten with a relish. They had oatmeal and +cream, ham and eggs, creamed potatoes and coffee. Mollie Long had +surprised them with some corn bread that was, as Nora expressed it, +"some class." + +Their cellar was beside a running brook near the tents. A little +waterfall trickled down the rocks with a cheerful sound. Beside the +stream was their refrigerator--a large deep hole that had been dug in +the ground, and into this, placed in a tightly covered tin bucket, they +put their butter, cream, eggs, and meat. It was as cold as ice. After +the pail had been lowered a clean board covered the opening, and on this +board they placed a large stone. But the farmer with whom Mr. Hollister +had made arrangement, brought up daily from his place fresh meat, milk, +and vegetables, and twice a week pot cheese and buttermilk; so the "Ohio +Camp Fires" were in clover. Nothing they ate was stale and everything +tasted delicious. + +After breakfast was over, Ethel, Nora, and Mollie Long cleared the +table, washed the dishes, and tidied up the tent. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +ETHEL'S FIRST LESSON + + +"Girls," said Kate, after the morning's ceremonies had been performed, +"today we will cook our dinner over a real camp fire. Our menu will +consist of roasted potatoes, green peas, broiled steak, and a lettuce +salad. Sallie Davis is going to make one of her delicious bread +puddings, which she will bake in the oil stove, but the rest will be the +'real thing.'" + +The girls were delighted. + +"Ethel," said Edith Overman, "in August you shall taste our delicious +roasted corn. You never ate anything so good in your life. When do you +leave for home?" + +"August thirtieth," replied the girl. "Do you stay up here until +September?" + +"Yes," replied Kate. "We leave about the fifth, but on account of you we +are going home in August this year." + +"Oh, how kind!" said Ethel. + +Then Kate began: + +"Now my little cousin, you have some work to do today. First, you must +learn how to make knots,--the five different styles--but today it shall +be a square knot only. You are to tie it five times in succession without +hesitation. You are to read and be able to tell the chief cause of +infant mortality in the summer, and to what extent it has been reduced +in one American community. That means one city or town. This is your +school and you must attend it before you can play. You must learn what +to do in the following emergencies: Clothing on fire; person in deep +water who can not swim, both in summer and through ice in winter; how to +bandage and attend to an open cut; a frosted foot; what to do with a +person who has fainted; how to use surgeon's plaster; you must commit to +memory a poem of twenty-five lines or more, and you must learn about +yourself--what every girl of your age needs to know. You are not to +learn all of this in one day, but a little every day. Mollie and Nora, +who are proficient in these things, will help teach you. Then you'll +learn to cook, swim, and row a boat. We have a lovely lake about a mile +from here, and there are boats and canoes to hire. All these, and +various other useful things, you are to learn. I want you to be able to +win an Elective Honor in some one of the seven crafts. You must wear +your beads, but you must win them first. Next week we shall remove the +roofs of our tents and sleep in the open. I wish you girls to get a +month or two of it. That counts one honor." + +Nora, Mollie and Ethel started in. Ethel quickly learned how to tie the +knot. Then she began to study "first aid to the injured," and the girls +taught her how to adjust a bandage and how to use the plaster. + +"It's a shame that ye haven't a real broken bone to work on," laughed +Nora. + +"Well, that's a nice thing to say," replied Mollie; "suppose you go and +cut yourself, Nora Casey, or break your leg." + +After studying for a couple of hours the girls declared that Ethel was a +promising pupil. She even learned a poem, "The Psalm of Life," by +Longfellow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A LOSS AND A DINNER + + +"Oh! girls," exclaimed Ethel, "I must get my ring. I left it on the box +where I washed dishes," and she ran to the kitchen tent, but there was +no ring in sight. "I laid it down here and I emptied the water myself," +she almost sobbed. "It was a beautiful ring--a diamond cluster. +Grandmamma gave it to me. It was her engagement ring." + +Kate now came in and they hunted. The girls looked where the water had +been thrown but no sign. They swept the tent and searched thoroughly. +Mollie Long went back to where Ethel stood half in tears and reported +nothing doing. + +"Who was with you in the tent?" she asked. + +"No one but you and Nora," replied Ethel. + +"You remember, Kate," said Ethel, "it was Grandmamma's engagement ring. +I'd have lost anything I own rather than that." + +"It's unfortunate," replied Kate, "but perhaps it may turn up." + +Poor Ethel took her walk with Patty and Mollie but she was very quiet. + +That noon she watched a dinner cooked in the open. Two perpendicular +stakes with forked ends had been driven in the ground, while lying +horizontally across them was another upon which to hang one or more +kettles. Each kettle had an iron hook to place on the cross stake, and +from them hung the kettles. A roaring fire had been made. The potatoes +were laid in the hot ashes and covered. In one kettle the peas were put. +Ethel and Mollie had shelled until their fingers ached. + +"Now, girls," said Kate, "someone time those peas. They must not cook +longer than three-quarters of an hour, and they must not be covered." + +When the salad had been prepared, the bread and butter spread, and the +water pitchers filled from the brook it was time to cook the steak. + +Four of the girls took forks made from tree branches, placed the steak +upon them, and started in. Mollie and Nora in the meanwhile, after +draining off nearly all of the water, had put some salt and a little +sugar in the peas, adding at the last a large piece of butter, and had +placed them in their kettle which stood near the potatoes. + +The steak when finished was laid on a large platter and covered +plentifully with butter. Then each girl took and opened her potato, and +what a potato it was!--so unlike those cooked in an oven. The peas were +served in saucers, and the sight of the steak covered with gravy--hot +and juicy--made them hungry. + +Each sat on the ground with her plate on her lap, and her saucer and +glass beside her. They ate up every vestige of food. + +"Goodnight!" said Nora. "Shure a dog would starve in this crowd." + +After an appetizing salad dressed with a suspicion of garlic and a fine +French dressing, came the bread pudding made by Sallie Davis. It was +filled with raisins and each girl passed her plate twice. + +"Ethel, what do you think of our Camp Fire dinner?" asked Kate. + +"It is simply fine," replied the girl. "I have never tasted one half so +good." + +"Poor Ethel, she is unhappy over her ring," said Edna, "and I don't blame +her. Cheer up! it may be found yet," she added. + +But Ethel was unhappy, not for the loss of the ring, but because it had +belonged to old Mrs. Hollister. + +"I never should have brought it," she said to Kate. "I should have left +it with Aunt Susan. I know it was right on the box when I left the tent, +and it's so unpleasant," she confided to Kate. "One suspects everyone." + +"Yes, that's the unfortunate part of it," replied her cousin. "The +innocent suffer for the guilty; that is, if it has been taken by anyone, +but I have an idea that it may have been thrown out with the water." + +Ethel studied hard every day. She learned rapidly and one night she +received her first bead. She had learned how to row a boat and she rowed +well. In five days she had rowed twenty miles, which entitled her to +one honor. Before the next two weeks she had learned how to swim; and +she swam one mile in five days. The rule was to swim one mile in six +days, but she went one better; so at one of the council fires she +received her two beads. As her honors came under "health craft" her +beads were red. + +Her ceremonial gown had been made for some time. She had worked on it +during rainy days, and when she had finished behold! it was perfect. + +"Why, you're entitled to another honor. This comes under 'hand craft,'" +said Patty. + +So now she had won three--two red beads and one of green. + +"That's good work," ejaculated Nora Casey. "She'll outstrip us all." + +Of course each girl won daily. Some had strings nearly half a yard long. +At every council fire the Guardian would distribute them to the girls, +but Sallie Davis had the most beads. She was clever and won many for +cooking. + +About the middle of July there came another set of Camp Fires. They +occupied the woods about half a mile away. It seemed that the +Guardian--a Miss Andrews--was a schoolmate of Kate Hollister's. They +were called the "Columbus Camp Fires." The girls were friendly and +together they had great sport. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +A DISCOVERY + + +One morning Patty and Ethel started for a walk. They were to climb a +small mountain. On their way they came across a pocket handkerchief. It +was a girl's handkerchief, and on it was the initial "H." + +"This isn't Cousin's Kate's I know," said Ethel. "She carried one +certain kind with a tiny 'H' worked in the corner. This looks like a +cheap one that might be purchased for a dime. Whose can it be? Are there +any 'H's' in the Columbus Camp Fires?" + +They recalled every name--not an "H." + +"Then as it isn't Kate's nor mine it must belong to Mattie Hastings." + +"Yes," replied Patty. "She often walks up here alone." + +"I wish I could get over my feeling of dislike for that girl," said +Ethel, "but I can not. It grows on me. I shall be glad to go home to +get rid of looking at her. I can never like Nora Casey either, although +I have tried very hard. But I positively shrink from that girl. I don't +trust her." + +"I feel the same, and so do all the girls," replied Patty, "but she +seems to have gotten around Miss Hollister. She is invariably hanging on +her." + +"Cousin Kate is so kind and good-hearted," said Ethel. "She's always +ready to make the best of people, but I feel like pulling Mattie +Hastings away when I see her around here." + +"Look--quick! speak of angels--that was she looking out through those +trees," exclaimed Patty. "Now I wonder what she is doing up here and +alone. My! but it's warm in the sun, isn't it?" and Patty opened the +neck of her waist and removed her hat. "Let's call and see if she +answers us." + +So Patty Sands called loudly: + +"Mattie Hastings--Mattie--we have seen you--don't hide!" + +Someone started to run through the brush. They heard a fall and a +piercing shriek. + +"She's tripped," said Ethel. "Let's go and see." + +Quickly they picked their way over fallen trees and dead leaves until +they came to the prostrate body of Mattie whom they so disliked. + +"What have you done?" asked Patty. "Have you hurt yourself?" + +No answer. + +"She's fainted!" ejaculated Ethel. "She's been walking in the sun and +exposed to great heat. It's heat exhaustion. See, her face is pale and +she isn't entirely unconscious as in a sunstroke. First we must loosen +her clothing and let her lie down quietly. I wonder if there is any +water about." + +"Yes," said Patty, "we passed a watering trough on the road." + +While Ethel unbuttoned the girl's waist, Patty ran for water. + +"It's lucky I have my drinking cup with me," she called. "I have a long +head. I never take a walk without it." + +Ethel made no reply. She unhooked the girl's corset. Then when Patty +returned, together they lifted her to a shady place. Ethel's face was +pale. + +"What is the matter?" asked Patty. "You look as though you had seen a +ghost." + +Ethel pointed to a chain on Mattie's neck. It was a small silver chain, +and suspended from it were two diamond rings. One was the small cluster +lost by Ethel, while the other was a solitaire. Patty gasped and caught +Ethel by the arm. + +"That's your ring." + +Ethel nodded. + +"And the other belongs to Nora Casey. She lost it a few days ago. She +didn't want to make a fuss about it on account of you having lost yours, +but I think she suspected this girl and determined to get it before she +left camp. Isn't it awful?" and Patty shook her head. "You'd better take +the chain off before she comes to." + +Ethel made no reply but lifted Mattie's head and put the drinking cup to +her lips. After a moment the girl took a swallow, then another, until +she had taken it all. + +"Don't give her any more now," said Ethel. "'First Aid' says, 'sip +slowly in heat prostrations and give stimulants,' but we have none." + +"Take them off, Ethel," said Patty, "she might get up and run." But +Ethel only looked. + +Suddenly Mattie Hastings opened her eyes, gazed at the two girls, and at +her shirt waist beside her; then she raised herself and put her hand to +her neck. A scarlet flame surged across her face. + +"You've had a sort of fainting spell," said Ethel. "You fell, and the +heat and all made you unconscious for a while. Why did you run from us +when we called?" + +With her hands upon her chain the girl looked like a frightened animal. +Something stirred Ethel's pity. + +"Don't be frightened," she said, "just tell us all." + +Whereupon Mattie Hastings burst into tears. + +"First hand me my ring," said Ethel, "and then tell us everything." + +The girl tried to unfasten the chain. + +"Shall I?" asked Ethel. + +Mattie nodded. Then Ethel took the ring. + +"To whom does this belong?" she asked. + +"Nora," faltered the girl. "Keep it please; I shall never go back. I +shall kill myself," she sobbed. + +"That's silly," broke in practical Patty. + +"Your father--Judge Sands--he will sentence me to prison," she sobbed, +"and I did it for Mollie. She's my sister. Her spine is broken and the +doctor said she needed food--good nourishing food. She's only eleven, +and he told father that with care she might outgrow it, especially if +she could get in some Institution for Cripples, where she could have +good attention," and the girl threw herself on her face and sobbed +brokenly. + +"Now, see here," said Ethel, sitting down beside her and lefting her up, +while Patty and she supported her back. + +"You tell us everything; don't keep even a tiny bit back." + +"Yes," broke in Patty, "we're Camp Fire Girls and we must 'Give +Service.' Perhaps we can help you if you'll confide in us." + +"Before God I will; and I'll tell you all," said Mattie. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +MATTIE'S STORY + + +"My father is a good man. He is kind, hard-working, and gives all of his +wages to Mother. Mother has an idea that I am above my associates. She +is ambitious for me to go with the rich girls--the girls who have +position." + +Ethel's heart bounded. Was not her own mother the same? + +"I worked in McAllister's store. I earned six dollars a week. Three of +it I paid Mother for board. The other three, with what Father gave me, +bought my clothes; but even with that I could not dress well enough to +go with the girls as she wished me to. + +"Her idea was for me to go to church and Sunday School and meet them +that way. Then poor little Mollie was knocked down by an automobile and +she has never left her bed. They were a party of joy riders, and oh! I +hate to confess it, but I've promised--my mother was one of them. She +had a cousin who was a chauffeur and he asked her to go. No one but I +knew that she was of the party, for they were so drunk they never saw +that she left them, and to this day no one knows that it was her +cousin's auto that knocked Mollie down, for he escaped. Mother came home +after Mollie had been taken to the hospital, and at that time we all +thought that she had been out spending the evening. When she found that +Mollie was injured for life she began to take morphine. I alone know her +secret; she never knew that she told it. For God's sake don't betray me. +Every-penny that Father gave her she spent for that drug, and he +thinking that Mollie had the benefit of it. + +"At last I couldn't stand it. I couldn't see my little sister die for +the want of proper food, nor could I tell Father, and give my own mother +away, for outside of her ambition for me she had been a good mother. +Then Father grew ill and was laid up with rheumatism. I refused to give +Mother the three dollars for board, but I kept it for expenses. When +she demanded, I told her what I knew and threatened to expose her. + +"Father grew better and was able to work again, but poor Mollie failed +daily. I laid awake night after night. I prayed--for I was a good girl +once--for a way to be shown me whereby I could make more than six +dollars a week. + +"Then in Sunday School I met Miss Hollister. I had heard of these Camp +Fire Girls and how many fine things a girl could learn, so that in time +she could earn good money. I consulted with Father and he advised me to +join; and Mother was delighted, for she saw visions of my being intimate +with the 'swell' girls." + +Here Mattie put her hands on her breast and Ethel ran to the trough for +more water. + +"Before we came up here," she continued, "I found a doctor who upon +seeing Mollie said that for one hundred and fifty dollars he could put +her in a Home where she would have attention and treatment. She could +wear braces, and perhaps in time she might grow to be strong and well. +But how was I to get it? Father and I together could hardly pay for our +food. + +"One afternoon just before the store closed a lady dropped her purse. I +put my foot over it and stood until she had gone off in her auto. Then +when no one was looking I picked it up, put it in my bosom, and went +home. In the purse I found forty dollars. + +"That was the beginning. After that it came so easy, and Mollie enjoyed +the fruit that I brought her. But thirty-five dollars of the money I put +in the bank. I took little things from the store and sold them. I +pretended that they had been given to me. + +"Then I came up here. Oh! I expected to end in prison. I knew that it +couldn't go on forever. But I took a chance. I had now nearly +seventy-five dollars. One hundred and fifty, or say two hundred, would +save Mollie. I kept on. I took a locket from Edith Overman. She's never +missed it. It has a large diamond in the center. She's rich and +careless. I took that ring from Nora. I've often thought that Nora +suspected me, but she's never given me away. I've taken money from each +one of you girls. The only one whom I've not robbed is Miss Kate--God +bless her. I wouldn't take a handkerchief from her, she's been so kind +to me. The rest have never liked me. You remember since we came here the +time I went home and spent two days. Well, I went in town and deposited +my money and saw that Mollie had some comforts in way of food and books. +Then when I came back I began taking the jewelry. I have now over a +hundred dollars in the bank. I had come up here today to find a safe +place in some tree where until we went back I could put the two rings +and locket, as I feared that they might be seen on my neck. When you +called and said, 'We've seen you; don't hide,' I thought that you had +discovered that I was a thief and I started to run and fell over the +tree trunk. I had been pretty warm while walking up the hill and I guess +you were correct,--it was the heat. That's all," she moaned wearily. +"You may give me up. I knew the time would come, but I had hoped to have +had Mollie in a Home before I was taken," and the girl lay back on the +ground shaking with sobs. + +Ethel and Patty looked at each other. + +"Now see here," said Patty Sands, "Ethel and I are not monsters to eat +you up, are we, Ethel?" + +"No," replied the girl, "Mattie, I think we may be able to help Mollie." + +Mattie sat up. + +"What?" she gasped. + +"Yes," replied Ethel. "You've done this for her. Now we are not going to +betray you, and we are going to help you; but first, you must give back +everything that you have taken. Do you remember the name of the lady +from whom you took the purse?" + +"Yes," replied Mattie. "I have the purse with her card in it." + +"Very well; return that by mail. Say if you wish that you found it and +regret not sending it before. You needn't sign your name. Then take +Nora's ring and put it in her suitcase, after which put Edith's chain in +hers. Can you remember the different amounts of money that you have +taken from us girls?" + +"I took"--and she faltered--"five from you and five from Patty." + +"Well, don't try to think now, but go by yourself and if possible +remember what you took from each girl and replace it as you are going to +replace the jewelry. Whatever you took from the store and sold is a +harder matter and you can't recover the goods." + +"No," said Mattie. + +"How much did you get for them?" asked Patty. + +"About twelve dollars," replied the girl. + +"You give that to me," said Patty. "Mr. McAllister is a great friend of +Father's. I will give Father the money and tell him to return it,--that +it's from a client--an old employee--who to save a human life and under +great temptation took the things, and that she wishes to make +restitution. He'll never suspect you, nor will he question Father, for +Father has rendered him too many services." + +Mattie grasped her by the hand. + +"Oh! you are too good to me, Miss Sands. However can I pay you and Miss +Ethel?" + +"Call me Ethel," said the girl. + +"Yes, and me Patty. You are one of us and we are all sisters." + +"And now," continued Ethel, "my Aunt Susan, who lives in Akron, is a +philanthropist. I've heard her tell of a Cripple's Home there. If your +sister is unable to pay she can get her in free. That doctor may slip +some of that money he speaks of into his own pocket, and if your sister +is under Aunt Susan's wing she'll see that she gets everything she +needs, and she'll have the best of care. You can run down every week or +so and see her. I'm sure Aunt Susan would make you welcome over night." + +Mattie Hastings fell on the ground at the feet of the two girls. + +"Oh, my God!" she said, "Are you in earnest?" and she kissed their +hands. "Can it be possible that there is about to be made a way for poor +Mollie? Are my prayers to be answered?" and she sobbed while the two +girls held her in their arms. + +"Come on now," said Ethel, "let's go home. You're all tired out. We'll +put you to bed. Don't worry, Mattie," she whispered, "we'll attend to +everything." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +MATTIE STARTS AFRESH + + +Everything was returned as the girls had planned. Mattie went into town, +drew out her money, put the forty dollars in the purse and sent it to +its owner, as they had suggested. + +"Oh, my darling!" she said to Mollie, as she hugged her, "I have great +news for you. Come, Mother, and listen." + +Then holding each by the hand she related Ethel's proposal. + +Mrs. Hastings wept tears of joy while little Mollie laughed. + +"Are you sure she'll keep her word?" asked Mrs. Hastings. + +"As sure as there's a God in heaven. She's an angel," replied Mattie. +"They all are. Oh! Mother, I never knew that there could be such +kindness in the world." + +Mattie returned, and Ethel and Patty replaced all of the stolen money in +the girls' purses save the twelve that was to be given to Judge Sands +for McAllister. The jewelry was more difficult, for there was danger of +it rolling out of the bags, so Patty suggested putting the ring in a +small box and slipping it in Nora's suitcase, and doing the same with +the locket belonging to Edith Overman. + +The next morning appeared Nora with the ring on her finger, but with +never a word. Then rushed out Edith Overman. + +"Do you know, I have found my locket and chain. I was awfully worried +for I thought I had lost it." + +The following day came a reply to Ethel's letter from Aunt Susan. This +was the extract pertaining to the Home: + +"Yes, my dear, I can get the little girl in the Cripples' School +free--not 'Home.' In this place she'll have the best of medical +attendance. I am one of the managers. She will be taught to sew and make +lovely things besides having good nourishing food every day. Her sister +is welcome to stay with us whenever she cares to come. The little girl +will probably come out cured, and it will not cost her a penny. Even +her clothes will be furnished. Let me know when to expect them. I +enclose your mother's letter." + +Mattie cried with joy. + +"What is it?" the girls asked, and she told them. + +Judge Sands had seen Mr. McAllister who took the money without a comment +save: + +"Well, Judge, when a thing happens like this it sort of restores one's +faith in human nature, doesn't it?" + +And Mattie was a happy girl. + +"Really," said Ethel to her cousin and Patty, "Mattie's eyes have grown +wider apart." + +"No, it's because you like her and she seems different to you." + +Mrs. Hollister wrote: "My dearest girl: + +"I hope you have made only desirable acquaintances and that you will +forget the Camp Fire Girls, at least this winter. You will be seventeen +soon and I shall give you a debutante's party. I have saved considerable +money during your absence." + +Ethel didn't answer the letter at once. + +One day came up the hill the buckboard holding three men. The girls saw +it from a distance, and there was some excitement. As it drew nearer +three shouts went up. There was Tom Harper, Uncle John, and Judge Sands. + +Ethel almost wept on Tom's shoulder, and she was well hugged by Uncle +John. + +That was the day that they had their great Camp Fire dinner--when they +soaked the corn for an hour in water before roasting it. Then tying a +string to each ear they laid it in the glowing fire and ate it with +melted butter and salt. The Judge and Uncle John ate three ears apiece, +besides the potatoes, chicken, and steamed berry pudding made by Patty, +his daughter. + +"Say, John and Tom," he said, "we'd better come up here and board. No +wonder these girls like to get away from town." + +And Mattie was introduced to the Judge by Patty. + +"Papa," she said, "this is Mattie Hastings, and when I was ill she sat +up the entire night taking care of me and putting fresh flax-seed +poultices on my chest." + +And the Judge thanked her so sincerely that she nearly burst into tears. + +"And your father?" he asked, "how is he? I need a man just like him in +my office. I've met him, and Miss Mattie, there's one thing I've always +liked about him,--he has a face that anyone could trust. I shall go and +see him on my return." + +Then Mattie was not afraid to weep with joy as she clasped the Judge's +hand and thanked him sincerely. + +"Well, girls," said Uncle John, "we'll be looking for you next +week--hey?" + +"Yes," replied Kate, "and, Father, I'd like to have Aunt Susan come up +before we leave. She'd enjoy it." + +"Oh! yes," fairly shouted Ethel. "Do bring her, Tom." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +AUNT SUSAN COMES + + +So the day Aunt Susan came, everyone was on the qui vive, and a warmer +welcome was never extended to an old lady. She was shown everything. She +had a real Camp Fire dinner and enjoyed it. + +She took Mattie one side and told her of the wonderful improvement in +little Mollie, which made Mattie's heart beat high with joy. + +When she was introduced to Honora the girl made such quaint remarks that +Aunt Susan laughed merrily. + +"Isn't it funny?" said Ethel; "that's the only girl in Camp that I don't +care for." + +"Ethel," replied her aunt, "perhaps, you don't know her as she really +is." + +"Perhaps," responded Ethel slowly, thinking of Mattie. + +The evening that Aunt Susan stayed, Ethel was advanced from a Wood +Gatherer to a Fire Maker. She stood up in her ceremonial dress with her +pretty hair hanging, and bound with a band of beads called her +"ceremonial band," and she repeated the Fire Maker's song. + +New honors were awarded. They had songs and toasts, one of which was +"Aunt Susan," after which the girls repeated in unison: + +"Burn, fire, burn; flicker, flicker, flame, etc." + +Then, extinguishing the fire, they retired for the night. + +The next morning the Camp broke up. Ethel bade them all an affectionate +farewell. She even kissed Honora. There seemed to be a spirit of good +will among all of the girls. + +"Be sure and come back next summer, Ethel," was heard on every side. + +And Mattie, taking her apart from the rest, said: + +"You have saved me from a fate worse than death. I was going the +downward path, and you and Patty lifted me out of the mud. I shall pray +for you every night. Don't forget me." + +"No, I shall not," replied Ethel, kissing her affectionately, "and you +promise to go and see little Mollie and write me all about her, won't +you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +BACK TO AUNT SUSAN'S + + +After spending the night at Uncle John's, Aunt Susan and Ethel left for +Akron. + +"Oh! what a lovely summer I've had," said Ethel, "and how much I've +learned being a Camp Fire Girl; and I owe it all to you, Aunt Susan." + +The next week Mr. Hollister came to take the girl home--and how he had +missed her! + +They spent the day with Uncle John. He and her father were like boys +again. + +"You must come here next year, Archibald," said John, "and go up to Camp +and see the way these girls keep house. It's a revelation. What the +women are coming to! I don't believe there'll be any room on earth for +us men after a while." + +Ethel's eyes were blinded with tears as she kissed her dear ones +goodbye, and Mattie Hastings with Patty Sands came way to Akron to see +her off, Mattie bringing the loveliest pin-cushion made for her by her +sister Mollie. + +One night Ethel and Mrs. Hollister had a serious talk. Grandmother made +Archibald go and listen at the door, as Bella's voice could be heard +throughout the house. + +When Ethel left her mother she went directly up to her room, but Mrs. +Hollister said to Grandmother: + +"This is your work and your sister's as well. Ethel is a changed +girl and refused to obey me. She's going to take up low settlement +work and belong to that Camp Fire business this winter, and she +almost refuses to go into society at all. But for the fact that +some of our best girls are Camp Fires I should positively forbid +it. She is not yet of age, and I still have some authority over +her, after all my slaving for her and sacrifices. Now she openly +defies me." + +"No, Mamma," cried Ethel, coming down stairs and putting her arm +around her mother, "I only object to sailing under false colors. +All of our life has been sham--sham--and make believe, and I can +not see Papa growing older and more bent every day, when he should +be young looking and happy. And I know that it's worry over getting +the money for me that I may make a show for people to think me +wealthy. And when Aunt Susan came here you told everyone that I was +to be her heiress. Why, Mamma, she is poorer than we are. Every +penny of her money was lost four years ago, and Tom Harper--her +adopted son--supports her. Then there's dear Uncle John. He's +nearly five years older than Papa and he looks ten years younger. +Why? Because he has nothing to worry him. And when I see the lines +and wrinkles coming into your pretty face I think it's all for me, +and I've decided to give it up. I shall still go out with the +friends who care for me, but they must know me as I am; and next +summer I want you to come with me to Camp. You are so clever and +can teach the girls so much about sewing and dressmaking. + +"Mamma dear, let's turn over a new leaf. Let's give up all sham and +be happy. Then we can tell who are our true friends and they'll be +all we need." + +Here Ethel put her arms around her mother who at once burst into tears, +sobbing: + +"And I wanted you to make a g-good m-match." + +"Never mind," laughed Ethel. "Who knows? I may marry better than ever. +Cheer up, Mamma dear," and from that hour the mother and daughter +changed places. + +And Grandmother Hollister whispered to her son: + +"Behold! a miracle." + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: The following nine pages were bound with "How Ethel +Hollister Became a Campfire Girl." They constitute a separate story.] + + + + +THE FLOWERS' WORK + + +"See, mother! I've finished my bouquet. Isn't it beautiful? More so, I +think, than those made by the florist which he asked two dollars for, +and this has cost me but seventy-five cents." + +"Yes, yes, it is very pretty. But, dear me, child, I cannot help +thinking how illy we can spare so much for such a very useless thing. +Almost as much as you can make in a day it has cost." + +"Don't say _useless_, mother. It will express to Edward our appreciation +of his exertions and their result, and our regards. How he has struggled +to obtain a profession! I only wish I could cover the platform with +bouquets, baskets and wreaths tonight, when he receives his diploma." + +"Well, well; if it will do any good, I shall not mind the expense. But, +child, he will know it is from you, and men don't care for such things +coming from home folks. Now, if it was from any other young lady, I +expect he'd be mightily pleased." + +"Oh, mother, I don't think so. Edward will think as much of it, coming +from his sister-in-law, as from any other girl. And it will please Kate, +too. If _we_ do not think enough of him to send him bouquets, who else +could? Rest easy, mother, dear; I feel quite sure my bouquet will do +much good," answered Annie, putting her bouquet in a glass of water. + +She left the room to make her simple toilet for the evening. + +Mrs. Grey had been widowed when her two little girls were in their +infancy. It had been a hard struggle for the mother to raise her +children. Constant toil, privation and anxiety had worn heavily on her +naturally delicate constitution, until she had become a confirmed +invalid. But there was no longer a necessity for her toiling. Katy, the +elder daughter, was married; and Annie, a loving, devoted girl, could +now return the mother's long and loving care. By her needle she obtained +a support for herself and mother. + +Katy's husband held a position under the government, receiving a small +compensation, only sufficient for the necessities of the present, and of +very uncertain continuance. He was ambitious of doing better than this +for himself, as well as his family. So he employed every spare hour in +studying medicine, and it was the night that he was to receive his +diploma that my little story begins. + +The exercises of the evening were concluded. Edward Roberts came down +the aisle to where his wife and Annie were seated, bearing his +flowers--an elegant basket, tastefully arranged, and a beautiful +bouquet. But it needed only a quick glance for Annie to see it was not +_her_ bouquet. Although the flowers were fragrant and rare, they were +not so carefully selected or well chosen. Hers expressed not alone her +affection and appreciation, but _his_ energy, perseverance and success. + +"Why, where is my bouquet? I do not see it," asked Annie, a look of +disappointment on her usually bright face. + +"Yours? I do not know. Did you send me one?" returned her +brother-in-law. + +"Indeed I did. And such a beauty, too! It is too bad! I suppose it is +the result of the stupidity of the young man in whose hands I placed it. +I told him plain enough it was for you, and your name, with mine, was on +the card," answered Annie, really very much provoked. + +"Well, do not fret, little sister; I am just as much obliged; and +perchance some poor fellow not so fortunate as I may have received it," +answered Edward Roberts. + +"Don't, for pity's sake, let mother know of the mistake, or whatever it +is, that has robbed you of your bouquet. She will fret dreadfully about +it," said Annie. + +All that night, until she was lost in sleep, did she constantly repeat: + +"I wonder who has got it?" + +She had failed to observe on the list of graduates the name of _Edgar +Roberts_, from Ohio, or she might have had an idea into whose hands her +bouquet had fallen. Her brother Edward, immediately on hearing Annie's +exclamation, thought how the mistake had occurred, and was really glad +that it was as it was; for the young man whose name was so nearly like +his own was a stranger in the city, and Edward had noticed his receiving +_one_ bouquet only, which of course was the missing one, and Annie's. + +Edgar Roberts sat in his room that night, after his return from the +distribution of diplomas, holding in his hand Annie's bouquet, and on +the table beside him was a floral dictionary. An expression of +gratification was on his pleasant face, and, as again and again his eyes +turned from the flowers to seek their interpreter, his lips were +wreathed with smiles, and he murmured low: + +"Annie Grey! Sweet Annie Grey! I never dreamed of any one in this place +knowing or caring enough for me to send such a tribute. How carefully +these flowers are chosen! What a charming, appreciative little girl she +is! Pretty, I know, of course. I wonder how she came to send me this? +How shall I find her? Find her I must, and know her." + +And Edgar Roberts fell asleep to dream of Annie Grey, and awoke in the +morning whispering the last words of the night before: + +"Sweet Annie Grey!" + +During the day he found it quite impossible to fix his mind on his work; +mind and heart were both occupied with thoughts of Annie Grey. And so it +continued to be until Edgar Roberts was really in love with a girl he +knew not, nor had ever seen. To find her was his fixed determination. +But how delicately he must go about it. He could not make inquiry among +his gentlemen acquaintances without speculations arising, and a name +sacred to him then, passed from one to another, lightly spoken, perhaps. +Then he bethought himself of the city directory; he would consult that. +And so doing he found Greys innumerable--some in elegant, spacious +dwellings, some in the business thoroughfares of the place. The young +ladies of the first mentioned, he thought, living in fashionable life, +surrounded by many admirers, would scarcely think of bestowing any token +of regard or appreciation on a poor unknown student. The next would have +but little time to devote to such things; and time and thought were both +spent in the arrangement of his bouquet. Among the long list of Greys he +found one that attracted him more than all the others--a widow, living +in a quiet part of the city, quite near his daily route. So he sought +and found the place and exact number. Fortune favored him. Standing at +the door of a neat little frame cottage he beheld a young girl talking +with two little children. She was not the blue-eyed, golden-haired girl +of his dreams, but a sweet, earnest dove-eyed darling. And what care he, +whether her eyes were blue or brown, if her name were only Annie? Oh, +how could he find out that? + +She was bidding the little ones "goodbye." They were off from her, on +the sidewalk, when the elder child--a bright, laughing boy of five--sang +out, kissing his little dimpled hand: + +"Good-bye, Annie, darling!" + +Edgar Roberts felt as if he would like to clasp the little fellow to the +heart he had relieved of all anxiety. No longer a doubt was in his mind. +He had found his Annie Grey. + +From that afternoon, twice every day he passed the cottage of the widow +Grey, frequently seeing sweet Annie. This, however, was his only reward. +She never seemed at all conscious of his presence. Often her eyes would +glance carelessly toward him. Oftener they were never raised from her +work. Sewing by the window, she always was. + +What next? How to proceed, on his fixed determination of winning her, if +possible? + +Another bright thought. He felt pretty sure she attended church +somewhere; perhaps had a class in the Sabbath school. So the next Sunday +morning, at an early hour, he was commanding a view of Annie's home. +When the school bells commenced to ring, he grew very anxious. A few +moments, and the door opened and the object of his thoughts stepped +forth. How beautiful she looked in her pretty white suit! Now Edgar felt +his cause was in the ascendancy. Some distance behind, and on the other +side of the street, he followed, ever keeping her in view until he saw +her enter a not far distant church. Every Sunday after found him an +attentive listener to the Rev. Mr. Ashton, who soon became aware of the +presence of the young gentleman so regularly, and apparently so much +interested in the services. So the good man sought an opportunity to +speak to Edgar, and urge his accepting a charge in the Sabbath school. +We can imagine Edgar needed no great urging on that subject; so, +frequently, he stood near his Annie. In the library, while selecting +books for their pupils, once or twice they had met, and he had handed to +her the volume for which her hand was raised. Of course a smile and bow +of acknowledgment and thanks rewarded him. + +Edgar was growing happier, and more confident of final success every +week, when an event came which promised a speedy removal of all +difficulty in his path. The school was going to have a picnic. Then and +there he would certainly have an introduction to Annie, and after +spending a whole day with her, he would accompany her home and win the +privilege of calling often. + +The day of the picnic dawned brightly, and the happy party gathered on +the deck of the steamer. The first person who met Edgar Roberts' eye was +his fellow-student, Edward Roberts. Standing beside him were two ladies +and some children. When Edgar hastened up to speak to his friend, the +ladies turned, and Edward presented: + +"My wife; my sister, Miss Grey." + +Edgar Roberts could scarcely suppress an exclamation of joy and +surprise. His looks fully expressed how delighted he was. + +Three months had he been striving for this, which, if he had only known +it, could have been obtained so easily through his friend and her +brother. But what was so difficult to win was the more highly prized. +What a happy day it was! + +Annie was all he had believed her--charming in every way. Edgar made a +confidant of his friend; told him what Edward well knew before, but was +wise enough not to explain the mistake--of his hopes and fears; and won +from the prudent brother the promise to help him all he could. + +Accompanying Annie home that evening, and gaining her permission for him +to call again, Edgar lost no time in doing so, and often repeated the +call. + +Perhaps Annie thought him very fast in his wooing, and precipitate in +declaring his love, when, after only a fortnight visiting her, he said: + +"Annie, do you like me well enough, and trust in me sufficiently, to +allow me to ask your mother to call me her son?" + +Either so happy or so surprised was Annie, that she could not speak just +then. But roses crowded over her fair face, and she did not try to +withdraw the hand he had clasped. + +"Say, Annie, love," he whispered. She raised her eyes to his with such a +strange, surprised look in them, that he laughed and said: + +"You think I am very hasty, Annie. You don't know how long I've loved +you, and have waited for this hour." + +"Long!--two weeks," she said. + +"Why, Annie, darling, it is over three months since I've been able to +think of anything save Annie Grey--ever since the night I received my +diploma, and your sweet, encouraging bouquet, since that night I've +known and loved you. And how I've worked for this hour!" + +And then he told her how it was. And when he had finished, she looked at +him, her eyes dancing merrily, and though she tried hard to keep the +little rosebud of a mouth demurely shut, it was no use--it would open +and let escape a rippling laugh, as she said: + +"And this is the work my bouquet went about, is it? This is the good it +has done me--" She hesitated; the roses deepened their color as she +continued "And you--" + +"Yes, Annie, it has done much good to me, and I hope to you too." + +"But, Edgar--" it was the first time she had called him thus, and how +happy it made him--"I must tell you the truth--I never sent you a +bouquet!" + +"No! oh, do not say so. Can there be another such Annie Grey?" + +"No; I am the one who sent the bouquet; but, Edgar, you received it +through a mistake. It was intended for my brother-in-law, Edward!" + +"Stop, Annie, a moment--Are you sorry that mistake was made? Do you +regret it?" said Edgar, his voice filled with emotion. + +"No indeed. I am very glad you received it instead," Annie ingenuously +replied; adding quickly, "But, please, do not tell Edward I said so." + +"No, no; I will not tell him that you care a little more for _Edgar_ +than _Edward_. Is that it? May I think so, Annie?" + +She nodded her head, and he caught her to his heart, whispering: + +"Mine at last. My Annie, darling! What a blessed mistake it was! May I +go to your mother, Annie?" + +"Yes; and I'll go with you, Edgar, and hear if she will admit those +flowers did any good. She thought it a useless expenditure." + +The widow Grey had become very much attached to the kind, attentive +young man, and when he came with Annie, and asked her blessing on their +love, she gave it willingly; and after hearing all about the way it +happened, she said: + +"Never did flowers such a good work before. They carried Edgar to +church, made a Christian of him, and won for Annie a good, devoted +husband, and for me an affectionate son." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW ETHEL HOLLISTER BECAME A +CAMPFIRE GIRL*** + + +******* This file should be named 20106.txt or 20106.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/1/0/20106 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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