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diff --git a/31393.txt b/31393.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55c5602 --- /dev/null +++ b/31393.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5555 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Campfire Girls on the Field of Honor, by +Margaret Vandercook + +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: The Campfire Girls on the Field of Honor + +Author: Margaret Vandercook + +Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31393] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPFIRE GIRLS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +BOOKS BY MARGARET VANDERCOOK + +THE RANCH GIRLS SERIES + +The Ranch Girls at Rainbow Lodge +The Ranch Girls' Pot of Gold +The Ranch Girls at Boarding School +The Ranch Girls in Europe +The Ranch Girls at Home Again +The Ranch Girls and their Great Adventure + +THE RED CROSS GIRLS SERIES + +The Red Cross Girls in the British Trenches +The Red Cross Girls on the French Firing Line +The Red Cross Girls in Belgium +The Red Cross Girls with the Russian Army +The Red Cross Girls with the Italian Army +The Red Cross Girls Under the Stars and Stripes + +STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS + +The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill +The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows +The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World +The Camp Fire Girls Across the Sea +The Camp Fire Girls' Careers +The Camp Fire Girls in After Years +The Camp Fire Girls in the Desert +The Camp Fire Girls at the End of the Trail + + + + + +[Illustration: Sally and Lieutenant Fleury were Walking Side by Side +Away from the Farm House.] + + + + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE FIELD OF HONOR + +BY + +MARGARET VANDERCOOK + +Author of "The Ranch Girls" Series, "The Red Cross Girls" Series, etc. + +ILLUSTRATED + +PHILADELPHIA + +THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +Copyright, 1918, by + +The John C. Winston Company + +STORIES ABOUT CAMP FIRE GIRLS + +List of Titles in the Order of their Publication + + The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill + The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows + The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World + The Camp Fire Girls Across the Sea + The Camp Fire Girls' Careers + The Camp Fire Girls in After Years + The Camp Fire Girls at the Edge of the Desert + The Camp Fire Girls at the End of the Trail + The Camp Fire Girls Behind the Lines + The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. An Old House 7 + II. Explanations 24 + III. "A Long Time Going Over There" 39 + IV. Chaperoning the Chaperon 47 + V. The Confession 66 + VI. A French Farm House on the Field of Honor 78 + VII. Becoming Adjusted 98 + VIII. The Old Chateau 113 + IX. A Mystery 126 + X. Breakers Ahead 138 + XI. The Return 154 + XII. Other Days and Other Ways 165 + XIII. A Departure and an Arrival 176 + XIV. A Warning 193 + XV. The Discovery 205 + XVI. An Unexpected Shelter 223 + XVII. Two Officers 233 + XVIII. The Expected Happens 254 + XIX. The Field of Honor 263 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + Sally and Lieutenant Fleury were Walking Side By + Side away from the Farm House Frontispiece + Have You Nothing Better to do than Steal? 14 + The Figure Was that of a Young Soldier 122 + She and Old Jean Took an Entirely Opposite + Direction 208 + + + + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE FIELD OF HONOR + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN OLD HOUSE + + +There are certain old houses in New York City built of rose-colored +brick and white stone which face Washington Square. + +On this morning in early winter a light snow covered the ground and +clung to the bare branches of the shrubs and trees. + +In a drawing-room of one of the old houses a young girl was moving +quietly about at work. She was alone and the room was almost entirely +dismantled, the pictures having been taken down from the walls, the +decorations stored away and the furniture protected by linen covers. + +The girl herself was wearing an odd costume, a long frock made like a +peasant's smock with an insignia of two crossed logs and a flame +embroidered upon one sleeve. With her dark eyes, her dark, rather coarse +hair, which she wore parted in the middle over a low forehead, and her +white, unusually colorless skin, she suggested a foreigner. +Nevertheless, although her mother and father were born in Russia, Vera +Lagerloff was not a foreigner. However, at this moment she was talking +quietly to herself in a foreign tongue, yet the language she was making +an attempt to practice was French and not Russian. Since the entry of +the United States into the world war, New York City had been exchanging +peoples as well as material supplies with her Allies to so large an +extent that _one_ language was no longer sufficient even for the +requirements of one's own country. + +Finally, still reciting her broken sentences almost as if she were +rehearsing a part in a play, Vera walked over to a front window and +stood gazing expectantly out into the Square as if she were looking for +some one. + +It was about three o'clock in the afternoon and the neighborhood was +almost deserted. In the paths beyond the Washington Arch a few children +were playing. Now and then an occasional man or woman passed along the +street, to vanish into a house or apartment building. + +A few taxis and private cars rolled by, but not one made even a pretence +of stopping before the rose-colored brick house. + +After about five minutes of waiting, sighing and then, smiling at her +own folly, the girl turned away and began slowly to climb up the old +colonial stairs leading to the second floor. + +"When will human beings cease demanding the impossible?" she asked of +herself, yet speaking aloud. "I know that Mrs. Burton and Bettina cannot +arrive for another half hour, nevertheless I am wasting both time and +energy watching for their appearance." + +During the past month Vera Lagerloff had been the guest of Mrs. Richard +Burton in her New York home. Together they had been closing the house +for an indefinite period and making their final arrangements for sailing +for France. Within a few days the American Sunrise Camp Fire unit, with +Mrs. Burton as their guardian, was to set sail to help with the work of +reclamation in the devastated area of France and also to establish the +first group of Camp Fire girls ever recognized upon French soil. + +Since their summer "Behind the Lines" in southern California, Vera had +been studying with these two purposes in mind. + +In the front of the house on the second floor Mrs. Burton's private +sitting-room was to be left undisturbed until the day of her departure, +and it was toward this room Vera was making her way. + +Except for the two servants, man and wife, engaged only a short time +before, who were presumably busy downstairs, she supposed herself alone. + +Now as she approached the sitting-room, through the open door she caught +sight of the blue and silver of the walls, a pair of old blue curtains +and a tea-table decorated with a tea-service and a blue bowl of yellow +jonquils. Then an unlooked-for sensation made the girl pause within a +few feet on the far side of the threshold, almost holding her breath, +for she had the extraordinary impression that the room she had presumed +empty was already occupied. + +The next instant Vera discovered that a man was standing in front of a +small mahogany desk endeavoring to break into a locked drawer. He had +not heard her approach, for he did not turn toward her, nevertheless she +immediately recognized the man and the situation. The day before, in +order to meet the expenses of the journey to France, Mrs. Burton had +drawn a large sum of money from bank, placing it in her desk for safe +keeping. To the members of her own household she had made no secret of +this, and now one of them was taking advantage of his knowledge. + +Vera recognized that she must think and act quickly, or it might be +possible that all their hopes and plans for service in France would +vanish in one tragic instant. + +In the bedroom in the rear of the hall she knew there was a telephone. +Yet the moments occupied in having the telephone answered and in calling +the police seemed interminable. In far less time surely the thief must +have accomplished his design! + +Yet naturally after her call had been answered Vera knew she must return +to make sure and equally naturally she feared to face the man were he +still upstairs. + +In the right hand corner of Mrs. Burton's dressing table was a silver +mounted pistol. This had been Captain Burton's parting gift to his wife +before his own departure for Europe a few weeks before. Vera distinctly +remembered her own and Mrs. Burton's nervousness over the gift and +Captain Burton's annoyance. They were about to make their home in a +devastated country recently occupied by the enemy and yet were afraid of +so simple a method of self-protection! Vera had shared in Captain +Burton's lecture and in his instructions. + +Moreover, ordinarily she was not timid, but instead possessed a singular +feminine courage. So an instant later, holding the small pistol partly +concealed by her skirt, Vera slipped noiselessly back again into the +hall, moving along in the shadow near the wall. Within a few feet of the +sitting-room suddenly the thief appeared in the doorway. The next +instant, startled by her appearance, he made a headlong rush down the +stairs with his purpose too nearly accomplished to think of surrender. + +As Vera followed she wondered if, when the thief reached the front door, +where he must pause in opening it, would she then have the courage to +fire? Much as she desired to secure the stolen money, she felt the +instinctive feminine dislike of wounding another human being. + +Yet now she discovered that, in spite of having failed to notice the +fact on her way upstairs, the front door was not locked. It had been +purposely left slightly ajar so that there need be no dangerous delay. + +But before the thief actually reached the front door majestically it was +flung open. From the outside a voice called "Halt." + +[Illustration: "Have You Nothing Better to do than Steal?"] + +Immediately after, instead of a policeman as she anticipated, Vera +beheld one of the most singular figures she had ever seen. For the +moment, in her excitement and confusion, she could not tell whether the +figure was a woman's or a man's. A long arm was thrust forward, then, +such was the thief's surprise, that he allowed the stolen pocketbook to +be removed from his grasp without opposition. + +As Vera regained sufficient equanimity to cover him with her pistol she +heard a rich Irish voice unmistakably a woman's, saying: + +"Sure, man alive and have you nothing better to do than steal when the +world is so hard put for honest soldiers and workmen to carry on her +affairs. Now get you away and pray the saints to forgive you, for the +next time you'll not be let off so easily." + +Glad to take the newcomer at her word, the man vanished. Then before +Vera could either move or speak, the surprising visitor marched up to +her. + +"Put that pistol away, child, and never handle it again, or you will +injure yourself! Now take me upstairs to Polly Burton's sitting-room and +make me some tea, for the plain truth is I am famished. I have just +arrived in New York from Boston, and travel in war times certainly has +its drawbacks. But if you will wait I'll first bring my suitcase inside +the hall until we feel more like carrying it upstairs." + +Before Vera could offer her assistance a shabby suitcase was brought +indoors. + +Immediately after she found herself, not leading the way, but following +the unexpected intruder to the second floor. Evidently the elderly woman +was familiar with the house, for she made her way directly to the +sitting-room and, seating herself upon the divan, began untying her +bonnet strings. + +In spite of her own confusion and excitement and the visitor's +surprising appearance, Vera believed herself in the presence of an +important personage. She understood this, notwithstanding the fact that +the woman's costume was conspicuously shabby and she herself extremely +plain. + +The bonnet which she removed without waiting to be asked followed a +fashion of about a quarter of a century before. When her traveling coat +had been laid aside the black dress underneath was almost equally +old-fashioned in design. + +"Here, child, please take this money and hide it in the same place, or +find a safer one," she announced. "Yet it may be just as well not to +mention the robbery to Polly Burton. She is sure to need more strength +than she possesses to be able to start on this perilous journey to +France almost at the beginning of winter, with only you foolish children +as her companions. Besides, I presume Polly left the money in the most +conspicuous place in the house; she never has learned not to trust the +entire world. I allowed the thief to escape so we need give no further +time to him. But tell me the whole story--who are you, how did the man +get into the house and why are you here alone?" + +At last, in the first opportunity which had been vouchsafed her, Vera +endeavored to explain what had occurred. As she spoke she could feel +herself being observed with the keenest, most searching scrutiny. Yet +for some reason, although never having heard the name or seen her +companion before, she had no thought of disputing her visitor's right to +whatever information she desired. The dark eyes in the weather-beaten +old face were wise and kind; the manner belonged to a woman accustomed +to being obeyed. + +Later Vera and her guest made a careful tour of the lower part of the +house. Of course the cook had vanished soon after her husband. But they +were downstairs in time to meet the police when they finally made their +appearance. + +Vera opened the door, yet she stood aside to hear her companion +announce. + +"You can go away again. No, we have no need of you, the telephone call +was a mistake." + +Finally when the police had disappeared without requiring a great deal +of persuasion, for the second time Vera followed her unknown companion +upstairs. + +"You understand, child, it would have been the greatest interruption to +our present plans if I had not permitted the thief to escape. Some one +would have had to appear in court and doubtless Polly Burton would have +had newspaper reporters coming to the house at all hours. They would +have liked a story in which a woman of her prominence played a part." + +Fifteen minutes later, having presented the unexpected guest with the +tea she had requested, Vera was sitting beside the tea table waiting to +satisfy her further needs, when she caught the sound of a key being +turned in the lock of the front door downstairs and the next instant +Mrs. Burton's voice, followed by Bettina Graham's, calling for her. + +With a hurried apology and really fearful that her autocratic companion +might attempt to detain her, Vera ran out of the room. + +Over the banisters she could see Bettina Graham, who had just arrived +from Washington, and Mrs. Burton, who had gone down to the Pennsylvania +station to meet her. + +Standing near Bettina was a girl whom Vera had never seen before. + +As soon as she joined them Bettina introduced her explaining: + +"Vera, this is Mary Gilchrist, who is going abroad to drive a motor in +France. She had no friends with whom she could cross, and as we were +intending to sail on the same steamer, I suggested when we met in +Washington the other day that she might like to join our Camp Fire unit. +At the depot I introduced her to Tante, who of course insisted that she +come home with us rather than stay in a hotel alone." + +During this conversation, Mrs. Richard Burton, the Sunrise Camp Fire +guardian of former days, having passed by the group of girls, was making +her way upstairs alone. She had moved so quickly that, in her effort to +be polite to Bettina's new friend, Vera had no opportunity to mention +the presence of another stranger in the house. When she did murmur +something, Mrs. Burton did not hear. + +Reaching her own sitting-room she gazed uncertainly for half an instant +at the tall figure on the divan, who, having poured herself another cup +of tea, was now engaged in drinking it. The next she clasped her hands +together and with a manner suggesting both nervousness and apology, +began. + +"Aunt Patricia, please don't say you have come to argue with me about +taking my group of Sunrise Camp Fire girls to work with me in the +devastated area of France. It is really too late now to interfere. I was +finally able to secure my husband's permission." + +Miss Patricia Lord carefully set down her tea-cup. + +"Come and kiss me, Polly Burton, and tell me you are glad to see me. I +don't like your fashion of greeting an unexpected guest. But there--you +look tired out from too much responsibility before it is time to set +sail! As a matter of fact, I have not come to try to _prevent_ your +going to France. Has anybody ever made you give up anything you had +firmly set your heart upon? But, mavourneen, I have come to go with you. +Do you suppose for a moment, after receiving yours and Richard's letters +telling me of your plans, that I dreamed of allowing you to undertake +such a project as you have in mind alone? Why, you won't be able to look +after yourself properly, to say nothing of more than half a dozen young +girls! I am told there are eight hundred and forty thousand homeless +people in the devastated districts of France at the present time and I +cannot understand why you wish to add to the number. But as you will go, +well, I am determined to go with you." + +A moment later, seated close beside the older woman, Mrs. Burton had +slipped an arm inside hers and was holding it close. + +"Oh, Aunt Patricia, I am so relieved," she murmured. "I have not +confided this fact to any one before, but sometimes I have been so +nervous over the prospect of looking after my group of Camp Fire girls +in France that I have wanted to run away and hide where no one could +ever discover me. Of course I am not afraid of disaster for myself, +Richard is in France and then nothing ever happens to me! Besides, no +one has a right to think of oneself at present. But to be responsible to +so many mothers for the safety of their beloved daughters! I rise up +each morning feeling that my hair must have turned white in the night +from the very thought. But if you are with me, why, I will not worry! +Still I don't see just how you can arrange to sail with us; perhaps you +can manage to cross later, but our passage has been engaged for weeks +and----" + +Miss Patricia Lord arose and walked over to the tea table, where she +devoted her energy to pouring her hostess a cup of tea. + +"You need not trouble about _my_ arrangements, Polly. I secured my +ticket on the steamer upon which you are to sail some time ago and also +my passport. I sent my trunk directly to the boat. Of course I am taking +but few clothes with me, as a matter of fact, I have all I shall require +in my suitcase downstairs. But later there will be many things necessary +for our housekeeping in France of which you may not have thought." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +EXPLANATIONS + + +"Bettina, who on earth is Miss Patricia Lord? A more formidable lady I +never imagined!" + +Sitting before a fire in their bedroom, which they had chosen to share +so as to be able to talk for as long a time as they wished before +retiring, were the two Sunrise Camp Fire girls, Bettina Graham and Vera +Lagerloff. Both girls had changed conspicuously in manner and appearance +since the summer before when they had been in camp together "Behind the +Lines" in southern California. However, there comes a day in every +girl's life when with entire suddenness she seems to understand and +accept the revelation of her womanhood. + +To Bettina Graham had been given an added social experience. During the +past few months, without being formally introduced into society, +nevertheless she had been assisting her mother in receiving in their +home in Washington. In spite of the fact that there had been but little +entertaining on a large scale because of the war, Bettina had gone to +occasional dinners and small dances, and on account of her father's +prominence and her mother's popularity, had shared in the best +opportunities. Moreover, Washington had never been so crowded with +interesting men and women, and yet scarcely a day passed when Bettina +did not whisper to herself that nothing could make her enjoy a +conventional society existence. It was only because of the universal +absorption in the war at the present time that society had become more +endurable. But to continue the life indefinitely demanded an impossible +sacrifice. + +One afternoon in late fall Bettina and her father, Senator Graham, in an +hour of mutual confidence, imparted the information to each other that +they regarded themselves as social failures. + +"You see, Bettina, my dear, I was not to the manner born in this social +game and had no one to teach me until I married your mother," Senator +Graham announced with a certain embarrassment. "Indeed, I never had +entered a drawing-room until I was a grown man and then had not the +faintest idea how the confounded thing should be done. You don't think +you could have inherited a social awkwardness from me?" + +Then, fearing to have wounded his daughter's feelings Senator Graham +added quickly: "I don't mean that you have not charming manners, little +Betty, as charming as any in the world aside from your mother's. And +personally I have not seen a prettier girl in Washington or elsewhere. +But if you really are unhappy among strangers and would like to go to +France with your old friends to help with the work over there, why, I +will try to see how matters can be arranged. I don't think I would speak +of your idea to your mother, not just at present, as there is no point +in worrying her." + +In answer Bettina had laughed and promised. Always she was touched by +her father's use of her old childhood name now that she had become +nearly as tall as he himself was. + +"But, father, don't think I mind sharing a social disability with you. I +am afraid my infirmity goes somewhat deeper," Bettina answered. "As a +matter of fact, I heard one of mother's friends say the other day that +there was no more brilliant or agreeable man in Washington society than +Senator Graham, once he could be persuaded to throw aside his social +hauteur and condescend to ordinary mortals," she continued, imitating +the visitor's voice and manner, to the Senator's deep amusement. + +"But of course I won't annoy mother until I am sure our Camp Fire unit +has a real chance of being accepted for the work in France. It is hard +upon mother to have had Tony inherit all the family beauty and charm. +However, he will make up to her some day for my failures!" + +Bettina was doing herself an injustice. In reality she was unusually +handsome and as she grew older her tall stateliness increased her +distinction. Tonight she looked especially attractive as she sat +braiding her long yellow hair into two heavy plaits, with a blue +corduroy dressing gown worn over her night-dress. + +"Aunt Patricia? It is odd, Vera, you have never heard her name +mentioned! Yet I confess my personal acquaintance with Aunt Patricia +also began this afternoon, although I have known of her for a long time +and my mother is one of her great friends. + +"Years ago when Tante was first married Aunt Patricia arrived in this +country from Ireland, and as she seemed to be frightfully poor she +secured a position at the theatre as wardrobe woman. Right away she +adopted Tante and Uncle Richard and they have been devoted to one +another ever since. Later on Aunt Patricia's brother died, leaving her +an enormous fortune. Then it developed that she had come to this country +from Ireland because he had sent for her and afterwards had refused to +live with him or accept a cent of his money because he would not do what +she wished, or because for some reason or other she disapproved of him. + +"After Aunt Patricia inherited the money she has spent as little as +possible for her own needs, but instead gives away large sums in +eccentric fashions which appeal to her. Nevertheless I confess I am not +happy over the prospect of her going to France to be with us, although +Tante seems immensely relieved to have her companionship and our +families will be glad to know she will not have to bear so much +responsibility alone. It is a good deal of a task to look after seven or +eight girls." + +Vera frowned somewhat ruefully. + +"But I thought we were going to France to care for other people not to +be looked after ourselves. However, if Miss Lord's behavior this +afternoon is a fair criterion I shall certainly become as a little +child. For the entire time we were together I don't think I dared do +anything except what she commanded. But isn't it wonderful that our +entire Camp Fire unit is to go to France for the reclamation work? I +thought when Mrs. Burton offered me the opportunity last summer that I +should go alone." + +Within the past months Vera Lagerloff had also changed, but the +transformation was unlike Bettina Graham's. + +After Billy Webster's death in California Vera had made astonishingly +little open protest. But for that reason the effect upon her character +had been the deeper. + +Since her earliest childhood there had been but little in her life for +which she cared intensely, save her friendship with the odd dreaming +boy, whose ambitions for his own future had absorbed so much of her time +and thought. Until Billy died Vera really had never considered her own +future apart from his. + +In many ways she was superior to the members of her own family, which in +itself makes for a certain spiritual loneliness. Yet her parents were +Russians, and Russia is at present offering more contradictions in human +nature than any other race of people in the world. However, if her +parents were peasants and had but little education, they had possessed +sufficient courage to emigrate to the United States at a time when the +Czar and autocracy ruled in their own land. Afterwards Vera's father had +become a small farmer on Mr. Webster's large place, and here Vera and +Billy had grown up together. + +But at least Vera's family made no effort to interfere with her. The +other children appeared content to follow in the ways of their +ancestors, living with and by the land. In a measure they were proud +that Vera cared for books and people who could never be their friends. +Yet perhaps Vera's character had been largely influenced by her one +singular friendship. + +Now it remained to be seen what she could accomplish with her own life +uninspired by a dominating affection. + +She was an unusual looking girl, and not handsome according to +Anglo-Saxon standards. She was tall and ruggedly built, with broad +shoulders and hips, indicating strength more than grace. Her heavy dark +hair, growing low over her forehead, had a unique quality of vitality. +Her nose and mouth were both a little heavy, although her mouth gave +promise of future beauty, and she had the fine Slavic eyes with the +slight slant. + +Vera and Bettina afforded a marked contrast. The one girl, whatever her +brilliant father might say of his antecedents, showed only the evidences +of high breeding, both its charm and limitations. Yet, thinking more +deeply, was not after all Vera's the older ancestry since the first men +and women must have been those who lived nearest to nature? + +At this moment, when the one girl finished speaking, leaning over +Bettina rested her chin in her slender hand. She had not seen Vera for +some time and was now trying to discover in her companion's face what +she knew would never be confided to her, to what extent Vera had +recovered from her sorrow over Billy Webster's death. + +But instead of speaking of this, Bettina continued: + +"Yes, it is extraordinary that our entire Camp Fire unit is so soon to +cross over to France. I only wish the rest of us were as well prepared +for the work as you are, Vera. You have been studying cooking and the +care of children, besides the first aid and the farm work, which you +must have known already? I was able to find time for only a short period +of intensive study. Yet fortunately I know a good deal of French. Ever +since I was a tiny child I have been speaking French and certainly I am +familiar with our Camp Fire training and ideals. I only learned recently +that, although there are organizations similar to our Camp Fire in +England, China, Japan and Australia, there is none in France. Is it not +a wonderful thing that we are to be the pioneers of the Camp Fire +movement in France? Don't you feel that if we can arouse sufficient +enthusiasm among the French girls to induce them to form a national +organization it will bring American and French girls into closer touch +with each other? + +"Do you know, Vera, so many times in the past year I have heard +prominent men in Washington declare that the French, British, Italians +and Americans, having fought together on common ground for a common +ideal, can never in the future be anything but brothers in spirit. Yet +never once have I heard any one speak of the same need for intimate +association among the women of the different nations. Why is this not +equally important? The women of the future must also acquire something +of the new international spirit, must also learn to work and play +together. I think our Camp Fire embodies all these inspiring principles +and ideas for girls, and so I hope our work in France may be the +beginning of an international Camp Fire organization all over the +world." + +Vera Lagerloff, who had apparently been watching the flickering yellow +and rose flames in their tiny fire while Bettina talked, now looked +toward her and smiled. + +"Be careful, Bettina, you are a dreamer. Remember, the world has room +for but a few dreamers. I suppose that is why Billy went away. After +all, you know it is the small, hard sacrifices that are required of +women and girls in time of war." + +Then getting up, Vera began walking up and down the room as if finding +relief in action. + +"By the way, Bettina, have you heard the latest news from Gerry +Williams?--oh, I should have said Gerry Morris, I forgot her married +name." Vera went on, apparently desiring to change the subject: "She +hopes to see us after we reach our headquarters in France, if she and +her father-in-law are not too far away. I have sometimes wondered if Mr. +Morris did not give the money he had recently inherited to help with the +restoration work in France as a thank offering because Felipe was +required to serve only a short sentence for having tried to escape the +draft? Soon after he was permitted to enlist. Mr. Morris and Gerry are +living in one of the tiny ruined villages, assisting the old men and +women and children to rebuild their little homes." + +Bettina frowned, hardly aware that her expression had become slightly +skeptical. + +"Yes, I was told that Gerry had sailed with her father-in-law, although +so far as I know Felipe is still in an American training camp," Bettina +replied. "But, Vera, I am not yet an enthusiast over Gerry. However, as +we have never liked each other, perhaps I am not fair. I do not believe +that people's natures ever entirely change, even if circumstances do +affect one for a time. So I shall have to behold the miracle of a +transformed Gerry before I am convinced of the change I am told has +taken place in her." + +At this instant Bettina suddenly ceased speaking because a faint knock +had just sounded on their bedroom door. + +When Vera opened the door another girl stood outside. She was small and +dark and had an upward tilt to her nose and indeed to her entire face. + +"I know this is the hour for confidences and so I won't interrupt you +long," she began. "Only I thought it might be just as well if I present +you with a short outline of my history. Miss Graham was kind enough to +allow me to travel to Washington with her after meeting me at the home +of a mutual friend. She does not know much about me, so I think she is +especially kind. But perhaps we girls are beginning to take one another +more for granted! As a matter of fact, my name is Mary Gilchrist, +although I am usually called 'Gill' by my friends, because my father +insists I am so small I represent the smallest possible measure. I have +no mother and have spent all my life with my father on our big Wheat +ranch in Kansas. I suppose I should have been a boy, because I adore +machinery and have been driving a car for years, even before the law +would have permitted me to drive one. Of course I only motored over our +ranch at first. Now I am hoping I can be useful in France. For the last +few years I have been able to manage a tractor for the plowing and +harvesting of our fields. My father has given me my own motor to take to +France. He said he could do nothing less, since he had no son to devote +to his country's service and, as he was too old to fight himself, felt +he could do his best work in increasing our output of wheat. But I did +not intend saying so much about myself, only to thank you and Mrs. +Burton for agreeing to allow me to make the crossing with you. I shall +try not to be a nuisance. Good-night." + +Then actually before Vera or Bettina could reply the other girl +vanished. Yet she left behind her an affect of energy and warmth, her +glowing, piquant face, the red lights in her brown hair, even the +freckles on her clear, lightly tanned skin gave one the impression that +courage and action were essential traits of her character. + +After she had gone Vera smiled. + +"Well Bettina, I believe your new friend is original, whatever else she +may be." + +And Bettina nodded in agreement. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +"A LONG TIME GOING OVER THERE" + + +In a week Mrs. Burton and the Sunrise Camp Fire unit sailed from a port +somewhere in the United States to a port somewhere in France. Not only +were they accompanied by Miss Patricia Lord, but apparently they were +led by her. Whenever any information had to be imparted it was always +Miss Patricia who gave it and she also appeared to settle all questions +and all disputes. Under ordinary circumstances the Camp Fire girls would +have been annoyed, but at present they were too absorbed in a hundred +interests and as many emotions to be more than vaguely aware of Miss +Patricia's existence. + +Mrs. Burton, in spite of finding her own position frequently usurped and +her opinions regarded as of small value, nevertheless from the moment of +leaving New York felt a sensation of gratitude each time she glanced at +Aunt Patricia's homely and uncompromising countenance. In time past they +had weathered many storms together; if there were storms ahead Miss +Patricia could be counted upon to remain firm as the Rock of Gibraltar. +Difficult and domineering, yet behind her brusqueness there was great +good sense. Moreover, Mrs. Burton knew that Miss Patricia possessed the +gift of kindness which is the rarest of human qualities. The Irish humor +was there also, although now and then it might be hidden out of sight +and only used by Miss Patricia as she used her Irish brogue in moments +of special stress. + +Conscious that her group of Camp Fire girls was not pleased by the +addition of a new member to their party, Mrs. Burton hoped in time they +might come to appreciate Miss Patricia's real value, although she made +no effort to propitiate them at the start. + +The leave-taking these days is perhaps the hardest portion of the +journey to France. One must say farewell with apparent cheerfulness to +one's family and friends, assuming that whatever dangers may lie in wait +for other people, for you there can be only plain sailing, since this is +the gallant spirit these tragic times demand. But for the Camp Fire +girls there was also a certain fear that they might find themselves +unfit for the service they wished to offer. However, there was no +faltering and no regret, but only tremendous inspiration in the +knowledge that they were to be the first American Camp Fire girls to +enter France upon a special mission and with a special message to French +girls. + +Of the date or the port from which passenger vessels sail these days +there is no published record. It is enough to state that the Camp Fire +party sailed one morning in the early winter a little before noon from a +small harbor south of New York City. The morning had been cold and rainy +and the fog lay thick upon the water many miles from the land. + +In spite of the fact that their vessel was to form one of a convoy of a +dozen ships, each boat left port at a different hour, to meet further +out at sea. + +Soon after their own sailing, Mrs. Burton retired to her state-room. +Aunt Patricia and the Camp Fire girls insisted upon remaining on deck +for an indefinite length of time. + +At what point the United States considers her ships have entered the +danger zone on this side of the Atlantic only persons who have lately +crossed to the other side can know. + +When this hour arrived the Camp Fire girls were standing close together, +although separated into small groups. Peggy Webster, Vera Lagerloff and +Bettina Graham were talking to one another; Sally Ashton and Alice +Ashton stood a short distance off with their arms about each other, +drawn together only in moments of excitement. Within a few feet Marta +Clark was beside Mary Gilchrist, with Aunt Patricia not far away, but +apparently paying no attention to any of them. + +In truth, it was Aunt Patricia who gave the first signal. The ships +which until now had been at some distance apart were deliberately +forming into the position necessary for their convoy. It was almost as +if they were making ready for a naval attack; the boats slowed down, +mysterious whistles were blown, signals were run up. + +An hour or so later and the entire convoy, guarded by United States +torpedo destroyers, were steaming rapidly ahead. + +Bettina Graham was leaning over the ship's railing looking toward the +western line of the horizon through a pair of long-distance glasses. In +another moment she offered the glasses to Vera. + +"I wonder if you can see the destroyers more distinctly than I can +manage, Vera? The fog is so heavy and the boats are so nearly the same +color. No wonder they are known as the 'gray watch-dogs of the sea!' I +suppose one should feel safer because we are so surrounded, and yet in a +way I am more nervous. Certainly the destroyers do not allow one to +forget the reason for their presence, and I really had not thought a +great deal of our danger from submarines until they appeared." + +For a few seconds as she stared through the glasses Vera made no reply. + +As she turned to present the glasses to Peggy, Vera shook her head. + +"Then I am a better American than you are, Bettina, because I most +assuredly do not feel as you do. Our guard of destroyers gives me an +almost perfect sense of security. It may be absurd of course and a kind +of jingoism, but I do not consider that we can possibly come to grief, +protected by our own navy." + +As they stood thus close together the Camp Fire girls were wearing the +uniforms which had been especially designed for their trip abroad. + +Their ordinary Camp Fire outfit was of course not suitable; nevertheless +the new costumes had been made to follow as closely as possible the idea +and the model of the old. For military reasons they had chosen a darker +shade of brown than the ordinary khaki color. At present over their +serviceable brown serge traveling dresses they wore long coats of a +golden brown cloth made with adjustable capes to conform with the +changes of climate. The only suggestion of the Camp Fire was the +insignia of the crossed logs with the ascending flames embroidered upon +one sleeve. Their hats were of soft brown felt. + +In spite of the variety of striking and interesting uniforms on board +ship, already the Camp Fire girls had excited a good deal of quiet +attention. However, this may not have been due to their uniforms alone. +As a matter of fact, they were younger than the other passengers and +many persons were curious with regard to the work they were planning to +undertake in France. + +Sailing upon the same vessel there chanced to be a Red Cross unit of +twenty other girls who were to do canteen work among the French and +American soldiers. But except for one conspicuous exception, this unit +of girls was noticeably older. + +This made the one girl appear rather an outsider; moreover, the Camp +Fire girls learned that she was not an American girl, but a French girl +returning to her own country. + +There were no passengers on the ship who were not sailing to France for +urgent reasons and for reasons which the United States government +considered of sufficient importance to permit of their crossing. + +There were a number of business men whose affairs were not only of +importance to themselves, but to the Allied interests as well. There was +a medical unit with a staff of doctors, nurses and assistants, three or +four newspaper and magazine men, one well-known woman writer. But the +most distinguished among the travelers were several returning Frenchmen +who had been in the United States upon a special mission. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CHAPERONING THE CHAPERON + + +One afternoon about midway in the voyage across the Atlantic, Mrs. +Burton was seated upon the upper deck in her steamer chair enveloped in +a fur rug and a fur coat. A small sealskin turban completely covered her +hair, so only her face was revealed, her brilliant blue eyes, long +slender nose and chin, and her cheeks upon which two spots of color were +glowing. + +She was talking in French with a great deal of animation to a man who +sat beside her. From his manner and appearance and also from his +pronunciation it was self-evident that he was a Frenchman. Moreover, he +revealed a certain intellectual distinction typically French. Monsieur +Georges Duval was of middle age with clear-cut, aristocratic features, +keen dark eyes and iron-gray hair. In comparison with him Mrs. Burton +looked like a girl. + +It was just before tea time and the deck was crowded with the ship's +passengers. Since no lights were permitted after dark, it was necessary +to enjoy all the daylight possible out of doors. This afternoon was +clear and lovely, with a serene blue sky and sea. + +A number of the Camp Fire girls were strolling about talking to new +acquaintances. But if Mrs. Burton had any knowledge of their presence +she gave no sign, being too deeply interested in her conversation with +her present companion. + +"You are extremely kind, Monsieur, and I am most happy to receive any +advice you can give me. Later on I shall probably ask for your aid as +well. Now and then I have wondered if in coming to France to offer our +services to your country many American women may not prove more of a +burden than a help. I hope this may not be true of me or of my +companions. We intend to settle down somewhere in one of the devastated +districts and do whatever we can to be useful. But chiefly the group of +girls I have with me want to offer their services to French girls. I +have so often thought, Monsieur, that perhaps the greatest problem of +the future rests with the young girls of the present day. When the war +is over it will be their task to care for the wounded men and for many +others whom these long years of warfare will have made unfit for work. +More than this, there will be so many of these girls who can never have +husbands or children. Our Camp Fire organization in the United States +has a special message for the women of the future. But I must not bore +you with this when you have so many matters of more importance to hold +your attention." + +Monsieur Duval shook his head. + +"You are not boring me, Madame. You could not do that, but in any case +remember you are talking to a Frenchman about the women of his own +country. Sometimes I think we Frenchmen confuse our women and our +country; to us they are so much one and the same thing. When we fight +for France, we are fighting for our women, when we fight to protect our +women we are fighting to save France. I do not believe the world half +realizes what great burdens the French women bore after the +Franco-Prussian war, only forty years ago, not only in working shoulder +to shoulder with their men, but by inspiring them after a bitter and +cruel defeat. The courage, the steadfastness which France has revealed +in the four long years of this present war is one way in which we have +tried to pay our immense debt to them." + +Unable to reply because of the tears which she made no effort to +conceal, Mrs. Burton remained silent for a few moments. When she finally +spoke it was with a kind of diffidence: + +"Monsieur Duval, has it ever occurred to you how strange it is that, +aside from our American Revolution, most of the great modern wars for +democracy have been fought upon French soil? I have thought of this many +times and sorrowed over what seems the injustice to your race. Forgive +me if I appear too fanciful! Recently I have recognized why France +always is represented by the symbolic figure of a woman. She has endured +the birth of the world's freedom inside her body and her soul." + +In Mrs. Burton's speech there was perhaps nothing original, but always +there was the old thrilling beautiful quality to her voice which stirred +her audience, whether large or small. + +Monsieur Duval did not attempt to hide both his admiration and interest +in his companion. The second day out at sea they had been introduced to +each other by Mrs. Bishop, the woman novelist, with whom Mrs. Burton had +a slight acquaintance in New York City. Indeed, they had met only upon +one occasion, but on shipboard one is apt to renew acquaintances which +one would have considered of no special interest at other times. + +Since their original meeting Mrs. Burton and the French commissioner, +whom she had discovered to be a member of the French senate as well, had +spent several hours each day in talking together. There were many +subjects in which they were both interested, although of course the war +absorbed the greater part of their thought. + +"I only hope France may prove worthy of the sympathy and aid your +country pours out upon her so generously. But I think when you reach +France you will have no reason to complain of her lack of gratitude," +the Frenchman answered. + +"Of course our cause at present is a common one and our soldiers are +fighting as brothers. But long before your men fought with ours, you +American women were rendering us every possible service. Please be sure +if I can be of the least assistance to you in making your plans for work +in France I shall be more than happy. In spite of all our conversations +you never have told me definitely what it is you intend doing." + +Mrs. Burton smiled. A cool breeze was blowing in from the sea so that +she hid herself closer inside her rug. + +"Just a moment then, Monsieur Duval, I will talk of our plans and then +we must discuss something frivolous. Every morning as I waken I make up +my mind not to speak of the war for at least a few hours, but somehow I +never manage to keep my promise to myself. We intend undertaking a +certain amount of reclamation work in one of the ruined French villages. +Our present scheme is first to find an old farm house and establish +ourselves there in order to make a home where our neighbors can come to +us as they will. My Camp Fire girls thus hope to form friendships with +the French girls and later to induce them to become interested in our +Camp Fire ideas. + +"You may be amused, Monsieur Duval, but another thing we intend is to +teach the French women and girls to make corn bread, so as to help in +the wheat conservation. I was told by a woman in Washington, who had +just come back from the devastated regions, that this would be a real +service to France, if once we could persuade the French people to our +use of corn. The Indians taught us. As our Camp Fire is more or less +modeled upon their institutions, we hope to carry on the Indian message +of the corn. But enough of this; you have been kind to listen to me so +long." + +Monsieur Duval shook his head courteously. + +"What you say is interesting and worth while, Madame, but I have an idea +that you need not personally give all of your own time to these efforts. +These matters your companions and other women may be able to accomplish +with equal success. But you, you probably will find more important work +to do in France. Perhaps you will allow me to see you later. I do not +wish our acquaintance to end with our voyage, and it may be I can +persuade you to additional tasks. But in any case I hope you will talk +personally with many of my country people, men and women; there is no +one so well adapted to make our nations understand each other as a +gifted and charming American woman. I have many friends in Paris and +before you leave I trust I may be allowed the privilege of presenting at +least a few of them to you." + +Feeling agreeably flattered, as any woman is flattered by the homage of +a clever man, Mrs. Burton was about to reply, when suddenly the tall +figure of Miss Patricia Lord appeared, rising before her like a pillar +of darkness. + +She gave Monsieur Duval a curt nod; except for this she made no +explanation of her presence, continuing standing until the courteous +Frenchman felt constrained to offer her his chair. + +However, not until he had walked away did she condescend to accept his +place and then she managed to sit perfectly upright, which is a +_difficult_ feat in a reclining chair. + +"What is the matter, Aunt Patricia?" Mrs. Burton at once demanded, +feeling suddenly disturbed by Miss Patricia's severe expression. "Surely +nothing has happened to any one of the Camp Fire girls! I think I have +noticed nearly all of them strolling about on deck in the past half +hour." + +Gloomily Miss Patricia frowned. "I am not here to discuss with you the +girls whom you are suppose to be chaperoning. I wish to speak of your +conduct, Polly Burton. I have been considering the subject for the past +twenty-four hours. Under the circumstances you might as well know +_first as last_ that I do not approve of your present intimacy with +this unknown Frenchman, this _Mr._ Duval." Miss Patricia scorned +the use of the French title. "I have no idea of attempting to pronounce +the foolish word the French employ for plain 'Mister.' However, you +realize perfectly well that from the day following our sailing you have +spent the greater part of your time in his society. Sorry as I am to +speak of this, my respect for your husband compels me to warn you----" + +Here Aunt Patricia was interrupted by an explosion of laughter as fresh +and ingenuous as a girl's. + +"My dear Aunt Patricia, really I beg your pardon, but I supposed you +were coming with me to France to help me chaperon my Camp Fire girls! I +never dreamed of your also feeling obliged to chaperon me. Remember, I +am pretty old and never was particularly fascinating, even as a girl. I +am afraid you will have a hard time to persuade my husband to jealousy. +Richard is the fascinating member of our family! As a matter of fact, I +have simply been boring Monsieur Duval for the past hour by discussing +our plan of campaign after we reach France. You don't consider the +subject a dangerous one?" + +But neither Miss Patricia's face nor figure relaxed. + +"I may not be original, Polly Burton; as a matter of fact, I have no +idea that you _said_ anything of the least importance to your +Frenchman. With you it is the old story; it is not _what_ you say, +but the _way_ you say it. I have been watching you and you may +pretend to have noticed the Camp Fire girls. However, if you tell the +truth, you have not been aware of anything or anybody except Mr. Duval +during the entire afternoon." + +At this moment Miss Patricia appeared so annoyed and suspicious that it +was difficult for Mrs. Burton to decide whether she were the more amused +or irritated. However, it made no difference; either attitude would be +entirely lost upon Miss Patricia Lord. + +"I am sorry you don't approve of me," Mrs. Burton returned with a +pretence of meekness, yet dropping her eyelids to conceal the expression +of her eyes. + +"It is not that I do not approve of you, Polly, for I so seldom do +that," Aunt Patricia replied. "It is that I also feel it _my duty_ +to recall you to _your_ duty. You speak of having lately observed +the Camp Fire girls wandering about near you. I feel it an effort to +believe this because only a short time ago, while undoubtedly you were +enjoying yourself with a foreigner concerning whom you know absolutely +nothing, I discovered Sally Ashton seated upon a coil of rope in an +obscure portion of this vessel, flirting outrageously with a young +American physician. Your niece, Peggy Webster, is walking up and down +the lower deck with a French officer; lower deck not the upper, mind +you, where she might have been seen by you, although I doubt it. The +other girls are----" + +By this time Mrs. Burton had become seriously annoyed. She was obliged +to remember, of course, that Miss Patricia was a much older woman, yet, +nevertheless her eyes darkened and her color deepened a little +ominously. + +"Please Aunt Patricia, you are making a mistake," she began warmly. "I +am not in the habit of spying upon my Camp Fire girls and I am sure you +will never find such a proceeding necessary." + +Then, ashamed of the word she had employed, she continued more gently. + +"So you have been making a tour of investigation because you considered +that I was neglecting my duty? All I can say, Aunt Patricia, is that you +will always discover Sally Ashton flirting if there is an agreeable man +in sight. I cannot make up my mind whether or not Sally is unconscious, +yet flirting with her is either an instinct, an art, or both. However, +every man who sees her immediately succumbs. But as for Peggy, Peggy is +an absolutely trustworthy person! Did I not tell you that Peggy +considers herself engaged to Ralph Marshall, who is in the aviation +service in France at the present time? None of Peggy's family will +acknowledge her engagement; we feel she is too young, yet Ralph's +parents are old friends of my sister and brother-in-law. After a time I +am sure you will understand the Camp Fire Girls better." + +There was undeniably a tone of condescension in Mrs. Burton's voice, and +Aunt Patricia sniffed. + +"I understand the girls as well as I consider necessary, Polly Burton, +and probably better than you do. I have always insisted that you have +little knowledge of human nature. As for thinking that a girl of Peggy's +age, with almost no experience of life, can have any idea of the +character of man she could or should marry----" + +But here, realizing that Miss Patricia was mounted upon one of her +favorite hobbies and that nothing she could say or do would stop her, +Mrs. Burton, pretending to offer a polite attention, in reality allowed +her mind to wander. + +Miss Patricia was usually antagonistic to all male persons safely past +their babyhood. Among her friends it was an open question whether Aunt +Patricia had been jilted at an early age, or whether she had never +condescended to an admirer. + +"All men are idiots," is what she had been known to remark when hard +pressed. + +Gradually Mrs. Burton allowed herself to slip back in her chair, resting +her head more comfortably against a brown velvet cushion. + +It was strange that she had felt so little fear of the submarine menace +during the present voyage, when she had expected to be fearful the +entire way across. There were odd moments at night when one could not +sleep, thinking of the possible, even the probable danger that might +manifest itself at any moment. But aside from obeying the ship's rules +with regard to life belts and lights, the keeping of one's state-room +door unlatched, what was there to do save trust in a higher power? + +Actually at this moment Mrs. Burton, while presumably listening, was +deciding that she was enjoying the very crossing to France she had so +much dreaded. + +It would never do to shock Aunt Patricia, yet in a number of years she +had not met so agreeable a man as the French senator. Moreover, she was +entertained by the opportunity to form a new and stimulating intimacy +with a clever woman. Mrs. Bishop, known to her public as Georgianna +Bishop, having written several successful novels, was at present +traveling to Europe to write of the American soldiers life in the +trenches. + +In spite of the fact that Miss Patricia seemed also to regard Mrs. +Bishop with disfavor, Mrs. Burton had invited her to spend a part of her +time in France with them, if it could possibly be arranged. + +At this moment, if Miss Patricia would only stop talking, Mrs. Burton +believed that she would like to have Mrs. Bishop sit beside her during +the hour of afternoon tea. + +Tea would be served in a few moments. Perhaps, if Miss Patricia would +decide to move, one of the Camp Fire girls would appear to act as +messenger and find Mrs. Bishop. + +With this thought in mind, glancing carelessly up and down the deck, +Mrs. Burton discovered Vera Lagerloff and Bettina Graham coming +hurriedly toward her. What was more surprising, they were accompanied by +the new friend with whom she had been talking a few moments before. + +Both girls looked so white and frightened that Mrs. Burton, making a +hasty movement in attempting to jump up from her chair, found herself +entangled in her steamer rug. + +As Monsieur Duval endeavored to extricate her, he said quietly: + +"I hope we have not alarmed you, but a most unfortunate accident has +just occurred on board ship, which I hope may not develop into a +tragedy. A young French girl, traveling with the American Red Cross +unit, is supposed to have attempted to take her own life. I am by no +means sure of this, she may be ill and have fainted from some cause. I +was sent for, I presume because of my nationality, then some one +suggested you." + +But before Monsieur Duval had more than finished speaking, Mrs. Burton +was hurrying away, accompanied by Bettina and Vera. + +"I really do not know how to explain what has happened," Bettina +continued. "You remember the French girl we have noticed because she +appeared so much younger than the other members of her Red Cross unit? +It seems that at the beginning of the war all her people were killed and +her home in France destroyed, so that she is now entirely alone. She was +living with friends in the United States, but suddenly decided that she +wished to return to France. Unexpectedly she must have lost her courage. +However, all Vera and I really know it what one of the other Red Cross +girls told us, asking us to tell no one else." + +By the end of Bettina's speech, Mrs. Burton and the two girls had left +the deck, and Vera was leading the way down one of the narrow corridors +bordered on either side by small state-rooms. + +At the door of one of the rooms a woman in the uniform of a Red Cross +nurse, after making a little motion to command silence, stepped quietly +out. + +"There is nothing serious the matter, Mrs. Burton. It was hardly worth +while to disturb you. At present the young French girl who was crossing +with us to her former home is suffering from an attack of hysteria. As I +have not been able to quiet her and as you are here, perhaps you will +come and see what you can do." + +Then she turned to Vera and Bettina. + +"If there is any other story of what has occurred being told on board +ship, will you please do your best to contradict it? A ship is a +hopeless place for gossip. However, I am afraid Yvonne will scarcely be +fit for the work our Red Cross unit expects to undertake. I must find +some one to befriend the child after we reach Paris." + +Bettina and Vera moved away, followed by the older woman. + +At the same instant Mrs. Burton, entering the half open door of the +state-room, discovered a young girl of about seventeen or eighteen, with +large brown eyes and fair hair, lying huddled on the bed. She was not +crying, yet instantly put up her hands before her face as if to escape +observation. + +Mrs. Burton sat down on the edge of the berth beside her. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE CONFESSION + + +"Don't talk if you prefer not; perhaps you may be able to sleep after a +little if I sit here beside you," Mrs. Burton said gently. + +"But I would prefer to be alone," the young French girl answered, +speaking English with a pretty foreign accent. + +Instantly Mrs. Burton rose, intending to leave the tiny state-room; +however, having gone but a few steps she heard the he same voice plead: + +"No, please don't leave me. I have been watching you and your friends +ever since our ship sailed, and as I must talk to some one, I wish it to +be you. If you only knew how sorry I am to have created a scene and to +have given so much trouble, when everybody has been so kind." + +Then the girl began to cry again, but softly as if her desire for tears +was nearly spent. + +Without replying Mrs. Burton took her former position. + +Occasionally she had a moment of thinking that perhaps after her years +of experience as a Camp Fire guardian she was beginning to understand +something of the utterly unlike temperaments of varying types of girls. +Moreover, in spite of Aunt Patricia's judgment, her work had afforded +her unusual opportunities for the study of human nature. + +Now, as she sat silently watching the young French girl in her effort to +regain her self-control, Mrs. Burton realized that hers would be no +ordinary story. Her friend had chosen to protect her by stating that she +was suffering from an attack of nerves, yet this instant the girl was +making an intense effort to gain a fresh hold upon herself both mentally +and physically. + +"I am sorry," she repeated a moment later, "for I realize now I should +never have made the attempt to return home to France, although I thought +after nearly three years in the United States surely I had the courage! +Still, for the past few days I have been becoming more and more +convinced that I was going to fail, that I had not the strength for the +work ahead of me. What you were told just now, that I had merely +fainted, was not true. I had made up my mind that since I was not going +to be able to be of service to my country I would not add to her burden. +I could not do that; there had to be some way out, and I _had_ to +find the way." + +Sitting up, Yvonne now leaned forward, resting her small head with its +heavy weight of fair hair upon her hands, clasped under her chin. She +was not looking at her companion. Her eyes held an expression which +betrays an inner vision. + +"I did make an effort to do what you suspect. I wonder if I was wrong? +Certainly I was unsuccessful, since I do not even feel ill in +consequence. I suppose I ought to explain that I had written a note to +apologize for the mistake I had made in urging the Red Cross unit to +bring me with them to France and to say I regretted the distress and +trouble I must give. Then as I was carrying the letter to the room of +the friend whom you found here with me I think I must have fainted. She +was shocked and angry when she learned what I had attempted to do and I +have given my word I will not try again." Yvonne was silent for a moment +and then added with another catch in her voice: "Do you think it wicked +of me, because I am still a little sorry I failed in what I attempted? +But I don't think you will when I have told you my history." + +Under ordinary circumstances Yvonne's broken and incoherent story would +have annoyed Mrs. Burton. She had scant sympathy and could make but +slight excuse for the neurotic persons who have no fortitude with which +to meet life's inevitable disasters but expend all their energy in +compassion for themselves. Especially did she resent this characteristic +in a young girl, having grown accustomed to the sanity and the outdoor +spirit engendered by the Camp Fire life. Moreover, one has at present no +time or pity save for real tragedies. + +Yet Yvonne's attitude had not so affected her. Instead she realized that +the girl's suffering had been due to a vital cause and that the secret +of her action still remained hidden. + +"Had you not better rest and talk to me later?" Mrs. Burton inquired. "I +think you are very tired, more so than you realize. After a time perhaps +you will see things more clearly. You are young, Yvonne, to believe +there is nothing more for you in life that is worth while." + +"I know that would be true if these were not war times, Madame," the +girl answered. "Will you please listen to my story now? There may be no +opportunity at another time." + +Slipping out of her berth, Yvonne proffered the one small chair the +state-room afforded to her visitor. + +"Won't you sit here? You may be more comfortable," she suggested. + +Then she found a seat for herself on the lounge which ran along one side +of the room. + +By this time the little French girl was looking so completely exhausted +that Mrs. Burton would have liked again to urge her to wait. Yet after +all perhaps it might be a relief to have her confession over! + +"I was living in a chateau with my mother and two brothers when the war +began," Yvonne said, going directly to the heart of her story. "After +the news came that war was declared and the Germans had invaded our +country, my older brother, Andre, left at once to join his regiment near +Paris. At that time we did not dream there could be danger near our +home, which seemed so far from the front. I do not know whether you have +noticed my name on our passenger list, Yvonne Fleury, and our home was +called the Chateau Yvonne. It is not in existence any longer. But I am +afraid I am not telling my story clearly. Sometimes I grow confused +trying to remember when things actually happened, as they all came +quickly and unexpectedly. After my brother and our men servants had gone +my mother and I tried to carry on the work at the chateau as well as we +could with only the women to help. We were not rich people; my father +had died some years before, soon after my younger brother was born. But +we had a good deal of land and a beautiful orchard. It seems strange to +think that even the orchard has been destroyed!" + +As Yvonne talked she had a little habit of frowning, almost as if she +were doubting the truth of her own story. Nevertheless, however unique +and impossible her story might sound to her own ears, stories like hers +had grown only too familiar since the outbreak of the war in Europe. + +A moment later and she seemed confused, as if scarcely knowing how to +take up the threads of her own history. Afterwards she tried to speak +more slowly, her voice sounding as if she were worn out both from her +recent suffering and from the effort to recount her own and her +country's tragedy. + +"For weeks after the war started we had almost no news of any kind to +tell us what was taking place. My brother could not send us a letter, as +all our trains were devoted to carrying our troops. Now and then, when +an occasional motor car passed through our village, a soldier or an +officer would drop on the roadside an _edition speciale de la +Presse_. Perhaps one of the old peasants, picking up the paper, would +bring it to our chateau. Afterwards a number of them would gather around +while either my mother or I read aloud the news. In those first days the +news was nearly always sad news." + +Then for a little while Yvonne made no effort to continue her story and +Mrs. Burton understood her silence. + +"As soon as we could, my mother and I organized a little branch of La +Croix Rouge in our village and did what we could. We had many people to +help and so spent most of our time making bandages from old linen. We +were told then that the wounded might be sent back across the Marne to +be cared for by us and that our houses must be made ready to use as +hospitals. But the wounded were not cared for by us, not in those early +weeks of the war. You know what took place, Madame. Our soldiers were +defeated; it is now an old story. One night when the battle line was +drawing closer and closer to our home we were warned to flee. But my +mother could not, would not believe the word when it came and so we +waited too long. We had only a farm wagon and an old horse with which to +make our escape, our other horses and car having been requisitioned for +the army." + +This time, when Yvonne hesitated, Mrs. Burton had a cowardly wish that +she would not go on with her story, so easy it was to anticipate what +might follow. + +In this moment Yvonne lived over again the night in her life she could +never forget. Instead of the soft lapping of the waves against the sides +of the ship, the young French girl was hearing the booming of guns, the +shrieking of shells and the final patter of bullets like a falling rain. + +"I would prefer not to tell you anything more in detail, Mrs. Burton," +Yvonne afterwards added more calmly than one could have thought +possible. + +"The night of our attempted escape we were overtaken by the enemy and my +little brother was killed; a few days later my mother died of the shock +and exposure. I don't know just how things happened. I remember I was +alone one night in a woods with a battle going on all around me. Next +morning I believe the Germans began a retreat. A French soldier found me +and took me with him to the home of some French people. I think I must +have been with them several weeks before I was myself again. Then I +learned that our chateau had been burned and my brother reported killed. + +"One day an American friend, who had learned of our family tragedy, came +to see me and decided that it would be wiser to take me home to his own +family in the United States. I was so dazed and miserable he believed I +would be happier there and would sooner learn to forget. Of course after +a time I was happier, but of course one can never forget. So at last I +persuaded my friends I must be allowed to return to my own country, that +I must help my people who were still going through all that I had +endured. My friends were opposed to the idea, but because I insisted, at +last they gave their consent. Then after our boat sailed I felt I could +not go back to France. I was afraid. I remembered the long night in the +woods--the German soldiers----" + +Mrs. Burton's arms were about the girl. + +"Please don't talk any more of the past, Yvonne. Try to remember, my +dear, that the enemy is no longer in the neighborhood of your old home. +He has been driven further and further back until some day, please God, +the last German soldier shall have disappeared forever from the sacred +soil of France. + +"Sleep now, I shall sit here beside you. Later I will talk to you about +joining my group of girls in France. You are not strong enough for the +Red Cross work at present, but a great deal of our work will be among +young French girls and you could be of the greatest aid to us if you +care to help. Yet there will be time enough later to speak of our Camp +Fire plans." + +However, when Yvonne had crawled back into her berth, more exhausted +than she had realized, Mrs. Burton continued sitting beside her. Then, +hoping the sound of her voice might be soothing and in order to help +Yvonne to sleep and also because of the power of suggestion, she +repeated a Camp Fire verse: + + "As fagots are brought from the forest, + Firmly held by the sinews which bind them, + I will cleave to my Camp Fire sisters + Wherever, whenever I find them. + + "I will strive to grow strong like the pine tree, + To be pure in my deepest desire; + To be true to the truth that is in me + And follow the Law of the Fire." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A FRENCH FARM HOUSE ON THE FIELD OF HONOR + + +"Is the French country more tragic or less so than you anticipated, +Vera?" Peggy Webster inquired. + +She and Vera Lagerloff were walking along what must once have served as +a road, each girl carrying a large, nearly empty basket on her arm. + +"Do you mean the actual country?" Vera questioned. "Then, yes, +conditions are worse than I expected to find them, certainly in a +neighborhood like this, where the work of restoration is only just +beginning." She frowned, shaking her head sadly. "I could never have +imagined God's earth could be transformed to look like a place of +torment, and yet this countryside suggests one of the hells in Dante's +'Inferno.' But if you mean are the French people more tragic than I +thought to find them, then a thousand times, no! Was there ever anything +so inspiring or so amazing as their happiness and courage in returning +to their old homes? The fact that their homes are no longer in existence +seems not to discourage them, now their beloved land has been restored. +When we have been working here a longer time I hope I shall recover from +my desire to weep each time I see an old man or woman happily engaged in +rebuilding one of their ruined huts. It is a wonderful experience, +Peggy, this opportunity to appreciate the spiritual bravery of the +French people. I hope I may learn a lesson from them. I have needed just +such a lesson since Billy's death." + +For a moment Peggy Webster made no reply. + +The entire countryside through which they were passing lay between the +line of the German advance into France at the beginning of the war and +the famous Hindenburg line to which the Boches were forced back. The +Germans had so devastated the French villages and country, it was as if +the plague of the world had swept across them. The valley had also +suffered the bombardment of the enemy and the returning fire from their +own guns. + +Yet on this winter day the sun was shining brilliantly on the uptorn +earth, which once had been so fair, while in a bit of broken shell not +far from the road an indomitable sparrow had builded her nest. + +There were no shrubs and the trees were gaunt scarred trunks, without +branches or leaves, reminding one of an ancient gloomy picture in the +old-time family Bible, known as "Dry Bones in the Valley." + +"Well, even the French country does not make me sorrowful, not just at +present," Peggy replied. "If only the enemy can be forced further back +next spring when the expected drive takes place, what a wonderful +opportunity for us to be allowed to continue to help with the +restoration of the French country. I do not believe many years will be +required before the land will be lovely and fruitful again. But then you +know I am a tiresome practical person. You don't suppose by any chance +this portion of France will ever be destroyed by the enemy a second +time? Yes, I know even such a suggestion sounds like disloyalty and I do +not of course believe such a tragedy could occur. Just think, Vera, what +only a handful of American women have accomplished here in the Aisne +valley! Ten American women have had charge of the rehabilitation of +twenty-seven villages and with the aid of the soldiers during their +leaves of absence from the trenches have placed five thousand acres of +land under cultivation. I hope we make a success of our work, Vera, yet +whatever the future holds, we must stick to our posts." + +The two Camp Fire girls were walking ankle deep in the winter mud. Where +the roads had been cut into furrows by the passing of heavy artillery, +miniature streams of melted snow ran winding in and out like the +branches of a river. Now and then a gulley across the road would be so +deep and wide that one had to make a flying leap to cross safely. + +About a quarter of a mile away the Aisne watered the countryside and the +towns. Not far off was the classic old town of Rheims with her ancient +Cathedral already partly destroyed. Encircling the landscape was the +crown of low hills where not for days but years the tides of battle have +surged up and down from victory to defeat, from defeat to victory, until +during the winter of 1917 and 1918 there was a lull in the world +conflict. + +Finally the two girls came in sight of a field. Already a devoted effort +was being made to prepare the ground for an early spring plowing. Stray +bits of shell, the half of a battered helmet, the butt of a broken gun +had been laid in a neat pile, the larger stones had been placed beside +them. + +Standing in front of a tiny hut which evidently had been partly burned +down, were an old man and woman busily at work trying to rebuild their +house. A small quantity of new lumber lay on the ground beside them. + +"Dear me, I wish I were a carpenter, a mason, a doctor, I don't know +what else, and a million times a millionaire, then one might really be +useful!" Peggy exclaimed, as she and Vera stopped to gaze +sympathetically at the old couple. + +The next instant their attention was also attracted by a child who was +sitting near the pile of broken stones and shells nursing something in +her arms. At first she did not observe the two American girls, although +they were facing her and not many yards away. + +Her shock of dark hair looked as if it had been cut from her head in the +darkness, she had large unhappy black eyes and a thin, haggard face. + +Finally discovering the two older girls, with an unexpected cry of +terror, she made a flying leap toward the house, still clasping her +broken doll, and hid herself inside. + +At the child's cry the man and woman also turned as if they too were +frightened and yet unable to flee. For an instant Vera and Peggy saw in +their faces a suggestion of what they all too recently had endured. The +next moment the old peasants were bowing and smiling with unfailing +politeness. + +"Do you think we might speak to them, Vera?" Peggy inquired. "Of course +we do not wish to be obtrusive, but I have a few groceries which I did +not give away in the village still remaining in my basket. It is +possible they might find them useful. How glad I am Yvonne Fleury is +living with us! Already she has taught me more than I could ever learn +in any other way about the French people, their gentleness, their +infinite industry and patience and above all their beautiful manners. I +hope no one of them will ever feel any American tries to help in a +spirit of patronage; as for myself, each day I pray for a fresh gift of +tact." + +Vera started forward. + +"Come with me, Peggy, I think I can persuade the two old people to +realize we only wish to be helpful. You see, my own people were Russian +peasants and there ought to be a bond of sympathy between us. It is true +the French earned their liberty over a century ago, while our liberty +yet hangs in the balance, now that German autocracy is trying to replace +the Russian. I believe I am a better carpenter than these old people; if +they are friendly I intend to ask them to allow me to return to assist +them with their work tomorrow." + +Afterwards for ten or fifteen minutes the two girls remained talking +happily with their new acquaintances. + +Like many other Americans, both Vera and Peggy had firm faith in their +knowledge of the French language until their arrival in France. +Assuredly they could understand each other perfectly as well as other +Americans and English friends who spoke French slowly and deliberately. +But unfortunately the French folk apparently speak with greater rapidity +than any other nation on the face of the earth and with a wealth of +idioms and unexpected intonations, leaving the foreigner who has never +lived in France floundering hopelessly in pursuit of their meaning. + +In contrast with their other new French acquaintances the two American +girls now found the old peasant and his wife a real satisfaction. Their +vocabularies were not large and they spoke in a halting, simple fashion +not difficult to translate. + +Their story was not unlike the story of thousands of other families in +the stricken regions of France. During the period of victory the Germans +had been quartered in the nearby village, but as the village was not +large and the soldiers were numerous, a few of them had been sent to +live with the small peasant farmers not far from the town. They were +ordered not only to live upon them, but also to secure whatever +livestock they owned, or whatever food of value. + +Pere and Mere Michet had possessed a daughter and a son-in-law. The son +they thought still alive and fighting for France. Their daughter, +Marguerite Michet, had disappeared. + +"La petite Marguerite, she has never been herself since her mother was +taken," Mere Michet explained. "I tell her always _la bonne mere_ +will return, but she is afraid of strangers; you will pardon her?" + +When at last the girls had been permitted to leave their small offerings +and had started toward their new home, Vera had agreed to return next +day to render what assistance she could toward the restoration of the +little house. Peggy was to come back in order to persuade the little +French girl to make friends and perhaps pay them a visit at the farm. + +After walking on for a short added distance, both girls finally reached +their own French farm house. + +It was now late afternoon and the old battered building appeared homely +and forbidding. Once upon a time, with the French love of color, the +farm house had been painted a bright pink, but now the color had been +washed off, as if tears had rolled down the face of some poor old +painted lady, smearing her faded cheeks. A fire had evidently been +started when the Germans began their retreat, which for some freakish +reason had died down after destroying only the rear portion of the +building. + +After the arrival of the Camp Fire unit in France the entire party had +gone straight to Paris as they planned, where their credentials had been +presented to the proper authorities, as well as a brief outline of the +work which they hoped to be allowed to undertake. Their idea was at once +so simple and so practical that no objection was raised. + +The Camp Fire unit looked forward to establishing a community farm in +one of the ruined districts of France. So after a short stay in Paris, +following the advice of the American Committee, Mrs. Burton and Aunt +Patricia set out to find a home for their unit. Later the Camp Fire +girls joined them at the old farm house on the Aisne. + +Only a little time had passed, nevertheless the farm already suggested +home. + +As Peggy and Vera entered the open space where a gate had once stood, +they discovered the entire Camp Fire community outside in the yard. + +As usual, Aunt Patricia was giving orders to everybody in sight, while +Mrs. Burton in her effort to be of assistance as she urged the others +not to attempt too much, was fluttering about, as often as not in the +way. + +As a matter of fact, the Camp Fire girls were paying but little +attention either to her or to Aunt Patricia. Mary Gilchrist, a few +moments before, having driven her motor into the farm yard, the girls +were at present helping her to unload. + +After crossing to France with the Sunrise Camp Fire Unit, Mary had +become so much one of them that she had concluded to remain with them +for a time, certainly until she could find more useful work. Therefore +her motor and her services were temporarily at their disposal. + +It is amazing what women and girls are accomplishing these days without +masculine aid, and whether or not this is a fortunate state of affairs, +the war has left no choice. + +Since they were both strong and energetic, Vera and Peggy were glad to +have reached home at so critical a moment. However, the other girls were +getting on quite comfortably without their aid. Bettina and Alice +Ashton, having placed a plank at the end of the car, managed so that the +large boxes and packing cases could slide onto the ground without being +lifted. Nearly every box of any size bore the name of "Miss Patricia +Lord." + +Finally, "Gill," for the Camp Fire girls were by this time calling Mary +Gilchrist by her diminutive title, as she seemed to prefer it, standing +up on the seat of her motor, began signaling for attention. + +"Be quiet for a moment everybody, please, and listen as diligently as +you can. I am not a magician, nor yet a ventriloquist, yet if you will +be perfectly silent you will think I am one or both." + +The next instant and Mary's audience became aware of an extraordinary +combination of familiar noises proceeding from the depths of her motor. +One felt like a guest at a "mad tea-party," although of a different +nature from Alice's. The noises were a mingled collection of squawks and +cackles and crowing, and pitched in a considerably lower key, a rich but +unmistakable grunt. + +Alone Aunt Patricia appeared gratified, almost exultant. + +Stepping over toward the car with her long, militant stride, she gave +her commands briefly. + +"Here, Vera, you have more brains than the other girls, help me to move +these crates. Polly Burton considered it possible to run a community +farm without a farm animal within twenty miles. But then she was not +brought up on a small place in Ireland where we kept the pig in the +parlor!" And here Miss Patricia's rich Irish brogue betrayed her +cheerfulness for she only gave sway to her Irish pronunciation in +moments of excitement. + +The next moment, not only with Vera's but also with Peggy's and Alice +Ashton's aid, the four women dragged forward a large wooden box with +open slats containing a noble collection of fowls, then another of geese +and ducks. Finally with extreme caution they engineered the landing of a +crate which had been the temporary home of a comfortable American hog +and her eugenic family. + +"Good gracious, Aunt Patricia, how did you ever manage to acquire such +valuable possessions?" Mrs. Burton demanded. + +"By ordering them shipped from my own farm in Massachusetts a month or +more before we sailed for France and then by forwarding my address to +the proper persons after we landed here," Miss Patricia answered calmly. +Ignoring any further assistance, she began opening a box which was +filled with grain. + +"I presume other things have arrived for me as well, Mary Gilchrist?" +Miss Patricia questioned. + +Mary nodded and laughed. She looked very fetching in her motor driver's +costume of khaki with the short skirt and trousers and the Norfolk +jacket belted in military fashion. On her hair, which had ruddy red +brown lights in it, she wore a small military hat deeply dented in the +center. + +"Goodness gracious, Aunt Patricia, dozens of things!" she replied. "You +must have chartered an entire steamer to bring over your gifts to the +French nation. Best of all, there are two beautiful cows waiting for you +in Soissons at this moment. I could not bring them in the motor, nor did +I dare invite them to amble along behind my car. But I have arranged +with an old man in the town to escort the cows out to our place +tomorrow, or as soon as possible." + +No one did anything but stare at Miss Patricia for the next few seconds. + +Whether or not this condition of affairs made her unusually +self-conscious, or whatever the reason, finally she rested from her +labor of opening boxes to gaze first at Mrs. Burton and then slowly from +one girl's face to the other's. + +"I don't mean to add to your burdens by asking any one of you to assist +me in running my farm," she began in a tone which might have been +considered apologetic had it emanated from any one than Aunt Patricia. +"I intend to find an old man to help and to do the rest myself." + +Then a peculiar expression crossed the rugged old face. + +"You see, I was raised on a tiny farm in Ireland and used sometimes to +know what it meant to be hungry until my brother came over to the United +States and made a fortune in ways I am more or less ashamed to remember. +I have been telling Polly Burton that I crossed over to France because I +wished to look after her and also to help her care for you girls. But +that was not the whole truth. I think I came largely because I could not +sleep in my bed of nights knowing how many old people and babies there +were in this devil-ridden portion of France who were hungry. Oh, there +are many people as well as the governments interested in keeping the +soldiers well fed! Maybe it's a crime these days for the old and for +babies to require food! Yet they do need it. So if you don't mind, +Polly, I want the people in our neighborhood to feel that they can come +to our farm for milk and eggs, or whatever we have to give them. I left +word with the manager of my farm near Boston to ship livestock to me in +France whenever the chance offers. I am hoping after a little, when +these old people get back on their farms that we may be able to give +each family sufficient stock to keep them going until their young men +and women return home. But remember, I don't wish to interfere with what +you children are doing, nursing the sick and opening schools and +starting play centers. Heaven only knows what you are not undertaking! +As I said before, I'll just look after my farm." + +Here Miss Patricia attempted to return to her usual belligerent manner, +but found it difficult because Mrs. Burton had placed her arm about her. +Try as Aunt Patricia might to conceal her adoration of Mrs. Burton, it +was nearly always an impossible feat. + +Besides Mrs. Burton was exclaiming with a little catch in her voice: + +"You dear, splendid, old Irish gentlewoman! Is there anybody in the +world in the least like you? Of course you were right when you announced +that I never would think of the really practical things we should +require for our work over here. But, although I spent as much money as I +could possibly afford, I have realized every day since our arrival, that +if I had expended every cent I ever hope to possess, it would have +amounted to nothing. Yet I never once thought of the shipping of stock +for the little farms in our neighborhood, Aunt Patricia. I am sure you +will make life more worth while for every man and woman in this part of +the French country before many months." + +Instead of appearing gratified by these compliments, Miss Patricia was +heard to murmur something or other about Polly Burton's fashion of +exaggeration. Then, perhaps partly to conceal embarrassment, she began +tearing the slats from the side of one of her crates. Afterwards, +driving her travel-worn flock of chickens toward the chicken house, +which she herself had made ready, and shooing them with her black skirt, +Miss Patricia temporarily disappeared. + +Through tears Mrs. Burton laughed at the picture. + +Vera followed Miss Patricia, whom she had learned to like and admire +since the afternoon of their extraordinary introduction. + +"I hope to be allowed to help with the farm work, Aunt Patricia," she +urged. "You know I too was brought up on Mr. Webster's farm in New +Hampshire, besides, all my people in Russia were peasant farmers." + +Miss Patricia did not cease for an instant to continue to care for her +brood. However, she did answer with unusual condescension: + +"You are a sensible girl, Vera. I observed the fact on the afternoon I +met you in New York City when you made no effort to argue with me in +connection with the escape of that ridiculous burglar." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BECOMING ADJUSTED + + +It was not a simple matter for the Sunrise Camp Fire unit to become +accustomed to their new life in the devastated French country. The +conditions were primitive and difficult. More than once in the first few +weeks Mrs. Burton wondered if in bringing the Camp Fire girls with her +to work in France hers had not been the courage of folly? + +Tet they started out with excellent military discipline. Life at the +farm house was modeled upon the precepts of the "Waacs," the Womans' +Army Auxiliary Corps of the British army in France. These girls, many +thousands in number, are performing every possible service behind the +British armies in the field. + +Unexpectedly it was Sally Ashton who first demanded that a proper +routine of life and work be laid down and obeyed. Also the household +work must be equitably divided, each girl choosing her portion according +to her tastes and talents. + +Each day's calendar, written by Mrs. Burton upon her typewriter, was +hung in a conspicuous place in the front hall at the French farm. + +The domestic schedule read: + + "Breakfast 8 o'clock, bedrooms cleaned immediately after. + Dinner 1 P. M. + Supper 6.30 P. M. + No work after 8.30 P. M. + Bedtime 10 o'clock." + +In the proper observance of the hours for meals Sally Ashton was +particularly interested, as she had volunteered to undertake the +direction of the housekeeping, which consisted of deciding upon the menu +of the simple meals and assisting in their preparation. It was not +possible that Sally alone should do all the cooking for so large a +family without wearing herself out and leaving no time for other things. + +However, soon after their arrival Mrs. Burton had secured the services +of an old French woman whom she had discovered wandering about the +country homeless, her little hut having been entirely destroyed by the +Germans. Not knowing what else to do, Mrs. Burton originally invited her +to live with them at the farm temporarily. But she had proved such a +help in getting settled and the girls had become so fond of her that no +one of them willingly would have allowed Mere Antoinette to depart. + +After the wonderful fashion of French cooks, Mere Antoinette could make +nourishing and savory dishes out of almost nothing, so she and Sally had +principal charge of the kitchen. Notwithstanding, two of the Camp Fire +Girls were to prepare supper each evening, so that they should not +forget their accomplishments and in order to relieve the others. + +Marie, Mrs. Burton's maid, had accompanied her to France, although none +too willingly. It was not that she did not adore her afflicted country, +but because she feared the dangers of the crossing and the hardships she +might be forced to endure. + +Marie, alas! was a patriot of a kind each country produces, a patriot of +the lips, not of the heart or hand. + +It must be confessed that she had wandered far from her chosen work as +maid to a celebrated American actress. Would any one have dreamed in +those early days when Marie had first entered her service that Mrs. +Burton would have followed so eccentric a career as she had wilfully +chosen in the past few years? First to wander about the United States, +living outdoors in Camp Fire fashion with a group of young girls, then +with the same group of girls and two additional ones to undertake the +present reclamation work in France! + +Having accomplished the journey across the sea in safety, Marie would +cheerfully, yes, enthusiastically have remained in Paris, even if it +were a Paris unlike the gay city she remembered. She would have enjoyed +accompanying her "Madame" to the homes of distinguished persons, caring +in the meantime for her wardrobe and urging her to return to her +rightful place upon the stage. But since Mrs. Burton for the present +would do none of these things and since Marie had refused positively to +be separated, once more she had to make the best of a bad bargain. + +So voluntarily Marie offered to take charge of the greater part of the +housework and to devote the rest of her time to sewing for the French +children in their vicinity, whose clothes were nothing but an odd +assortment of rags. + +Marie had her consolations. It was good to be out of a country which +produced men of the type of Mr. Jefferson Simpson, who having +_once_ proposed marriage and been declined, had not the courtesy to +renew his suit. Also it was good to speak one's own tongue again, and +although at present there were but few men to be seen in the +neighborhood under sixty, there were military hospitals in the nearby +villages. Moreover, there was always the prospect of the return of some +gallant French _poilu_ for his holiday from the trenches. So Marie +was unable to feel entirely wretched even while undergoing the hardships +of an existence within a half-demolished farm house on the Aisne. + +As a matter of fact, the old farm house was not in so unfortunate a +condition as the larger number of French homes, which had been wrecked +by the enemy before he began his "strategic retreat." + +Only a portion of the left wing of the house had been demolished. + +This had comprised a large kitchen, a pantry and the dining room. +However, a sufficiently large amount of space remained for the uses of +the Camp Fire unit. + +In the center the house was divided by a long hall. On one side were two +comfortably large rooms. The back one was chosen for the dining room and +the front for the living room. The pantry was restored so that it could +serve for the kitchen; as the old stove had been destroyed, a new one +was ordered from Paris. This developed into a piece of good fortune, as +it required far less fuel than the old, and fuel was one of the greatest +material problems in France, coal selling at this time for $120 a ton. + +A single long room occupied the other side of the hall; this room had a +high old-fashioned ceiling and was paneled in old French oak as +beautiful as if it had adorned a French palace. + +Mere Antoinette explained that the farm house had been the property of +Madame de Mauprais, a wealthy French woman who had lived in the chateau +not far away. It had been occupied by her son, who had chosen to +experiment in scientific farming for the benefit of the small peasant +farmers in the neighborhood. + +The war had banished Monsieur de Mauprais and whatever family he may +have possessed, so that Mrs. Burton had been able to rent his farm for a +small sum through an agent who lived in the nearest village. + +It is possible that the farm house had been spared in a measure by the +German soldiers because of their greater pleasure in the destruction of +the old chateau which was only about half a mile away. At the present +time the chateau appeared only as a mass of fallen stone. + +This single spacious room the Camp Fire girls chose for their school +room for the French children in the neighborhood. + +The better furniture of the farmhouse had been hacked into bits of wood +by the German soldiers and was fit only for burning. The simple things +had not been so destroyed. Fortunately their camping life out of doors +had accustomed this particular group of American girls to exercising +ingenuity, so that the problem of furnishing and making attractive their +school room with so little to go upon rather added to their interest. + +Two long planks raised upon clothes-horses discovered in the barn formed +a serviceable table. Stools and odd chairs were brought down from the +attic. On the floor were two Indian rugs Mrs. Burton had induced the +Indian woman near the Painted Desert in Arizona to weave for her with +the special Camp Fire design, the wood-gatherer's, the fire-maker's and +the torch-bearer's insignia, inserted in the chosen shades of brown, +flame color, yellow and white. + +On the walls hung a few Camp Fire panels and the coverings of sofa +cushions and some outdoor photographs of the Sunrise Camp during former +camping experiences which the girls had brought over with them. + +Besides these larger articles, they had managed to store away in their +trunks the materials necessary for the regulation Camp Fire work, honor +beads and the jewelry indicating the various orders in the Camp Fire. If +they were to interest French girls in the movement, they must have the +required paraphernalia. + +But the school at the farm house was not primarily a place where the +French girls of the neighborhood were only to be interested in Camp Fire +ideas. It was also a practical school. + +During the past year Marta Clark had been studying kindergarten. + +She, with Yvonne to help her, had charge of the tiny French children +whom they were able to persuade to come daily to the big farm house. +They were such starved, pathetic children, some of them almost babies! +Yet they had been through so much suffering, their eyes had looked upon +such hideous sights, that many of them were either nervous wrecks or +else stupefied. + +Surely there could be no better service to France than this effort to +bring back to her children a measure of their natural happiness! + +Yvonne and Marta devised wonderful games in one end of the big school +room. At midday Vera and Peggy always appeared with a special luncheon +for their small guests and for the older ones as well. Bettina Graham +and Alice Ashton took charge of the older pupils, and in teaching it +appeared that Alice at last had found her metier. + +Vera and Peggy also worked at the farming out of doors. + +More important than any other of Miss Patricia Lord's gifts to the +community farm and the surrounding country was a motor tractor, which +one day had rolled unconcernedly into the farm house yard, an ugly +giant, proving of as much future value to the poor farmers in the +neighborhood as any good giant of the ancient fairy tales. + +Fortunately Mary Gilchrist was able to explain its use to the French +peasants who had never seen the like before, and to show them how +speedily their devastated land might again be turned into plowed fields. + +Vera and Peggy made frequent trips to the nearby villages, gaining the +friendship of the country people, inviting the younger ones to their +farm and helping in whatever ways they could. Now and then Sally Ashton +went with them and sometimes Sally played with the smallest of the +children, but nearly always her interests were domestic. + +In contrast, Mary Gilchrist never remained in the house an hour if it +were possible to be away. Besides engineering the tractor and being a +general express delivery for the entire neighborhood, she had formed the +habit of motoring into Soissons, which was one of the large towns +nearby, and offering her services and the use of her car to the +hospitals. Occasionally she spent days at a time driving invalided +soldiers either from one hospital to another, or else in taking them out +on drives for the fresh air and entertainment. + +It would therefore appear as if each member of the Sunrise Camp Fire +unit had arranged her life with the idea of being useful in the highest +degree, except the Camp Fire guardian. + +As a matter of fact, Mrs. Burton often used to say that she found no +especial reason for her presence at the farm now that Aunt Patricia had +become the really important and authoritative guardian. Nevertheless, +with that rare quality of personality which as a girl Polly O'Neill had +infused into every interest of her life, there was nothing which took +place at the farm or in the neighboring country which she did not in a +measure inspire. + +Once their household had been adjusted, it was true Mrs. Burton did not +do a great deal of the actual work. Instead, and oftentimes alone, she +wandered from one end of the French countryside to the other, +occasionally returning so late to the farm that Aunt Patricia would be +found waiting for her at the front door in a state of fear and +indignation. + +Nevertheless the country people began to watch and wait for her coming. + +After a time she brought newspapers with her. Then they began to gather +together in one of the larger huts to listen while she read aloud the +war news, with not always a perfectly correct French accent, and yet one +they could understand. + +When they were weary of the reading she used to talk, speaking always of +the day when France would be free and the invader driven beyond her +boundaries, never to return. And among her audience were a few of the +old peasants who could recall the Franco-Prussian war. + +How amazingly these talks cheered the old men and women! Actually the +daily round of toil once more became worth while, so near seemed the +return of Victor and Hugo and Etienne. They would be happy to find the +little homes restored and the fields green that had been drenched in +blood. + +Occasionally Mrs. Burton made her audience laugh until the tears ran +down their wrinkled faces with funny stories of the trenches, of their +own _poilus_, and the British Tommies and the new American Sammees. + +Never had the great actress used her talent to a better purpose. + +At least it gained for her from these simple and almost heart broken +peasants the eternal tribute of laughter and tears. + +Her greatest triumph was when Grand'mere, one of the oldest women in the +little village of M--, was at last persuaded to pour forth her story. + +In more than three years she had not spoken except to answer "Yes" or +"No," or now and then to make known her simple needs, not since the +Germans carried off her granddaughter, Elsie. Elsie was the acknowledged +beauty and belle of the countryside and engaged to marry Captain +Francois Dupis, who was fighting with his regiment at Verdun. + +Mrs. Burton had gotten into the habit of stopping at Grand'mere's tiny +hut, which her neighbors had restored. At first she brought the old +woman little gifts of food in which she seemed not to take the least +interest. Now and then she talked to her, although the old woman seldom +replied except to nod her head with grave courtesy. + +Then one day without any warning as Mrs. Burton was standing near, +Grand'mere drew her new friend down into her lap and poured out her +heart-broken story. It left the younger woman ill and shaken. + +Afterwards returning late to the farm alone and entirely unafraid, so +completely had the country people become her friend, Mrs. Burton +wondered what had given the French nation its present faith and courage. +Nothing approaching it has the world ever before witnessed! Then she +recalled that having paid so dearly for their freedom in those mad days +of the revolution, the French people would never again relinquish the +supreme gift of human liberty. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE OLD CHATEAU + + +One afternoon the French farm house was deserted except for Sally +Ashton, Mere 'Toinette and Miss Patricia. + +As a matter of fact, Miss Patricia was not in the house, but in the farm +yard which was separated from the house by a newly planted kitchen +garden. It was here that she spent the greater part of her time working +far more diligently than if she had been engaged for a few dollars a +week. Yet in Massachusetts Miss Patricia Lord's three-hundred-acre farm +was one of the prides of the state. In ordinary times she was accustomed +to employing from twenty-five to fifty men, although always Miss +Patricia acted as her own overseer. + +As she had announced, for the present she had managed to secure the +services of an old French peasant, nearer seventy years of age than +sixty, to act as her assistant. But Jean was possessed of a +determination of character only equaled by Miss Patricia's. Not a word +of any language did he know except French, while Miss Patricia's French +was one of the mysteries past finding out. Also Jean was nearly stone +deaf. This misfortune really served as an advantage in his relation with +Miss Patricia, as he never did anything at the time or in the way she +ordered him to do it, there was consolation in the thought that he had +not understood the order. Jean had his own ideas with regard to farming +matters and an experience which had lasted through more than half a +century. + +Therefore with the assistance of Peggy and Vera the outdoor work on the +Sunrise Camp Fire farm was progressing with surprising success. The +supply of livestock had been increased by a second shipment from the +United States. This shipment Miss Patricia had divided with her French +neighbors. + +Beside old Jean there was at this time another rebel in Miss Patricia's +camp, Sally Ashton. The other girls were frequently annoyed by the old +lady, nevertheless, appreciating her gallant qualities and for the sake +of their Camp Fire guardian, they usually agreed to her demands when it +was impossible to evade them. But Sally was not fond of doing +_anything_ she was told to do. Not that Sally was disagreeable, and +it was not in her nature to argue, she simply ignored either suggestions +or commands, always pursuing her own sweet way. + +This afternoon, for example, several of the girls had invited her to +walk with them to one of the French villages. Once a week they +distributed loaves of bread and a few grocery supplies to the neediest +of the peasants, those who had been unable to rebuild their huts or find +regular occupation. Sally had declined with entire frankness. She had +done her duty by making the bread for the others to give away and more +successfully than any one of the girls could have made it. She disliked +long, fatiguing walks. + +Mrs. Burton had gone off alone on one of her dramatic pilgrimages. + +Mary Gilchrist had again motored into Soissons and Sally would have +enjoyed accompanying her. To have driven about through the French +country with convalescent soldiers would have been extremely +entertaining. But Mary had not asked her, preferring to take Yvonne, +whom the American girls all appeared to adore. + +So in consequence Sally was vexed and a little jealous. + +Observing the others depart and that apparently Sally had nothing of +importance to occupy her, Miss Patricia had ordered her to come out into +the yard and help with the young chickens. They seemed to be afflicted +with some uncomfortable moulting disease. + +To this invitation Sally had made no reply. She especially disliked +foolish, feathery outdoor things and had no intention of sacrificing her +well-earned leisure. The school had a semi-weekly half holiday and for +once the house was quiet. + +Yet after a little more than an hour of leisure, Sally found herself +bored. Many times of late she had missed her old friendship with Gerry +Williams, since this was her first Camp Fire experience without Gerry, +who had married Felipe Morris the summer before in California. + +At least Gerry occasionally had been frivolous! Certainly these were war +times and yet could one be serious forever and ever, without an +intermission? The other Camp Fire girls now and then got upon Sally's +nerves. + +As she was seldom warm enough these days, covered with her steamer +blanket Sally had been curled up on the bed in her room which she shared +with her sister. First she had taken a short nap and then attempted to +read a French novel which she had discovered in the attic of the farm. +The French puzzled her and it was tiresome to have to consult a +dictionary. So Sally lay still for a few moments listening to Mere +'Toinette singing the Marseillaise in a cracked old voice as she went +about her work downstairs. + +Finally, stretching in a characteristically indolent fashion, Sally rose +and walked over to a window. She could only see through one small +opening. All the glass in the countryside had been smashed by the +terrific bombardments, and as there was no glass to be had for restoring +the windows, glazed paper had been pasted over the frames. The one small +aperture had been left for observation of climate and scenery. + +Even without her birdseye view, Sally was conscious that the sun was +shining brilliantly. A long streak had shone through the glazed paper +and lay across her bed. + +She decided that she might enjoy a short walk. She really had forgotten +Mrs. Burton's suggestion that no one of the girls leave the farm alone +and had no thought of deliberately breaking an unwritten law. + +Mere 'Toinette and Sally had become devoted friends and also there was +an unspoken bond of sympathy between her and Jean, expressed only by the +way in which the old man looked at her and in certain dry chucklings in +his throat and shakings of his head. + +As Sally was about to leave the front door suddenly Mere 'Toinette +appeared, to present her with a little package of freshly baked fruit +muffins. Sally's appetite in war times, when everybody was compelled to +live upon such short rations, was a standing household joke and one +which she deeply resented. Mere 'Toinette resented the point of view +equally, preferring Sally to any one of the other girls, and also it was +her idea that the good things of this world are created only for the +young. There was no measure to her own self-sacrifice. + +A few yards beyond the house Sally discovered old Jean, who was +doubtless coming to find her, as he bore in his hand a French +fleur-de-lis, the national wild flower, which he had found growing in a +field as hardy and unconquerable as the French spirit. + +Sally accepted his offering with the smile of gratitude which seemed +always a sufficient reward for her many masculine admirers. + +With Mere 'Toinette's gift in her Camp Fire knapsack and with Jean's +flower thrust into her belt, Sally then made a fresh start. She had not +thought of going far, as the roads and fields were in too disagreeable a +condition. + +Pausing about an eighth of a mile from the farm house, she considered +whether after all it were worth while to remain out of doors. Even if +the afternoon were enchanting, walking through the heavy upturned soil +was unpleasant. + +Then by accident Sally chanced to observe the ruins of the old French +chateau shining under the rays of the winter sun. + +It was not far away and suddenly she made up her mind to go upon an +exploring tour. Half a dozen times in the past few weeks the Camp Fire +girls had discussed paying a visit to the chateau to see what +interesting discoveries they might unearth among the ruins. But no one +of them had so far had the opportunity. + +Ordinarily Sally Ashton was the least experimental of the entire group +of girls. Instinctively, as a type of the feminine, home-staying woman, +she disliked the many adventurous members of her own sisterhood. With +not a great deal of imagination, Sally's views of romance were practical +and matter of fact. Young men fell in love with one and she had no idea +of how many lovers one might have and no thought of limiting the number +so far as she was personally concerned. Then among the number one +selected the man who would make the most comfortable and agreeable +husband, married him, had children and was happy ever afterwards. So you +see, a romance which might bring sorrow as well as happiness had no +place in Sally Ashton's practical scheme of life. + +Therefore the fates must have driven her to the old French chateau on +this winter afternoon. + +The walk itself occupied about half an hour. Around the chateau in times +past there had been a moat. For their own convenience the German troops +quartered at the old place had left the bridge over the moat +undisturbed, else Sally would never have hazarded a dangerous crossing. + +The house had been built of gray stone and it was difficult to imagine +how the enemy had managed so completely to reduce it to ruins. An +explosion of dynamite must have been employed, for the chateau appeared +to have fallen as if it had been destroyed by an earthquake. Certain +portions of the outer walls remained standing, but the towers in the +center had caved in upon the interior of the house. + +[Illustration: The Figure Was that of a Young Soldier.] + +As Sally drew near she felt a little desolate and yet she was not +frightened, although a proverbial coward. + +The place appeared too abandoned to fear that any living thing could be +in its vicinity. It was only that one felt the pity of the destruction +of this ancient and beautiful home. + +The waste and confusion of war troubled Sally as it does all women. So +hard it is to see why destruction is necessary to the growth and +development of human history! + +Wondering what had become of the French family who formerly had lived in +the chateau before the outbreak of the war, Sally walked up closer to +the ruins. From a space between two walls, forming an insecure arch, a +bird darted out into the daylight. Not ordinarily influenced by the +beauties of nature or by unexpected expressions of her moods, +nevertheless Sally uttered a cry of enchantment. + +Between the walls she had spied the ruins of an old French drawing room. +The bird must have flown through the opening into the room and then +quickly out again into the sunshine. + +A little table remained standing with an open book upon it, laid face +down. There was a rug on the floor, now thick with mould, and yet it was +a rare Aubusson rug with sturdy cupids trailing flowery vines across its +surface. There were pieces of broken furniture and bric-a-brac strewn +over the floor. + +Sally must have continued staring inside the room for several moments +before she slowly became aware that there was a human figure seated in a +chair in the shadow near one of the half fallen walls. + +The figure was that of a young soldier. He was asleep when Sally +discovered him and incredibly dirty. His hair was long and matted, +hanging thick over his forehead. One arm was wrapped in a soiled +bandage. + +Yet Sally did not feel frightened, only faint and ill for an instant +from pity. + +Coming to their farm house after a few days in Paris, Sally had seen +trains filled with wounded soldiers. In Paris she also had noticed +blinded and invalided men being led along the streets by their families +or friends, yet never so piteous a figure as this. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A MYSTERY + + +Sally's little cry of astonishment must have awakened the soldier. + +The terror on his face when he first beheld her took away any thought of +fear from the girl. Besides it was all too strange! Why should he, a +soldier, be afraid, and of her? And why should he be in hiding in this +queer tumble-down old place? For he _was_ in hiding, there was no +doubt of this from his furtive manner. + +Some instinct in Sally, or perhaps the fact that she had seen so much +hunger since her arrival in this portion of France, made her immediately +take out her little package of bread which Mere 'Toinette had given her +and thrust it forward. + +She was standing framed in the arch made by the two fallen walls, not +having moved since the moment of her amazing discovery. + +The soldier's hunger was greater than his fear, for he almost snatched +the food from Sally's hands and, as he ate it she could not bear +watching him. There is something dreadful in the sight of a human being +ravenously hungry. + +Afterwards, when he did not speak, Sally found herself making the first +remarks, and unconsciously and stupidly, not realizing what she was +doing at the moment, she spoke in English. + +The next instant, to her surprise, the soldier replied in the same +tongue, although it seemed to Sally that he spoke with a foreign accent, +what the accent was she did not know. Sally had not a great deal of +experience, neither was she particularly clever. + +"What are you doing here?" is what she naturally inquired. + +The soldier hesitated and placed his hand to his forehead, looking at +the girl dazedly. + +"Why am I hiding here?" he repeated. Then almost childishly he went on: +"I am hiding, hiding because no one must find me, else I would be shot +at once. I don't know how long I have been here alone. I am very cold." + +"But I don't understand your reason," Sally argued. "Why don't you find +some one to take care of you? You cannot be living here; besides you +could not have been here long without food or water or you would have +died." + +"But I have had a little food and water," the soldier replied. "I found +a few cans of food in a closet and there is water in one of the rooms." + +His voice had a complaining note which was an expression of suffering if +one had understood. Then his face was feverish and wretched. + +"But you don't look as if you had used much water," Sally remarked in +her usual matter-of-fact fashion. She had a way of pursuing her own +first idea without being influenced by other considerations. + +"It is hard work when one's arm is like this," the soldier returned +fretfully. + +Again Sally surveyed the soiled bandage with disfavor. Apparently it had +not been changed in many days, since it was encrusted with dirt and +blood and having slipped had been pulled awkwardly back into place. + +Temprementally, Sally Ashton hated the sight of blood and suffering. In +the years of the Camp Fire training she had been obliged to study first +aid, but she had left the practical application to the other girls. Her +own tastes were domestic and she therefore had devoted her time to +domestic affairs. + +Now something must be done for the soldier whose presence in the old +chateau and whose behavior were equally puzzling, and as there was no +one else, Sally had no idea of shirking the immediate task. In her Camp +Fire kit she always carried first aid supplies. + +"If you will go to the room where you found the water and wash your arm +as thoroughly as you can I will put on a fresh bandage for you," she +offered. "Don't argue and don't be long, for something simply has to be +done for you, you are in such a dreadful condition." + +Even in the midst of feeling a little like Florence Nightingale, Sally +preserved a due amount of caution. She had no idea of wandering about a +tumble-down chateau with a strange soldier. In reality she was not so +much afraid of him as of the house itself. She had the impression that +the walls were ready to topple down and bury her. + +When the soldier did not move, Sally beckoned him imperiously toward the +open arch where she had remained standing just outside the walls. + +"You are to come here, while I take off the old bandage. No one will see +you and I am afraid to enter so dangerous a place." + +The man obeyed, and Sally cut away the soiled linen, trying not to get +too distinct an impression of the wound underneath. Yet what she saw +alarmed her sufficiently, for she knew enough to realize that the wound +required more scientific treatment than she felt able to give. "Now go +and wash your arm," she directed, and without a word he went off. + +During the ten minutes her self-imposed patient remained away, Sally +seriously considered his puzzling situation and determined upon the +advice she would offer. + +In the first place, so far he had given her no explanation for his +conduct. + +Why was he in concealment? The possibility that the soldier might have +committed a wrong which made it incumbent that he hide from justice did +not occur to Sally. She simply determined that they would discuss the +subject to some satisfactory end on his return. + +The young man did look much better, having made an effort to cleanse his +face as well as his wound, but as Sally took hold of his hand before +beginning her task, she was startled to discover that he was suffering +from a fever through neglect of his injury. This made her the more +determined. Although appreciating her own inefficiency and disliking the +work, there was nothing to be done at present but to go ahead with her +own simple first-aid treatment. She had a bottle of antiseptic and clean +surgical gauze. + +As she wound the bandage, wishing she had taken the trouble to learn the +art more skilfully, Sally announced: + +"You must see a physician about your arm as soon as possible. You never +have explained to me why you are hiding here. But in any case you cannot +remain when you are ill and hungry and cold and require a great deal of +attention. You must go into one of the villages to a hospital. While you +were away I have been thinking what to do. You look to me too ill to +walk very far and, as I am living not more than half a mile away, I will +go back to our farm and tell my friends about you. Later I think I can +arrange to come back for you in a motor and then we will drive you to +one of the hospitals. I don't know as much about the French hospitals as +my friends do, but of course everybody is anxious to do whatever is +possible for the Allied soldiers." + +Sally placed a certain amount of stress on the expression "Allied +soldiers," but never for an instant believing in the possibility that +her patient could belong to an enemy nationality. + +"If you tell anyone you have discovered me here in hiding, it will be +the last of me," the soldier declared. + +By this time Sally was beginning to be troubled. Why did the young man +look and speak so strangely? He seemed confused and worried and either +unable to explain his actions, or else unwilling. Yet somehow one had +the impression that he was a gentleman and there need be no fear of any +lack of personal courtesy. + +It was possible from his appearance to believe that he might be +suffering from a mental breakdown. Sally recalled that many of the +soldiers were affected in this way from shell shock or the long strain +of battle. + +"I suppose I must tell you something. In any case, I have to trust my +fate in your hands and I know there is not one person in a thousand who +would spare me. I was a prisoner and escaped from my captors. I don't +know how I discovered this old house. I don't know how long I have been +wandering about the country before I came here, only that I hid myself +in the daytime and stumbled around seeking a place of refuge at night. +If you report me I suppose I will not be allowed even a soldier's death. +I shall probably be hung." + +Suddenly the soldier laughed, such an unhappy, curious laugh that Sally +had but one desire and that was to escape from the chateau and her +strange companion at once and forever. Yet in spite of his vague and +uncertain expression, the soldier's eyes were dark and fine and his +features well cut. He was merely thin and haggard and dirty from his +recent experiences. + +From his uniform it was impossible to guess anything; at least, it was +impossible for Sally, who had but scant information with regard to +military accoutrements. + +But even in the face of his confession she was not considering the +soldier's nationality. He looked so miserable and ill, so like a sick +boy, that the maternal spirit which was really strongly rooted in Sally +Ashton's nature awakened. He could scarcely stand as he talked to her. + +"Please sit down. I don't know what you are to do," she remonstrated. "I +don't know _why_ you ran away or from whom, but no fate could be +much worse than starving to death here in this old place alone. Yet +certainly I don't want to give you up to--to anybody," she concluded +lamely, as a matter of fact not knowing to whom one should report a +runaway soldier. + +This was a different Sally Ashton from the girl her family and friends +ordinarily knew. The evanescent dimple had disappeared entirely and also +the indolent expression in her golden brown eyes. She was frowning and +her lips were closed in a firmer line. + +At her suggestion the soldier had returned to the chair which he had +been occupying at the moment of her intrusion. But Sally saw that +although he was seated he was swaying a little and that again he had put +up his uninjured arm to his head. + +"Perhaps I can get away from here, if you will help me. I have escaped +being caught so far. I only ask you to bring me a little food. Tomorrow +I shall be stronger." + +Unconsciously Sally sighed. What fate had ever driven her forth into +this undesired adventure? + +She did not like to aid a runaway prisoner, nor did she wish him to meet +the disagreeable end he had suggested through any act of hers. + +Any other one of the Camp Fire girls, Sally believed, would have given +the soldier a lecture on the high ideals of patriotism, or of meeting +with proper fortitude whatever fate might overtake him. At least he +would have been required to divulge his nationality, and if he were an +enemy, of course there could be no hesitation in delivering him to +justice. + +However, Sally only found herself answering: + +"Yes, I suppose I can manage to bring you something to eat once more. +But I cannot say when I can get here without anyone's knowing, so you +must stay where you can hear when I call. Afterwards you must promise me +to go away. I don't know what I ought to do about you." + +Sally had gone a few yards from the chateau when she glanced back an +instant toward the old stone ruins. The atmosphere of the afternoon had +changed, the sun was no longer shining and the chateau lay deep in +shadow. + +A cold wind was blowing across the desolate fields. Sally was not +ordinarily impressionable, yet at this moment she felt a curious sense +of foreboding. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +BREAKERS AHEAD + + +A little tired and also because her attention was occupied with her +recent experience, Sally did not choose her way over the rough +countryside so carefully and therefore managed to take a much longer +time for her return to the farm. + +Now that the sun had disappeared, the countryside seemed to have grown +depressingly desolate. In the gray afternoon light the blackened tree +trunks which had been partly burned were stark and ugly. + +Under ordinary circumstances Sally was particularly susceptible to +physical discomfort, yet this afternoon she was too concerned over her +problem to be more than vaguely disturbed by her surroundings. + +One thought continually assailed her. Would it be possible to appear +among the other girls looking and behaving as if nothing unusual had +occurred? For Sally had an honest and profound conviction that she had +no talent for deception. How could she realize that she belonged to the +type of women with whom dissimulation is a fine art once the exigencies +of a situation required it? She had come to one definite conclusion, she +would not betray the presence of the runaway soldier in the chateau for +at least another twenty-four hours. She would take him food the next day +and he might have the opportunity to attempt an escape. In all +probability he would soon be captured and punished, and this was +doubtless the fate he deserved; nevertheless Sally was glad that, in a +cowardly fashion, she would not be directly responsible. + +She looked forward to the evening and the next day with no joy, bitterly +regretting that she had not spent her leisure hours in resting and +reading as she had at first intended. Surely repose and a contented +spirit were more to be desired than unexpected adventures! + +Weary and dispirited, Sally finally arrived at home, only to be met in +the front hall by Miss Patricia, who at once showed signs of an +approaching storm. + +As a matter of fact, she was excessively annoyed over a piece of +information she had just received, so it was unfortunate that Sally +should return at a moment when she must bear the brunt of it. + +Moving a little listlessly up the broad uncarpeted stairs toward the +bedroom she shared with her sister, the girl scarcely noticed the older +woman's presence. She was hoping that Alice had not yet returned and +that she might have a few moments to herself. + +Miss Patricia opened the attack with her usual vigor. + +"What do you mean, Sally, by going off this afternoon, knowing that I +particularly needed your help? You must understand that it is highly +improper for a young girl to tramp about over this French country alone. +Even if Polly Burton has permitted you Camp Fire girls the most +extraordinary amount of freedom, she surely has realized this and warned +you against such indiscretion. There is no way of guessing into what +difficulty you may have already managed to entangle yourself!" + +Sally felt herself flushing until her clear skin was suffused with +glowing color. + +"I am sorry, Miss Patricia," she said, "but remember that I am not a +child and cannot have you speak to me as if I were a disobedient one. I +have been for a walk and----" + +But fortunately Sally was not required to complete her sentence. +Suddenly Mrs. Burton had appeared out of her bedroom and began to hurry +downstairs. + +"Sally!" she called with a suggestion of appeal in her voice. "The +excitement over your disappearance is my fault, so please don't you and +Aunt Patricia quarrel. A little while ago when I returned home and Mere +'Toinette told me that you had gone out alone and she did not know in +what direction, why, I became uneasy. You will not again, will you? +Really I am afraid it is not safe for you children, although with me of +course the case is different. Aunt Patricia is not disposed to think so, +forgetting my advanced age. Still, Sally, no matter how enthusiastic we +may feel over our work here in the shell-torn area of France, we must +remember these are war times when one never knows what may happen next. +Besides, the French do not always understand our American ideas of +liberty for young girls." + +By this time having reached the foot of the stairs, Mrs. Burton slipped +her hand inside Sally's, glancing back with a slightly amused and +slightly apologetic expression toward Miss Patricia. + +"Really, Aunt Patricia, I do regret your being so annoyed, yet you must +not take my news too seriously. Our guests are sure not to remain with +us long." + +To the latter part of her Camp Fire guardian's remark Sally Ashton paid +not the slightest heed, so concerned was she with the first part of her +speech. + +Why of all times should this question of her personal liberty come up +for discussion _this_ afternoon? Of her own free choice Sally felt +convinced that she would never willingly go out alone. Nevertheless, how +was she to keep her word to the young soldier unless she returned next +day to the chateau? with the food she had promised him and without +confiding the fact to any one else? Oh, why had she allowed herself to +be drawn into this reckless promise? At this moment if she could only +slip into her Camp Fire guardian's room and ask her advice! Miss +Patricia would insist that if the soldier were a deserter he straightway +should be brought to justice. But Sally understood her Camp Fire +guardian well enough to appreciate that, once hearing the soldier in +hiding was ill and wounded, she would be as reluctant as Sally herself +to follow her manifest duty. + +Confidence on this particular subject was for the present out of the +question, and as soon as she conveniently could Sally disappeared inside +her own room. Later, when the other girls had returned, weary from their +long errand of mercy in the next village and yet immensely interested in +their experience, Sally pretended to have a slight headache. + +During supper she scarcely listened to the ever steady stream of +conversation which flowed unceasingly each evening. In the daytime the +American newcomers to the old French farm on the Aisne were too much +engaged to allow opportunity for conversation. After supper they +gathered in their improvised sitting-room to talk until their early +bedtime. + +The sitting-room was oddly furnished with whatever furniture could be +rescued after the commandeering of the more valuable possessions by the +Germans. + +In the attic a few broken chairs stored away for years had been brought +down and repaired. These were beautiful pieces of furniture in +conspicuous contrast to the couches and stools which originally had +arrived at the farm as large wooden boxes containing provisions. + +With old Jean's assistance, Peggy and Vera had developed unexpected +talents as carpenters. + +Moreover, whatever her faults, Miss Patricia Lord was an unfailing +source of supply. During her brief stay in Paris, without mentioning the +fact to any one else, she had purchased thirty yards of old blue and +rose cretonne, perhaps with the knowledge that beauty even of the +simplest kind helps one to happiness and accomplishment. + +Therefore the two couches in the sitting-room were covered with the +cretonne, and half a dozen box chairs; and there were cretonne valances +at the windows. + +Save a single old lamp which had been left in the sitting-room, it had +no other ornaments. + +The lamp was of bronze and bore the figure of a genie holding the stand, +so that obviously it had been christened "Aladdin's lamp." It was +supposed to gratify whatever wish one expressed, but the Camp Fire girls +were too busy with the interests of other people at present to spend +much time in considering their personal desires. + +There was one other object of interest in the room, a large photograph +of the ruined Rheims Cathedral, which Mrs. Burton had bought in the +neighborhood of Rheims not long before. The classic French city was not +many miles from the present home of the group of American girls. + +As beautiful almost in destruction as it had been in its former glory, +the photograph stood as a symbol of the imperishable beauty of French +art. Also it represented another symbol. Here on the white wooden mantel +of the French farm house "on the field of honor" it called to the +American people to continue their work for the relief and the +restoration of France. + +Tonight as she lay resting upon one of the couches, dressed in a simple +dinner dress of some soft violet material, Mrs. Burton had glanced +several times toward the photograph. + +As a tribute to her headache and a general disinclination to associate +with her companions, Sally had been permitted to occupy the other couch +which stood on the opposite side of the room. + +In their one large chair, close to the table with the lamp, Aunt +Patricia sat knitting with her usual vigor and determination. Aside from +Sally, the Camp Fire girls were grouped about near her. + +After having been quiet for the past half hour, Mrs. Burton suddenly +asked: "Would any of you care to hear a poem concerning the destruction +of the Cathedral at Rheims, written by a Kentucky woman? A friend sent +it to me and it was so exquisite I have lately memorized it. In the last +few moments while I have been looking at our photograph I have repeated +the lines to myself. I wonder if it would interest you?" + +The girls replied in a chorus of acquiescence, but Mrs. Burton did not +venture to begin until she also had received a nod of agreement from +Aunt Patricia. Between the older and younger woman there was a bond of +strong affection. Nevertheless, mingled with Mrs. Burton's love and +respect, there was also a certain humorous appreciation. + +Since their arrival in France the Camp Fire girls had been compelled to +spend their evenings in doors. This was unlike their former custom. + +Recently, when they had grown weary of talking, perhaps for only a half +hour before bedtime, some one of them had fallen into the habit of +reading aloud to the others. + +Apart from the pleasure, Mrs. Burton regarded this as useful education. + +Not a great many newspapers and magazines reached the old farm house in +comparison with other days at camp; nevertheless they arrived in +sufficient number both from the United States and Paris to keep one +fairly in touch with world movements. The reading of the French papers +and magazines was of course especially good practice. + +Yet, as a matter of fact, Mrs. Burton could seldom be persuaded to be +anything save a listener. After reading or talking the greater part of +the day to her new French friends, she was apt to be worn out by +evening. + +Tonight she began to speak in a low voice as if she were tired, yet as +her little audience was so near it did not matter and her voice never +failed in its beautiful quality. + + "Rheims + + "It was a people's church--stout, plain folk they, + Wanting their own cathedral, not the king's + Nor prelate's, nor great noble's. On the walls, + On porch and arch and doorway--see, the saints + Have the plain people's faces. That sweet Virgin + Was young Marie, who lived around the corner, + And whom the sculptor knew. From time to time + He saw her at her work, or with her babe, + So gay, so dainty, smiling at the child. + That sturdy Peter--Peter of the keys-- + He was old Jean, the Breton fisherman, + Who, somehow, made his way here from the coast + And lived here many years, yet kept withal + The look of the great sea and his great nets. + And John there, the beloved, was Etienne, + And good St. James was Francois--brothers they, + And had a small, clean bakeshop, where they sold + Bread, cakes and little pies. Well, so it went! + These were not Italy's saints, nor yet the gods, + Majestic, calm, unmoved, of ancient Greece. + No, they were only townsfolk, common people, + And graced a common church--that stood and stood + Through war and fire and pestilence, through ravage + Of time and kings and conquerors, till at last + The century dawned which promised common men + The things they long had hoped for! + O the time + Showed a fair face, was daughter of great Demos, + Flamboyant, bore a light, laughed loud and free, + And feared not any man--until--until-- + There sprang a mailed figure from a throne, + Gorgeous, imperial, glowing--a monstrosity + Magnificent as death and as death terrible. + It walked these aisles and saw the humble ones, + Peter the fisherman, James and John, the shopkeepers, + And Mary, sweet, gay, innocent and poor. + Loud did it laugh and long. 'These peaceful folk! + What place have they in my great armed world?' + Then with its thunderbolts of fire it drove + These saints from out their places--breaking roof, + Wall, window, portal--and the great grave arch + Smoked with the awful funeral smoke of doom. + + "Thus died they and their church--but from the wreck + Of fire and smoke and broken wood and stone + There rose a figure greater far than they-- + Their Lord, who dwells within no house of hands; + Whose beauty hath no need of any form! + Out from the fire He passed, and round Him went + Marie and Jean and Etienne and Francois, + And they went singing, singing, through their France-- + And Italy--and England--and the world!" + +When Mrs. Burton began her recitation she sat up on the edge of her +couch and leaning forward kept her eyes fastened sometimes on the floor, +sometimes on the picture of the great cathedral. Now and then her gaze +quickly swept the faces of her audience. + +She was wondering if the poem had bored any one of them. It was a long +poem and perhaps its spiritual meaning would not be altogether plain. + +However, as the poem reached its conclusion, and her voice with its +dramatic power and sweetness made the picture of the peasant people and +their peasant church a visible and compelling thing, she no longer felt +fearful. + +The faces of the girls before her were fine and serious; Bettina and +Marta, who cared more for poetry and art than the others, had flushed +and their eyes were filled with tears. + +As Mrs. Burton finished, it was as if one could actually hear the new +spirit of brotherhood which Christ preached two thousand years ago, +"singing, singing, through the world." + +Yet in the silence which was a fitting tribute to the poem, suddenly the +entire audience broke into a ripple of laughter. From the far side of +the room a gentle snore had been Sally Ashton's sole expression of +appreciation. + +Following the sound of the laughter, Sally sat up and began blinking her +soft golden brown eyes, looking for all the world like a sleepy kitten. + +"I think you had far better give yourself up to justice and have someone +take care of you properly," she announced in a far-away voice. This was +the conclusion which Sally had just reached at the end of her +half-sleeping and half-waking dream of her runaway soldier. + +She did not know that she was to make such an extraordinary remark +aloud, but fortunately no one had the faintest knowledge of her meaning. + +Indeed, no one really heard her, as the girls were too amused over +Sally's characteristic habit of falling asleep on occasions when +conversation or entertainment bored her. + +Immediately after the laughter, Sally, not understanding its cause, +nevertheless arose and began her journey to bed. She was annoyed but not +seriously, since in waking she had reached the conclusion she desired. +In the morning at dawn, before the other members of her household were +awake, she would make a second trip to the chateau. + +She would carry provisions to the soldier and then advise him to leave +the neighborhood immediately. Unless he departed of his own free will, +taking his chances as he must, she then would be compelled to tell that +he was in hiding. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE RETURN + + +Before daylight Sally rose softly and began to dress, feeling extremely +irritated. She disliked getting up in the mornings and this scheme of +arising early was so annoying that it had kept her awake the greater +part of the night. + +Besides she had but little hope of not arousing Alice. Once as she was +searching quietly on the floor for her shoes, Alice sat up, asking +severely: + +"What on earth are you doing, Sally Ashton? If you are not ill, come on +back to bed. If you are ill, come back in any case and let me get +whatever it is you desire." + +Sally murmured something vague and indeterminate about endeavoring to +discover a lost pillow and Alice fell comfortably asleep again, nor did +she awaken when Sally at last slipped out of the room and down stairs. + +In case any one else heard her or called, she had made up her mind to +explain that she was seeing about some preparation for breakfast. As +"housekeeper extraordinary" this statement _might_ be believed, +even if it were unlike her to start her ministrations so early. + +But no one was disturbed and Sally got her little bundle of provisions +together quickly, since she knew just where the supplies of food were +kept. They had not a great deal, considering the demands that were +constantly being made upon them by the people in the neighborhood who +were less well off, so Sally felt that she had not the right to be +over-generous, and made her selections with due discretion. + +It was more than ever her determination to demand that the soldier leave +the chateau at once this morning, if he could be induced to see the +wisdom of such a proceeding, but if not by nightfall. + +Also Sally had made up her mind to ask no questions. If the soldier were +arrested later she wished to know as little as possible concerning him. + +He had spoken of being captured and of running away from his captors. +This suggested that he was a German or an Austrian who had been taken +prisoner and was trying to effect an escape. If this were true Sally +felt a fierce condemnation of her own cowardly attitude. But was it not +remotely possible that the soldier had committed some offense and had +then run away from his own regiment? However, this point of view was but +little in his favor. As he spoke English with an accent and as foreign +accents were all of an equal mystification to Sally, it was possible +that she need never know his origin. + +Outdoors and slipping through the garden, to Sally's surprise and +consternation she nearly ran into old Jean, who appeared to have been up +all night caring for his stock. + +He looked like a gnome with his wrinkled skin, his little eyes, his +muddy gray hair and even his clothes almost of a color with the earth. + +He was carrying a lantern, but instead of speaking beckoned mysteriously +to Sally to follow him out to Miss Patricia's barn, where a half dozen +cows were now installed. + +Not knowing what else to do, Sally stood by until she found herself +presented with a small pail of milk, and still with no comments, for +immediately after Jean went on with his morning's work. + +She did not waste time, however, in puzzling over the old servant man. + +After drinking a small quantity of the milk, not wishing to throw the +rest away or to return to the house, Sally concluded to take it with her +as a part of her offering. Yet she had no real desire to give +refreshment to her accidental acquaintance. + +Some curious feminine force must have moved Sally Ashton on this +occasion. Most women find it difficult to allow a human being to endure +physical suffering, once the person is delivered into their care. + +As she made her way to the chateau for the second time Sally loathed the +cold dark morning and there was no beauty nor significance to her in the +gray leaden sky which lay like a mourning veil over the sad French +landscape. + +Sally considered that she was engaged in an almost unjustifiable action. +Yet she could not make up her mind to leave the soldier to starve, or to +betray his presence in the chateau. + +Moreover, Sally was haunted by a small nervous fear, which may have been +out of place in the face of the larger issues which were involved. As +the soldier in hiding had no reason to believe she would arrive so early +in the morning, he might still be asleep. Sally disliked the idea that +thus she might be called upon to awaken him. The conventions of life +were dear to her, she had a real appreciation of their value and place +in social life and no desire to break with any one of them. + +The food could be left in the dismantled old drawing-room, under its +arch of leaning walls, but Sally wished to leave a command as well as +the food. After this one unhappy pilgrimage she would do nothing more +for the soldier's safety and comfort. He must take his chances and slip +away. + +The entire neighborhood was disturbingly quiet. An owl of late habits +would have been almost companionable. Upon one point Sally considered +herself inflexible. She would not enter the chateau; she might call +softly from the outside if it were necessary. If no one replied she +would return to the farm and nevermore would the chateau be honored by +her presence. + +In an entirely different state of mind she approached the old house on +this second occasion and made her way to the opening between the walls. + +Inside there seemed an even more uncanny silence. Yet how could one call +to an utter stranger whose name, whose identity, whose nationality were +all unknown? + +"Halloo!" Sally cried in a faint voice, not once but three or four +times. + +There was no reply. + +She called again. Then she entered the drawing-room quickly with no +other idea than to put down her offerings and flee away as soon as +possible. Sally was possessed of the impression that, however long the +wrecked walls might remain in position while she was outside them, once +inside she would be buried beneath a descending mass. + +A few feet within the arch she discovered her soldier. + +He had made for himself a bed out of an old mattress which he had +dragged from some other room, using a torn covering which once had been +a beautiful eiderdown quilt. As he had no pillow and his face was +completely uncovered, Sally realized he was in a stupor and so ill that +he had not heard her approach or her repeated calls. + +Fortunately Sally Ashton was essentially practical. + +Moreover, in an extraordinary fashion for so young and presumably +selfish a girl she immediately forgot herself. She was living in an +atmosphere of unselfishness and devotion to others, so the thought that +the object of her present care was not a worthy object did not at the +moment influence her. + +In a matter-of-fact and skillful fashion Sally first poured a small +amount of milk inside her patient's parted lips. Except that the soldier +became half aroused by her act and seemed to wish more, there was no +difficulty. Then unwrapping the arm which she had bandaged the day +before, she cleansed the wound a second time with the antiseptic she had +brought for the purpose. + +Afterwards, realizing that she must find the water she had been told was +still to be had in one of the rooms of the chateau, without considering +her previous fears, Sally climbed and crawled through one dangerous +opening after the other, in spite of her awkwardness in any unaccustomed +physical exertion. Finally she discovered the water. Then in a half +broken pitcher, secured in passing through one of the wrecked bedrooms, +she carried a small amount to the drawing-room. + +Without hesitation or embarrassment the girl bathed her undesired +patient's face and hands. He had fine, strong features; there was +nothing in the face to suggest weakness or cowardice. Still it remained +impossible to decide his nationality or whether he was an officer or +merely a common soldier, since his outfit was a patchwork of oddly +assorted garments. + +Sally's acquaintance with uniforms was limited. She knew that the French +wore the horizon blue and the British and Americans a nearly similar +shade of khaki. + +Her patient's outfit was like no other she had seen. + +Yet over these minor details she did not trouble. In spite of her lack +of experience, Sally was convinced that the soldier was now suffering +from blood poison due to neglect of his wound and the unhealthy and +unsanitary conditions in which he had been living. + +The day before she had thought he looked and acted strangely and had +half an idea that he may have been partly delirious then, so she was not +altogether surprised by the present situation. + +During her journey across the fields daylight had come; because she +would not otherwise have been able to accomplish her present task even +so inadequately as she had accomplished it, Sally was pleased. + +Yet when the moment arrived and she had done all she could for the +soldier's comfort she had to face her real difficulty. + +There is no mistake in this world more serious than to judge other +people's problems in the light in which they appear to us. The problem +which is nothing to one human being appears insurmountable to another. + +So with Sally Ashton's present difficulty. + +She had made up her mind to tell the soldier that unless he left the +chateau before the following day she would be compelled to tell her +friends of his hiding place and ask advice. But she had meant to warn +him of her intention and allow him to take his chances if he preferred. + +Now he appeared defenceless and entirely at her mercy. + +Should she betray him at once? Certainly there was a possibility that he +would die of neglect if left alone at the chateau. But then he must have +faced this possibility and deliberately chosen it. + +Sally wondered what would become of an escaped prisoner if he were +discovered to be desperately ill? It did not seem possible that the +military authorities would be so severe as he had anticipated. + +Yet she knew very little of the ways of military authorities, and an +escaped prisoner would scarcely be an object of devoted attention. + +Although not aware of the fact, already Sally had assumed a protective +attitude toward the soldier. + +One thing she might do and that was to wait another twenty-four hours. +It was barely possible that he might not be so ill as she now believed. + +At present she must not remain a moment longer at the chateau. Instead +she must run back across the fields, since it was her plan to reach the +farm house and be discovered in the act of assisting Mere 'Toinette in +the preparation of breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +OTHER DAYS AND OTHER WAYS + + +Under the new conditions of life in the devastated country of France, it +has been difficult to set down the effect which the change of +environment, the change of interest and of inspiration had upon each +individual member of the Sunrise Camp Fire unit. + +Certainly their present daily life bore but a faint resemblance to their +former outdoor summer encampments in various picturesque places in the +United States. Nevertheless the Camp Fire girls always had considered +that they were doing useful work merely by following the rules of their +camp fire and by gaining the honors necessary to the growth of their +organization and their own official rank. + +Now they realized that all their efforts had been but a preparation for +the service they were at present undertaking. There was no detail of +their past experience which was not of service, their Health Craft, Camp +Craft, Home Craft, Business and Patriotism. Why, their very watch cry, +"Wohelo"--work, health and love--embodied the three gifts they were +trying to restore to the poverty-stricken French people in this +particular neighborhood upon "the field of honor!" + +On this afternoon, in spite of the cold, the girls had arranged to hold +their first out-of-doors Camp Fire meeting since their arrival in +France. + +For weeks they had been working among the young French girls in the +villages and the country near at hand, persuading them to spend whatever +leisure they had in studying the Camp Fire ideas and activities. + +Bettina Graham and Alice Ashton had introduced as much Camp Fire study +as possible into the regular routine of the school which they held daily +in the big schoolroom at the farm. Even with the younger children there +were like suggestions of play and of service which Marta Clark and +Yvonne were able to give. + +But until this afternoon there had been no actual organization of the +first group of Camp Fire girls in France. Strange that with Camp Fires +in England, Australia, Africa, Japan, China and other foreign places, +there should have been none in France! But Yvonne Fleury could have +explained that, unlike American girls, French girls were not accustomed +to intimate association with one another, their lives up to the time of +their marriage being spent in seclusion among the members of their own +family. + +Indeed, upon this same afternoon Yvonne was thinking of this as she +dressed slowly before going outdoors to join the other girls. The house +was empty save that Mere 'Toinette was working downstairs. + +Marta Clark and Peggy had been kind enough to make her a simple Camp +Fire costume, the khaki skirt and blouse, which formed their ordinary +service costume. Notwithstanding she had been studying the Camp Fire +manual and trying to acquire the necessary honors, this was the first +time Yvonne had worn the costume. + +How utterly unlike anything she had ever dreamed were these past weeks +in her life! From the moment of her confession of weakness and the +telling of her story to Mrs. Burton, Yvonne had deliberately chosen to +remain with her rather than continue with the canteen work which she had +originally planned to do in returning to her own country. + +For one reason she had fallen under the spell of Mrs. Burton's sympathy +and charm; moreover, the girls in the Camp Fire work were nearer her own +age and were to undertake a character of occupation in which she felt +herself able to be useful. They were also going to live in the +neighborhood of her old home before the outbreak of the war. + +As a matter of fact, although Yvonne had preferred not to confide the +information to any one except Mrs. Burton, she was at present not fifty +miles from the chateau in France where she had lived until the night +word came that she and her family must fly before the oncoming horde of +the enemy. + +Well, more than three years had passed since that night, three years +which sometimes seemed an eternity to Yvonne. She had no wish to revisit +the ruins of her old home, no wish to be reminded of it. There was no +one left for whom she cared except perhaps a few neighbors. + +However, in the last few weeks Yvonne ordinarily did not permit herself +to become depressed. This much she felt she owed to Mrs. Burton's +kindness and to the comradeship which had been so generously given to +her by the Camp Fire girls. Yvonne felt a particular affection for each +one of them. She could not of course feel equally attracted. So far she +cared most for Peggy Webster and for Mary Gilchrist, possibly attracted +toward Mary because she also was an outsider like herself. Then Mary's +boyish attitude toward life, her utter freedom even from the knowledge +of the conventions in which Yvonne had been so carefully reared, at +first startled, then amused the young French girl. But for Peggy +Webster, Yvonne had a peculiar feeling of love and admiration. This may +have been partly due to the fact that Peggy was Mrs. Burton's niece and +so shared in the glamor of the great lady's personality, but it was more +a tribute to Peggy's own character. + +After Yvonne's pathetic account of her history, Mrs. Burton had told at +least a measure of her story to Peggy. She had asked Peggy to invoke the +compassion and aid of the other girls and to do what she could for +Yvonne herself. + +To Peggy's strength, to the freedom and the courage of her outlook upon +life, Yvonne's tragic story had appealed strongly, but more Yvonne's +timidity. Often the young French girl appeared unwilling to go on with +the daily struggle of life when everything for which she had ever cared +had been taken from her. + +Among the American Camp Fire girls there was only one girl for whom +Yvonne felt a sensation of distrust which almost amounted to a dislike, +and this was Sally Ashton. Nevertheless, in the early days of their +acquaintance, Yvonne had not this point of view. Then she had admired +Sally's prettiness, the gold brown of her hair and eyes, her white skin +and even her indolent manners and graces. Yet recently Yvonne had become +aware of a circumstance, or rather of a series of circumstances, which +had first surprised, then puzzled and finally repelled her. + +In a few moments Yvonne left the farm house. If she were late at their +first outdoor camp fire she realized she would have no difficulty in +discovering the site they had selected, although it was at some distance +away. + +Some time had passed since the arrival of the Camp Fire party in this +neighborhood of France and now even in the winter fields there was a +suggestion of approaching spring. + +As Yvonne walked on she felt an unselfish joy, a greater lightness of +heart. Surely the spring would bring back some of her lost happiness to +France. There would be another great drive, another tragic contest of +strength, but the British and French lines would hold. + +Yvonne had the great faith and courage of her people, now she had +learned to lay aside her personal sorrow. + +In a few more weeks Miss Patricia's American tractor, which was indeed a +"strange god in a machine," would be able to turn these fields into +plowed land ready for the spring planting. + +But now in a meadow, while still some distance away, Yvonne beheld an +American, a French and a British flag set up on temporary staffs, and +blending their colors and designs in a symbolic fashion as they floated +in the wind. + +Yvonne paused for a moment to watch the group of her acquaintances and +friends. + +Standing apart from the girls were Miss Patricia Lord, Mrs. Burton, and +the two visitors who had arrived only a few days before. They were the +guests whose approaching visit to the farm house Miss Patricia had so +openly deplored, one of them Mrs. Bishop and the other Monsieur Duval, +both of them ship acquaintances. Mrs. Bishop was in France to represent +an American magazine and was at present intending to write a series of +articles on the reclamation work along the Aisne and the Marne. + +Monsieur Duval had given no explanation for his appearance save to +announce that he had some especial work on hand for his government in +the southern districts of France. + +In spite of the fact that fuel was of such tremendous value in France at +the present time, the Camp Fire girls had permitted themselves the +extravagance of a fire to inaugurate their first outdoor Camp Fire +ceremony. The boxes in which Miss Patricia's various purchases had come +to the farm had proved useful for more than one service. + +In a circle near the camp fire were eight young French girls who this +afternoon were to receive the wood-gatherers' rings. Just beyond them +the American girls were seated. + +Peggy had been chosen to present the rings. + +Possibly they were waiting for Yvonne's arrival, for no sooner had she +slipped silently into her place than Peggy Webster arose and recited the +Wood-gatherer's Desire. + + "As fagots are brought from the forest, + Firmly held by the sinews which bind them, + I will cleave to my Camp Fire sisters + Wherever, whenever I find them. + + "I will strive to grow strong like the pine tree, + To be pure in my deepest desire; + To be true to the truth that is in me + And follow the Law of the Fire." + +Then she offered each one of the French girls a silver ring. When she +came to Yvonne, clasping the Fire Maker's bracelet about her wrist, she +whispered: + +"We feel, Yvonne, that you have a right to a higher order in our new +Camp Fire group than the other members because of the help you have +given us in whatever work we have attempted since our arrival in France. +In fact, you are the leading French Camp Fire girl!" + +A moment later, in answer to a signal, Mrs. Burton walked over and stood +just beyond the two circles of girls and the camp fire and close to the +Allied flags. + +"There is not much I feel able to say to you," she began, speaking in a +simple and friendly fashion. "I think perhaps you are already beginning +to understand how intensely the people of the United States desire to +render to France a part of the debt we owe her. It is France who has +saved our liberty and the liberty of the entire world. + +"Now I hope that the first group of Camp Fire girls in France will later +carry the flaming torch until the news of the Camp Fire movement has +spread through all the French land. In the Camp Fire life we look for +the romance, the beauty and the adventure which may be hidden in the +smallest task. More important than these things I hope Camp Fire girls +the world over may become a part of the new spirit everywhere growing up +among women, the spirit of union, the ability to work and play together +as men have in the past. For once all girls and women are united, there +will be a new league for peace among the nations such as this world has +never known." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A DEPARTURE AND AN ARRIVAL + + +One evening two days later a little after the hour for bedtime at the +farm, Mrs. Burton knocked softly at Miss Patricia's door. + +Miss Patricia quickly opened it. + +"You are ill, Polly Burton. Well, it is just what I have been expecting +ever since the arrival of that strange man and woman. It seems to me +that we had quite enough to do without entertaining guests. Besides, it +strikes me as pure waste of energy, this riding about through the +country with strangers when you should be at some _real_ work." + +During her speech Miss Patricia had drawn the younger woman into her +room, closed the door behind her and was now gazing at her severely but +it must be confessed solicitously as well. + +"But I am not ill, Aunt Patricia," Mrs. Burton protested as soon as she +was allowed an opportunity to speak. "I only came in to have a talk with +you about something important." + +Aunt Patricia's bedroom was large and empty, for there was more space at +the old farm house than furniture. A great old-fashioned French bed had +been spared from the general wreckage and upon this Mrs. Burton seated +herself, drawing her feet up under her and her lavender dressing gown +about her, since with so little heat in the house the bedrooms were +uncomfortably cold. + +There was but one solitary stiff-backed chair, in which Miss Patricia +sat perfectly erect. + +"Why not come here and sit beside me? There is plenty of room, and you +will be more comfortable," Mrs. Burton urged. + +Aunt Patricia shook her head. + +"I am quite comfortable where I am. Moreover, Polly Burton, if I am an +old woman and you no longer a young one, at the same time I am aware +that you have every idea of trying to persuade me to some point of view +of which you do not think I will approve. I have seen your methods +before this evening. Thank you, I shall remain where I am." + +Mrs. Burton laughed. + +Aunt Patricia did look so uncompromising in a hideous smoke-gray +dressing gown made without any attempt at decorations. Her small knot of +hair was screwed into a tight coil at the back of her head. + +Mrs. Burton's own hair had kept its beautiful dusky quality, it had the +dark sheen of the hair of the mythical Irish fairies, for only in +Anglo-Saxon countries are fairies of necessity fair. Tonight Mrs. +Burton's hair was unbound and hung about her shoulders as if she were a +girl. + +Fearing that Miss Patricia might regard her frivolous appearance with +disfavor, she now began braiding it into one heavy braid. + +"What ever it is you desire to say, I do wish you would begin, Polly, so +that we both can go to bed," the elderly spinster remarked. + +Mrs. Burton shook her head. "You are not in a good humor, are you, Aunt +Patricia? But at least there is one thing you will be glad to hear: our +guests, Monsieur Duval and Mrs. Bishop, are leaving our farm the day +after tomorrow." + +"A good riddance," Miss Patricia answered sharply. + +Then observing that her companion had flushed and undoubtedly was +annoyed by her plain speaking, Aunt Patricia's manner became slightly +mollified. + +"It is not that I have anything personal against your friends, Polly. I +must say they have both endeavored to be very agreeable since their +arrival and to give as little trouble as possible. But I told you on +board ship I did not like the attitude of that Frenchman toward you. It +was no surprise to me when he discovered he had important business in +this part of France. Of course it should not be necessary for me to +remind you that you are a married woman, with your unfortunate husband +serving his country in France many miles from here and also that you are +chaperoning a group of young girls. I suppose you will simply tell me +that I do not understand French manners, but that is neither here nor +there, Polly Burton. Your Frenchman is polite to your friend, Mrs. +Bishop, I must confess he is also courteous to me; but I am obliged to +repeat that his manner neither to Mrs. Bishop nor to me is in the least +like his manner to you." + +"Aunt Patricia, you are so ridiculous! Still I don't feel like laughing +this time; you really are making me angry," Mrs. Burton answered. + +"I have made a great many persons angry in my life, Polly. I cannot even +flatter myself that this is the first time I have offended you. However, +I feel compelled to speak the truth." Miss Patricia's tone remained +imperturbable. + +"But that is just the trouble, Aunt Patricia, you are not speaking the +truth, although of course I know you don't realize it and I beg your +pardon," Mrs. Burton argued. "But why do you allow yourself to acquire +such prejudices and such foolish impressions? I simply refuse to discuss +the suggestion you have just made. Please never speak of it to me +again." + +Ordinarily when the celebrated Mrs. Burton assumed an air of offended +dignity such as she wore at present her world was apt to sue for pardon. +Miss Patricia revealed no such intention. As a matter of fact, as she +remained resolutely silent and as Mrs. Burton had not yet explained the +reason for her visit, it was she who had to resume the conversation in a +conciliatory manner. + +"I presume you won't approve then, Aunt Patricia, of what I wish to +speak to you. Monsieur Duval has been ordered to southern France on some +work for his government and has asked Mrs. Bishop and me to accompany +him, because it is work in which he thinks we may be useful. You know +the Germans have been sending back some of the French refugees whom they +drove before them in their retreat. There are groups of five hundred at +a time who now and then are sent over the border either from Germany or +Switzerland. They are penniless and not only have no money or food or +clothes; they do not know whether their families are living or dead and +in any case have no way to reach them. The French government is to try +to arrange some plan by which homes may be secured for these unfortunate +people until they can communicate with their relatives or friends." + +"An excellent idea, but I do not exactly see your connection with it," +Miss Patricia returned. + +Mrs. Burton shrugged her shoulders impatiently. In all her life she +never remembered any one who had opposed her desires in exactly the same +fashion Miss Patricia did. Then, a little ashamed of herself, she +answered gently but firmly: + +"My connection is that I am interested and that Mrs. Bishop and I have +both decided to accompany Monsieur Duval. It is barely possible that we +may be useful and able to offer a certain amount of advice. So many of +the refugees are young women who have suffered impossible things and may +require special care and shelter. Besides, I am very deeply anxious to +see more of the country. We expect to travel south in the sector the +Germans held three years ago. I will thus be able to find out how much +restoration work has already been accomplished and how great a task +remains. Moreover, Aunt Patricia dear, I have a personal errand. Surely +you will think this important. + +"You remember my talking to you of the old peasant whose granddaughter, +Elsie, had been driven into exile. Except to me the old woman has never +spoken of her loss. Now there is a possibility that Elsie has been sent +back into France and I have promised Grand'mere to search for her. + +"Moreover, Aunt Patricia, each village in the devastated districts has +been ordered to prepare a list of names of the missing who disappeared +at the time of the German retreat. These lists are to be turned over to +Monsieur Duval. A committee is to be appointed near the frontier to take +charge of the lists and see that the refugees get in touch with their +own people as soon as possible. Don't you think this a wonderful +scheme?" + +As Mrs. Burton unfolded the plan which had been carefully worked out +with a great deal of foresight and care, in her enthusiasm she forgot +Miss Patricia's chilling attitude. She had spent many hours during the +brief visit at the farm of Mrs. Bishop and Monsieur Duval in the outline +she had just explained. + +Aunt Patricia continued to look unimpressed and uninspired. + +"I told you before, Polly, that I had no idea of criticizing Monsieur +Duval's efforts in behalf of his government. I know the situation you +speak of is extremely deplorable. Still I fail to see any reason for +your assistance. There is sufficient work for you in this immediate +neighborhood. However, I presume you have definitely made up your mind," +Miss Patricia concluded. + +Before replying, Mrs. Burton waited a moment, watching for a sign of +yielding in her companion. But as Miss Patricia gave none, she nodded +her head. + +"Yes, Aunt Patricia, I am going with Mrs. Bishop and Monsieur Duval, +although I am sorry you do not approve of my making the trip. I won't be +away more than two weeks and I feel I may be of greater service than by +remaining here." + +"You also feel that traveling about through the French country with a +distinguished French politician and a woman author will be far more +exciting than staying at the farm and doing your duty, Polly Burton," +Miss Patricia added, allowing her accumulated anger to overflow at last. +"Do, please, whatever else you wish to add by way of camouflage, at +least confess the truth. I presume it is your idea to leave me to look +after the group of girls you undertook to chaperon in France?" + +In spite of the fact that by this time, Mrs. Burton, whose amiability +was never her strong point, was in as bad a temper as her antagonist, +she had to confess to herself that in Miss Patricia's last speech the +scales dropped in her favor. + +"Why, yes, Aunt Patricia, that is what I wish you to do. But will it be +such a serious responsibility? The work at the farm is so splendidly +organized now and the girls are so deeply interested, I don't see why +you should have any especial difficulty if you will just allow things to +go on as they are at present." + +Of her own free will Miss Patricia at this moment rose from her stiff +chair and came and sat on the edge of the bed facing the younger woman. +She showed no sign of relaxing either physically or mentally, or of any +softening in her rigid point of view. + +"I wonder, Polly Burton, if you have any reason for believing that +things usually go on in exactly the same fashion in this world, after +one has carefully arranged that they should? Of course I shall do my +best to look after the Camp Fire girls, although they do not like me and +I do not understand them. There is no telling what may occur in your +absence," Miss Patricia ended so gloomily that Mrs. Burton's eyes shone +with merriment, although she carefully lowered her lids. + +At the same instant, to her surprise, she felt Miss Patricia lean over +and seize her by both shoulders. For a second she wondered if Aunt +Patricia had made up her mind to shake her because of her rebellion. +Instead Miss Patricia added unexpectedly: + +"Polly, my dear child, I really don't wish you to go on this wild goose +chase, partly for the reasons I have given you, but also because I am +afraid for you. You know the world is expecting another great German +offensive this spring and no one understands why it has been delayed so +long. Well, you must realize that as you travel farther south in France +the line between the German and the French armies grows narrower and +narrower. Only a few miles of victory and the Germans will again occupy +their old line! It is possible you might arrive at some district at a +crucial moment when a battle was beginning. Then the saints alone could +preserve you!" + +With the last few words of her long speech Miss Patricia reverted to her +Irish brogue and her Irish faith. + +Afterwards Mrs. Burton was glad to remember that, although Aunt Patricia +certainly was not regarding her with affection at the moment, +nevertheless, she slipped her arm about the elderly lady's hard and +upright shoulders. + +"You are a dear, Aunt Patricia! But please don't worry. We are not going +into any dangerous neighborhoods. The drive will not begin for many +weeks. In any case there will be no retreat. Yet indeed we mean to take +every possible precaution and at no time will we be near the German +line. It is good of you to think I am worth worrying over, but this time +it is not necessary." + +"Have you your husband's permission for this trip, Polly? I presume you +have written Richard Burton of your new French friend?" Aunt Patricia +demanded as a last forlorn hope. + +In reply Mrs. Burton smiled and nodded. + +"Yes, I have done both of those things. I wrote Richard about Monsieur +Duval soon after our meeting on shipboard. But of course I have had no +reply to my letter with regard to my trip south with Mrs. Bishop and +Monsieur Duval, for there is not time for me to hear before we leave." + +"And nothing will change your decision, Polly?" + +Mrs. Burton had slid down on to the floor from the high old bed and now +stood before Miss Patricia, hesitating for the fraction of a second. + +"I do wish you would not put the question in such a way, Aunt Patricia. +You make me think of what Sally Ashton said to you, as if I too were a +disobedient child, and I am more than twice Sally's age. Of course I do +not wish to do anything you oppose, but the trip to southern France and +the work I hope to be able to accomplish will be a great opportunity and +a great experience. I hope you will make up your mind to feel as I do +before we start the day after tomorrow." + +Before Aunt Patricia could reply, Mrs. Burton made a hasty and carefully +designed retreat. Being fully cognizant that there was no possibility of +Miss Patricia's relenting, she wished to pretend to believe she might +change her mind and at the same time to announce the proposed time for +her own departure. + +Fortunately for Mrs. Burton's courage and decision, her plan met with no +especial opposition from any other member of the Camp Fire group. + +The girls regretted her leaving, and Sally Ashton more than the others; +nevertheless it appealed to them as it had to Mrs. Burton, as a +wonderful chance for service and at the same time a thrilling adventure. + +Two days later, even at the moment when the automobile appeared at the +door to bear off Mrs. Burton and her two companions, Miss Patricia's +attitude remained unchanged. + +Mrs. Burton devoted the last five minutes before her departure to +begging Aunt Patricia to bestow her final consent and parting blessing. +Aunt Patricia steadfastly refused. + +She also declined to see the automobile leave the farm. Instead, during +the final farewells, turning her back upon the assembly, she marched up +alone to her own room. Once inside, it is true she wiped away several +tears, but immediately after set herself to writing a letter to Captain +Richard Burton. And Captain Burton and Miss Patricia only were to know +what the letter contained! Fortunately Captain Burton understood Miss +Patricia and her devotion to his wife. Moreover, the extent of her +devotion was to be proven later. + +The following day, perhaps because of Miss Patricia's prediction that +nothing in life runs on continuously in the same groove, an unexpected +telegram was brought out to the French farm house for Peggy Webster. + +In the telegram Lieutenant Ralph Marshall of the United States Aviation +Service in France stated that, having been slightly injured by a fall, +he had secured a few day's leave of absence. Would he be permitted to +spend his leave with Mrs. Burton and the Camp Fire girls at their farm +house on the Aisne? + +To Peggy Webster there appeared to be but one possible answer to this +amazing piece of good fortune, and fortunately she was able to persuade +Aunt Patricia to the same point of view. Miss Patricia did not approve +of young men, but she did approve of Peggy and understood the situation +in regard to Ralph. + +Therefore the return telegram read: "Yes." + +Except for brief intervals, Peggy and Ralph had seen but little of each +other since their summer together in Arizona, a summer which had been +fateful for them both. It had not occurred to Peggy that either she or +Ralph would ever change their minds with regard to their future +marriage, in spite of the fact that she was but eighteen years old and +Ralph not much older. There remained only the question of persuading +their two families to share their view. + +In the last two years Ralph had been redeeming his former idleness. +Having volunteered for aviation work before the entry of the United +States into the world war, he had been able to secure a commission and +already had been in France a number of months. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A WARNING + + +It was the morning after the departure of Mrs. Burton and her guests and +three days before the arrival of Ralph. Marshall for his visit at the +farm house on the Aisne. + +Having completed her work downstairs, Sally Ashton had hurried up to her +bedroom where at present she was making little nervous preparations as +if intending to go outdoors and anxious not to be observed. + +There was no reason why she should feel alarmed. So far as she knew, +every member of her household was occupied with the day's work. From the +schoolroom below she could hear the voices of the children singing a +little French chanson, and now and then one of the older girls either +asking a question or reciting. Alice Ashton and Bettina Graham, Marta +Clark and Yvonne Fleury were engaged with their pupils. + +An hour before Peggy and Vera had driven off in the motor with Mary +Gilchrist, since Mary had promised to transport a number of wounded +soldiers from a train to a nearby convalescent hospital, and was +uncertain whether she would find anyone at the railroad station to help. +Therefore she had asked the two girls to accompany her. Peggy also +desired to mail a letter to Ralph Marshall which might reach him before +he started upon his journey. + +Always Aunt Patricia was occupied outdoors from breakfast until lunch +time. So in spite of the fact that Sally Ashton showed a degree of +suppressed excitement both in her manner and appearance, there would +seem to have been no apparent excuse. A certain timorousness once wholly +unlike her, lately had appeared in Sally's attitude. + +She also had grown thinner and her big golden brown eyes had lost their +sleepy expression and acquired an anxious appeal. The lines about her +full, rather pouting lips were strained and apprehensive. + +Having at the moment pulled a small traveling bag down from a shelf +overhead and allowed it to fall on the floor, Sally did not hear the +swift opening and closing of her bedroom door. Therefore, when she had +secured her bag and was straightening up, she gave an exclamation of +surprise on discovering her sister standing within a few feet of her. + +Except that she was handsomer, Alice looked very like her mother, the +Esther of the first Camp Fire days, yet she and Sally bore no possible +resemblance to each other either in disposition or appearance. + +Alice was tall and slender, with a grave, severe air. She wore her dark +red hair parted and bound about the back of her head in a heavy braid. +She was a little angular. There was a suggestion that unless life dealt +generously with her, granting her the gifts which make for tenderness +and softness in a woman's nature, she might in time have the appearance +one is supposed to associate with an old maid. However, old maids are as +unlike as the rest of the human species. + +Certainly at the present moment her expression was austere, although +uneasy and distressed as well. + +"What are you doing, Sally?" she inquired, her voice gentle and +solicitous, yet observing that a wave of color had swept over Sally's +face even before she had spoken. + +The next moment Sally flung her bag down on the floor again, answering +petulantly: + +"What am I doing? Well, really, Alice, I do not see what difference it +makes to you, or why you should slip into our room so quietly that you +frightened me. As a matter of fact, I got down my traveling bag +to--to----" Sally's voice trailed off helplessly for an instant. The +next instant, gathering force, she repeated: "I pulled down my bag +because I wished to store away some odds and ends which I wish to keep +safely." + +Then losing her temper in a most suspicious fashion, suddenly Sally +stamped her foot as if she were an angry child and at the same time her +eyes grew unexpectedly dark and lovely. + +"That is not what you came into this room to announce to me, Alice. So +please say whatever it is you wish and be through. I am going out for a +little walk before lunch." In any event Sally was no coward! + +"Then sit down. You do not look very well and I am afraid you won't like +what I must say," Alice returned. "Understand, it gives me no pleasure; +instead, I am tremendously worried and unhappy. I suppose I should have +talked the situation over with Tante before she went away, but I knew it +would interfere with her trip and so avoided troubling her." + +In answer to her sister's suggestion Sally seated herself upon a tall, +old-fashioned wooden chair, so that only her toes were able to reach the +ground. All at once she had felt as if she would be more comfortable +seated. It was not because of Alice's suggestion that she had agreed, +but because of a sudden sensation of weariness, almost of physical +weakness, although this last idea seemed absurd. + +Yet somehow Sally appeared so like a tired and rebellious child that her +sister found it difficult to continue their conversation. However, she +must introduce the accusation she had been schooling herself to make +before entering the room. + +"Is there anything you would like to talk to me about, Sally? Outside +our daily life and work here at the farm is there anything which has +been interesting you recently and which you have preferred not to +mention to anybody?" Alice inquired gently, her voice shaken by her +effort to hide her concern, while a fine line appeared between her level +brows. + +Pretending to be bored rather than affected in any other fashion by her +sister's speech, first Sally shrugged her shoulders. Then making a +pretence of yawning, she placed her fingers lightly over her lips. + +"Really, Alice, what on earth is troubling you in connection with me? +Have you had me on your conscience more than usual recently? Can't you +ever get over your unattractive habit of treating me as if I were a +refractory pupil and you an offended schoolmarm? In spite of being born +in New England, there is no reason to affect this pose, as it is +unnecessary and I think most unbecoming." + +Sally's manner was a little too self-assured, but otherwise she appeared +as enigmatic as an accomplished actress. Gazing at her earnestly, there +was nothing in her expression at present to suggest any emotion save a +natural annoyance at being catechized. + +But Alice was not deceived. + +"Please don't assume such an air of offended virtue, Sally. You are far +too fond of employing it when anyone reproaches you," Alice continued, +but really too sincerely disturbed to feel angered by her sister's +behavior. "Evidently you do not wish to confide in me, so I suppose +there is no use wasting either your time or mine. For the past two +weeks--I don't know the exact length of time, although you are aware of +it, Sally--you have been disappearing from the farm almost every day. At +first I did not notice. You seem to have been careful that neither Aunt +Patricia, nor Tante, nor I should know. And you have been clever. But +you could not escape everybody's observation and the other Camp Fire +girls have seen you and been puzzled and at last worried to guess what +you could be doing. You need not ask who the girls were; I shall not +tell you. But finally several of them felt compelled to speak to me and +to suggest that I ask your confidence. Oh, don't pretend you think you +have been spied upon and badly treated. You know, Sally, that unless the +girls cared for you they would not have troubled? But we have lived +almost as one family and our interests are bound together. Do tell me +what you have been doing, dear? What has taken you away from home so +many times alone? I have been watching you myself recently. When I came +into our room only a few minutes ago you were preparing to slip away." + +Sally was biting her lips and had lost her childish look. + +"This is not a criminal court, Alice; neither are you the public +prosecutor. As a matter of fact, I refuse to answer your questions or to +gratify either your curiosity or the curiosity of the Camp Fire girls. +What I have been doing has harmed no one; at least I do not think it +has, and I have not always been alone. Old Jean has been with me much of +the time and has helped in every way. But by the time Tante returns I +think I shall be free to tell her everything. Can't you trust me until +then?" + +Sally's voice and manner had suddenly changed from bravado to pleading, +but Alice was too angry and too frightened to be influenced. Moreover, +she was suffering from a frequent elderly sister attitude. She felt +herself called upon not only to examine Sally in regard to her +proceedings but to condemn her without any real evidence. + +"Very well, Sally, unless you decide to confide in me immediately I +shall be obliged to speak to Aunt Patricia." + +At the conclusion of this speech Alice beheld in her sister's face the +expression of sheer unrelenting obstinacy in which Sally was an adept. +It was a contradiction to her pretty softness, her indolent manner and +even to the elusive dimple which recently had vanished. + +"I also warn you, Sally, that I intend to watch you and find out your +proceedings for myself. In truth, I am frightened about you. If only +Tante were here she could influence you, but Aunt Patricia will only +become bitterly angry. I confess I don't know what she will say or do +when she learns that I have no choice but to tell her." + +If Alice Ashton had one characteristic which predominated over all +others, it was a fine sense of honor, a high ideal of personal +integrity. + +As a matter of fact, she had never demanded the same standards from +Sally she had asked of herself. It was a family custom to regard her +younger sister as a person chiefly to be gratified and adored. Yet it +had never occurred to Alice that Sally could fail in any essential thing +such as straightforwardness and sincerity. + +"I don't like to speak to you, Sally, or even to suggest the idea, but I +am afraid a few of the girls may be criticizing what you are doing in a +fashion you can scarcely imagine. They do not speak before me, but I can +hardly fail to guess what they are thinking from their manner. Sally, +can't you realize that we are in a foreign country where the language, +the customs, the ideas are not like ours? Even if what you are doing +might not be considered wrong at home, can't you see that here in France +you may be misunderstood? Please confide in me dear. You promised----" + +But Sally's soft shoulders stiffened in resistance. + +"Evidently you do not trust me yourself, Alice, and naturally your +opinion is more important to me than anyone's else. Yet when one has +lived with the same people a long time one does expect a certain amount +of faith and understanding. I am sorry, for I cannot tell you what you +wish to know at present. I may be able to in a very few days, if you +will be good enough to wait and not speak to Aunt Patricia. It is hardly +worth while to make a difficulty between us! Personally I am glad Tante +_is_ away; at least, I am glad she is away today, since it would +have been more difficult to refuse my confidence to her than to any one +else. But I shall regret it if I am able to make my confession before +her return. She at least would have tried to believe I have not intended +to do anything wrong. Now please leave me alone, Alice. You were right, +I am going out on an important errand. You need not worry over my going +alone this time, because old Jean has promised to go with me as soon as +he is free and I shall wait for him." + +Then, although Alice lingered for several moments longer, when Sally +would neither speak to her, nor look at her, she slowly left the room. + +Afterwards when Alice had disappeared Sally's pretence of courage +vanished and she sat with her hands clasped tightly together while the +tears ran down her face. + +All very well to pretend to Alice that she was convinced she had been +doing no wrong. But was this true? In the end would she not have to pay +dearly in the continuing condemnation and distrust of her friends? When +her confession was finally made, would they even then understand and +forgive her? + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE DISCOVERY + + +A little more than an hour later Sally and Jean started forth upon their +mysterious pilgrimage. + +To have been spared the ordeal of this morning's visit to the French +chateau Sally would have given a great deal. On other occasions she had +been nervous and fearful, but never to the extent to which the recent +conversation with her sister had reduced her. + +More than once within the hour of waiting before she and Jean could slip +away, Sally concluded to abandon her plan and never go near the chateau +again, regardless of results. Then she remembered that she had given her +word and that upon this visit many things were to be explained and +arranged. Having endured so much of struggle, strain and suspicion, one +must not fail in the end. And in spite of Sally's apparent indolence and +softness, failure had no part in her mental make-up. + +Yet in being compelled to spend an hour of watching before daring to +make her escape there was a sense of humiliation, almost of degradation. +Nevertheless, what else could she do except wait until Alice was again +absorbed in her teaching and until there was no one about the farm house +or in the yard who would pay any especial attention to her actions? + +Sally's final misfortune was in encountering Yvonne as she passed +through the hall downstairs. + +It may have been her imagination, due to her conversation with her +sister. Sally felt almost convinced that Yvonne shrank away from her as +she passed, almost as if she were drawing her skirts aside. In return +Sally suffered a wave of indignation and the conviction that she would +never be able to forgive Yvonne. She even had an impulse some day to +avenge the other girl's injustice. + +She and Jean did not immediately move off in the direction of the +chateau. She and old Jean took an entirely opposite direction, until in +a field about half a mile away, altering their course, they walked +rapidly toward the chateau. Sally never ceased to gaze behind them every +few moments, fearing they might be followed. + +Small wonder that with the unaccustomed walks and the burden of a +serious responsibility Sally Ashton had altered in the past few weeks! + +Indeed, her only solace had been the loyal faith and allegiance which +the old French peasant, Jean, had given to her cause and to her. + +From the first day, when in halting and broken French she had begged him +to accompany her to the chateau to assist in the care of a wounded +soldier, he had not asked a question or refused his services. + +When it was impossible for him to escape Miss Patricia's vigilance at +the hour Sally asked, she always found that he had managed to make the +trip sometime later, during the day or night, and accomplished what was +necessary. What he may have thought of the situation, what questions he +may have asked himself behind the inscrutability of his weather-beaten +countenance with its misty, coal-black eyes, Sally never inquired. There +were enough problems to meet without this. The important fact was that +Jean never failed her and that he made an otherwise impossible task +possible. + +[Illustration: She and Old Jean Took an Entirely Opposite Direction.] + +After discovering the serious illness of the wounded soldier in hiding, +Sally Ashton had continued the amazing task of caring for him at the +chateau. + +She did not come to this decision immediately; indeed, it had grown so +slowly that at times it did not appear as a decision at all. Nor did +Sally attempt to justify herself. She felt compelled to take a +courageous attitude with her sister, but she never had been convinced of +her own patriotism or good sense. Even up to the present time she was +not sure of the nationality of her patient, although it had been a +relief that during his delirium he had spoken occasionally in French. + +The truth is that as the days passed on and Sally's responsibility +increased her attitude toward the soldier changed. At first she had been +annoyed, bored with the entire adventure and with the circumstances +resulting from it. But as the young man's illness became more alarming +and Sally's anxiety increased, a new characteristic awoke in her. Sally +Ashton belonged to the type of girl who is essentially maternal. She +would be one of the large group of women who love, marry and bring up a +family and are nearly always adored by their husbands, but feel no +passionate affection until the coming of their children. + +So unconsciously the wounded soldier's dependence upon her for food and +attention, for life itself, aroused Sally's motherly instinct, although +she did not dream of the fact and would have been angry at the +suggestion. + +One convincing proof. In the beginning she had been both physically and +mentally repelled by the soiled and blood-stained soldier and by his +confused confession. She had not surrendered him to justice because she +did not feel called upon to appear as the arbiter of any human being's +fate and because she had not the dramatic instinct of most girls. But +Sally had presumed the soldier would be arrested later and was not +particularly concerned with his future one way or the other. + +Now her point of view had completely altered. At first her idea was +merely that the soldier should recover with no other nursing save that +which she and old Jean could bestow upon him. But now that he was +recovering, she was equally determined he should be saved from whatever +enemy he had feared before being delivered into her hands. + +Before parting on the previous afternoon Sally had agreed with her +patient that they discuss his situation on her next visit to the +chateau. + +As the old man and girl crept cautiously inside the opening between the +arch of walls, they could see their soldier lying asleep upon his +mattress, but between clean sheets and covered with blankets which Sally +had managed to secure from the supply at the farm. + +The half-dismantled room was cold but fragrant with the odors of the +woods and fields. Perhaps the fresh air which had at all times flooded +the odd sick-room had been in a measure responsible for the ill man's +recovery, having taken the place of other comforts he had been obliged +to forego. + +He opened his eyes at the approach of his two friends and looked a +little wistfully at Sally. + +"You have come at last! I was afraid you would not be able to manage. +How kind you have been!" + +Sally made no reply except to offer him a glass of milk and to stand +silently by until he had finished drinking it. + +She looked very sweet. Today her walk and the excitement of her morning +had tired her so that she was paler than usual; yet her lips were full +and crimson and her brown hair had a charming fashion of curling in +little brown rings on her forehead as if she were a tiny child. + +The soldier no longer wore any look of mental confusion except that his +expression was puzzled and questioning. + +"You are much better. I am glad," Sally said at last. "You see I do not +know how often I can come to the chateau after today, unless you should +become very ill again and then I would come in any case." + +Sally's direct fashion of speaking had its value amid the complexities +of human relations. + +Old Jean had disappeared to bring fresh water and to accomplish other +tasks so that Sally and the soldier were alone for a little time. + +As a matter of fact, Jean's had been the really difficult nursing. Night +after night when the soldier's condition had been most critical Jean had +made no pretence of going to bed, but had hobbled over at bedtime to +remain until dawn by the ill man's side. + +"Perhaps you will sit down for a little so that I can ask you a great +many questions," the soldier suggested. "Now that I am getting back my +senses, you can scarcely imagine what a mystery my present situation +is." + +Nodding agreement, Sally drew a beautiful French chair across the +strange drawing-room and seated herself within a few feet of her +patient's bed. It was odd that she had never felt any fear of the old +walls tumbling down upon her from the hour she had begun her nursing, +although before that time she had believed nothing could force her to +trust herself inside the ruins. + +"I would like to ask you to begin at the beginning. In what condition +and how long ago did you find me here? If I could only guess the time! +But I am under the impression I have not been myself for several weeks +until these last few days. Yet I have a vague recollection of finding my +way to this old house and of seeing you standing one day framed in that +open arch. After that I have no memory of anything else until I became +conscious of your face and of old Jean's bending over me and then of +this extraordinary place. If I have been ill, why have I not been cared +for in a hospital? + +"I remember escaping from the Germans who had taken me prisoner and then +wandering, wandering about in a country where there were no trees, no +grass, no houses, nothing but the upturned earth and exploded shells. +Afterwards I was not sure I had reached the French country. I know I +used to hide in the day time and prowl around at night. I think I must +have become ill soon after my escape, because I have an indistinct +impression that I was trying to find my old home, the chateau where I +lived before the outbreak of the war. I suppose that is one reason why I +hid myself in here. But nothing I can remember explains _you_." + +Sally sighed. + +"I do not understand what you are talking about, at least not exactly. I +am not even convinced you do. But if you really are a French soldier and +managed to escape from the Germans, I am glad. I know you will think me +stupid, but still how could I have been expected to understand that you +were a French soldier when you seemed so horribly afraid of being +discovered? You were in your own country and among your own people! +Personally there is very little for me to tell about myself. + +"I am an American girl, I don't suppose you consider me French, and I am +living at a farm house not far away with some American friends. One day +I was taking a walk and just from curiosity slipped over here to look +more closely at the chateau. It frightened me when I discovered you were +hiding in here. You can never guess how you startled me! At our first +meeting you told me some mixed-up story and asked me to bring you some +food. I thought you were an escaped prisoner and I did not want to have +anything to do with you. But you insisted if you were caught you would +be hung. The next day when I arrived with the food you were too ill to +recognize me. There is nothing more to tell." + +"That is all," the soldier repeated. "But that sounds more like the +beginning, does it not? You were not even sure of my nationality and yet +you have been coming here every day to care for me. Suppose I had been +your enemy?" + +By this time the soldier was sitting up and intently studying the face +of the girl before him. He was wearing a faded dark blue shirt which +Jean had generously bestowed upon him the day before, this being the +first occasion for which he had made an effort to dress himself. + +"Strange human beings, women! I wonder if we men will ever understand +you? I have no doubt you would blow up the united armies of the Central +Empires if it were possible without a qualm and yet you would make any +sacrifice to save the life of one prisoner." + +"But I was never convinced about you," Sally apologized. "Then after you +became so seriously ill I never thought. But I am sure I beg your +pardon. As you are a Frenchman of course you would have been infinitely +better cared for in a hospital. If anything had happened to you it would +have been my fault. But really I did not know what was done to prisoners +who ran away from their captors and you suggested such an uncomfortable +fate for yourself. + +"Now you are better I don't think I will come back to the chateau again. +You see you made me promise not to tell anyone that you were hiding +here, and my sister and friends think it strange because I have been +spending so much time away from the farm recently. I don't suppose I +shall ever be able to make anyone understand. It is hard, isn't it, to +be blamed for things and then find they have been of no use? Jean will +do whatever is necessary for you until you are entirely well. He can +bring me news of you and he will take a message to anyone you care to +see if you do not feel strong enough to be moved to a hospital +immediately." + +Sally rose as if she meant to leave at once, then something in her +companion's expression made her sink down into her chair. + +"No, you must not come to see me again," he answered, "although I shall +wish to see no one else. Perhaps it will not be long before I am able to +call upon your friends if you will allow me. I am stronger than you +realize; but you have not told me what you are doing in this +neighborhood." + +Unexpectedly Sally had a remarkable sensation. It was as if suddenly her +position and the soldier's changed and as if he had begun to think of +her welfare rather than to have her devote herself to his. + +"Oh, we are doing reclamation work," Sally returned; "that is, my sister +and friends are. I have not accomplished anything that is important. I +told you I was stupid." + +All at once Sally's soldier broke into a peal of clear boyish laughter +which was of more benefit to him than either of them appreciated. + +"No, you have done nothing except save my life. It is not kind of you +under the circumstances to announce you consider it unimportant. Some +day when I am able to rejoin my regiment perhaps I may be able to prove +your work worth while. Thanks to you, perhaps I shall again serve France +as I have never served her before! The enemy has taken from me +everything else, my mother, my sister, my little brother and my home. I +made up my mind that they should not hold me a prisoner whatever might +befall me. If I had to give up my life I meant to die in the open." + +Then more excited and exhausted than either he or Sally had appreciated, +the soldier lay down again, closing his eyes. + +It was a part of Sally's recent training which made her continue sitting +quietly beside him for the next few moments without speaking or moving. + +In the interval she studied the soldier's face. + +For the first time he was appearing to her as a man. Up until now he had +simply been a human being who must be cared for, allowed to suffer as +little as possible and at last be restored to health. + +In considering him at present Sally did not particularly admire his +appearance. She thought his nose was rather too large and his lips too +thin and in spite of Jean's devotion, his services as a barber left a +good deal to be desired. + +"Your arm is nearly well, still I think I should like to bandage it once +more before I go," Sally suggested. "You do not realize it, of course, +but I have learned a great deal about nursing since I began to look +after you. I don't like sick people, else I suppose I could become a Red +Cross nurse after more training if I wished. But I don't think I should +like the work." + +As Sally talked she was accomplishing her task, certainly with a good +deal more skill than she had shown several weeks before. + +However, her patient was not conscious of the fact. At present he was +not thinking of his wound but of his nurse. + +There was something about her so deliciously frank and ingenuous. At +least she seemed ingenuous to him, although it was difficult always to +be sure concerning Sally. + +When she had finished the young Frenchman took one of her hands and +touched it lightly with his lips. + +"Will you tell me your name, please, and where to find you before you +say farewell? I am Lieutenant Robert Fleury of the French-cuirassiers." + +Ten minutes later Sally was walking back home alone to the farm house, +having left Jean to continue to care for their patient. + +She was not to go back to the chateau again and she was to tell her +friends exactly what had taken place in the past few weeks. She seemed +to have promised this to her patient. + +Yet Sally was not sure when she would tell her story. She had no desire +to make a confession to Alice, and Aunt Patricia was not to be +considered. If only she might arrange to wait until Mrs. Burton's return +from her journey into southern France. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +AN UNEXPECTED SHELTER + + +It was after the hour for their midday dinner when Sally finally arrived +at the farmhouse; however, she was able to reach her own room without +any questions being asked concerning her delay. + +Undressing slowly with the idea of lying down for a little while before +facing her friends, Sally was interrupted for the second time that day +by the unexpected appearance of her sister. On this occasion Alice's +expression made any further discussion not only unnecessary but +impossible. + +"Will you come with me, please, to Aunt Patricia's room?" she began at +once. "I have been talking to Aunt Patricia and she says it is only fair +that we should hear your explanation before passing judgment. I have +spoken to no one else, although I suppose it will be impossible to hide +the facts from the other girls. In reality, I believe they already have +guessed a great deal and have been trying to keep the truth from me." + +At the moment of her sister's entrance Sally had been slipping into a +little blue dressing gown which had been her mother's final gift the day +before their parting. The dressing gown did not have a utilitarian +appearance, since it was made of a soft blue, light woolen material with +little clusters of yellow roses scattered over the design and with blue +ribbons and lace about the throat and sleeves. + +In response to her sister's speech Sally gathered about her the dressing +gown, which she had not yet fastened, and immediately started to leave +the room. + +"I shall be very glad indeed to talk to Aunt Patricia, but not to you, +Alice, nor do I ever intend to forgive you. I suppose you followed old +Jean and me to the chateau and have drawn your own inference from what +you observed. Do you know, Alice, I have often wondered why the +puritanical conscience is always so suspicious of other people?" And in +this last speech of Sally's there was more of truth that she could fully +appreciate. + +But if in this final analysis she were speaking the truth, the first +part of her remark had been a complete falsehood. At the present time +there was nothing she desired so little as being forced into making her +confession to Miss Patricia Lord, a severe spinster with no +consideration for human folly. Would any one else on earth be more +difficult or more unrelenting? + +In the past hour or more, following her conversation at the chateau, +Sally had been facing one of the hardest experiences of life. + +Her weeks of self-sacrifice and devotion had been not only unnecessary, +they had been absurd. If only she could have enjoyed the inward +satisfaction of considering herself a heroine or a martyr! But she had +risked her own reputation and the young French officer's life to what +end? + +As the two girls entered Miss Patricia's room, Sally, accompanied by her +sister, whose existence on earth she refused to recognize, considered +that Miss Patricia appeared as implacable as a stone image. Yet one +could scarcely compare her to the Sphinx. That ancient stone figure with +the head of a woman and the body of a lioness looks as if she had +devoted the many centuries since her creation to solving the riddles of +human life. + +Miss Patricia would consider anything but plain speaking a sheer waste +of energy and truth. There were no riddles in Miss Patricia's mental +category. + +Nevertheless, Miss Patricia's voice did not sound unkind when she +suggested that Sally occupy the solitary chair in her bedroom, although +undoubtedly this would leave the elderly woman standing as well as +Alice. But then Sally did not realize how appealing her appearance was +at this moment even to so harsh a critic of human nature. + +Sally indolent, Sally dreaming her own small and rather selfish dreams, +or a Sally self-assured and self-content were not unfamiliar figures to +her world. But Sally confused and tired, hurt and bewildered, not by her +own actions or any one's else, but by a web of circumstance, was a new +study. + +"No, I would prefer not to sit down, Miss Patricia, and in any case I +would not have you stand," Sally answered, still with an innate sense of +her own dignity and value which at no time in her life was she ever +wholly to lose. "Alice seems to have told you some disagreeable story +about me. So I think it just as well for me to tell you the exact truth. +I hope I can make you understand. I suppose I should have confided in +some one before, but until a few hours ago I did not feel that I had the +privilege." + +Sally's golden brown eyes with the heavy upcurling lashes, which gave to +her face the expression of unusual softness, were now gazing upward into +Miss Patricia's. The latter's eyes were gallant also and steadfast, nor +did Sally find them so distrustful as she had anticipated. + +"Very well, my dear, go on with your story. I thought Alice was too much +excited," Miss Patricia returned, seating herself in her upright chair, +as Sally seemed to prefer her to be seated. + +Then with her little dressing gown wrapped about her as if it had been a +Roman toga, Sally told the history of the past weeks, her unexpected +discovery of the wounded soldier amid the ruins of the old French +chateau, her belief that he was a runaway prisoner and notwithstanding +this, her effort, with Jean's assistance, to restore him to health. + +Sally's explanation was less confused than her conversation with the +French soldier a short time before. However, since that hour many things +had become clearer in her own mind. She did not break down until her +story was completed and only then when she turned toward her sister. + +"I don't know, Alice, what you and the other Camp Fire girls have been +thinking of me, and I don't believe I care to guess. I know you have not +been generous. But since I don't wish to discuss the subject with any +one save Aunt Patricia, and with Tante of course when she returns, I +wish you would offer the other girls any interpretation of my behavior +you care to give." + +At this Sally's voice broke in spite of her efforts at self-control. +When Alice made a step toward her with her arms outstretched to ask +forgiveness, Sally stepped back only to find herself enfolded by Miss +Patricia and to hear Miss Patricia declare: + +"I think it would be wiser, Alice, for you to leave Sally and me alone +for a little time; she is tired and unstrung. If you and the other girls +have been unfair, you will have an opportunity to apologize later. Then +Sally herself will feel more inclined to be reasonable." + +Afterwards, when Alice had reluctantly disappeared, unexpectedly Sally +found herself seated as if she were a child in Aunt Patricia's lap and +listening to a very wise and tender conversation, one she was never to +forget, from a woman of deep and broad experience. + +When she grew less disturbed Aunt Patricia made no effort not to scold +Sally for her unwisdom and her lack of reliance upon older judgment than +her own. But the great fact was that Aunt Patricia was never unfair, +that she had no sentimental suspicions and made no accusations with +which Sally could not fairly agree. + +In their half hour together Sally Ashton learned to appreciate for the +rest of her life Aunt Patricia's value, learned to understand why Mrs. +Burton cared for her so devotedly and considered her a tower of strength +in adversity. In this uncertain world in which we live there are fair +weather and foul weather friends. Miss Patricia belonged to the number +who not only fail to strike other people when they are down, but who +spend all their energy and strength in the effort to lift them up again. + +Later on the other Camp Fire girls were also to form a new estimate of +Miss Patricia's character, but simply by force of circumstance Sally was +the first one of them to be admitted inside the stern citadel with which +the elderly spinster surrounded her great heart. + +"In the morning, Sally, when you have rested, and if I were you, child, +I would spend this afternoon in bed, why I intend to walk over with you +to your chateau and make the acquaintance of your soldier. If he is a +gentleman my dear, or even if he is a real man, I mean to bring him here +to the farm house to remain as our guest until he has completely +recovered. Now, don't argue with me, Sally. Mrs. Burton will tell you +that I am a hopeless old woman with whom to have an argument. I simply +never do any one's way except my own. I do not wish to discuss this side +of the situation with you to any extent, but don't you see, my dear, +that it is better for you that we have your soldier here? No one shall +think your friends have not understood and approved of your care of this +young Frenchman." + +Sally murmured her acquiescence and her gratitude. Yet suddenly she felt +that she wished never again to see the young officer who for the past +few weeks had been her constant thought and care. + +He had recovered sufficiently no longer to need her services and +although he was not wilfully responsible, nevertheless he had given her +a great deal of care and trouble. + +"Of course you must do what you think best, Aunt Patricia," Sally added +a moment later, as she was preparing to start to her own room. "But +don't you think we had best wait until Tante's return?" + +Aunt Patricia shook her head. + +"What Polly Burton may think or desire in the matter will not have the +slightest influence with me. She cheerfully surrendered you girls into +my charge in order to make this trip, of which she knew I thoroughly +disapproved. However, in spite of the fact that I am very angry with +her, I do not wish any one else to feel uneasy, although I shall not +have a happy moment until she returns." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +TWO OFFICERS + + +A week later two young officers were guests at the farm house on the +Aisne, one of them an American aerial lieutenant, the other a lieutenant +in the French cavalry. + +Following his telegram within a few days, Lieutenant Ralph Marshall had +arrived to spend a short furlough, ostensibly with the entire group of +American Camp Fire girls, although in reality his visit was to Peggy +Webster. Notwithstanding the fact that he and Peggy were not supposed to +be engaged, chiefly because of Peggy's youth, they shared a different +conviction from their families. + +The other young officer was none other than "Sally's soldier." Absurd as +the title appeared, particularly to Sally herself, nevertheless under +this name he was discussed secretly and at length in the Camp Fire +household. + +Toward late afternoon on the day after Sally's enforced confession, +accompanied only by Old Jean, Miss Patricia Lord had tramped across the +fields to the French chateau and had there interviewed its inmate with a +directness and a searchlight quality worthy of a public prosecutor. + +As a result she had received more valuable information than Sally Ashton +had acquired in the hour of their mutual and confused avowal. Among +other things Miss Patricia had learned that the wounded officer's +extraordinary outfit was due to the fact that he believed it would make +his escape more feasible. + +But whatever the details of his story, he was able to inspire Miss +Patricia with sufficient interest and faith to admit him as a temporary +guest at the farm house in spite of the absence of Mrs. Burton. + +However, although undoubtedly a guest, he was a guest according to rules +and restrictions laid down and adhered to by Miss Patricia and her +household. + +In the first place, until he had completely recovered he was to remain +in his room at the farm house, cared for only by old Jean with +occasional visits from Miss Patricia. Under no circumstances was he to +see or meet for the present a single one of the Camp Fire girls. This +rule was particularly to be observed with regard to Sally Ashton. + +Miss Patricia made no effort to conceal her intention of making a +thorough investigation of the account of his life the French officer had +imparted to her. She knew it would not be so difficult to verify his +statements. It was possible to communicate with the commander of his +regiment and also his friends, as he claimed to have lived in the French +country not many miles away from their neighborhood in the valley of the +Aisne. After his recovery doubtless he would be able to find a number of +his former acquaintances by returning to his old home. + +It was in his favor that the French officer entirely agreed with Miss +Patricia's attitude in every particular save one. But he was wise enough +not to argue with her concerning this. In truth, thirty-six hours after +his installation at the farm house, the young Frenchman and Miss +Patricia had become surprisingly intimate friends. One could explain +this by stating that the officer had a delightful sense of humor and a +valuable appreciation of character. Miss Patricia announced that no +friendship could have been possible between them if Lieutenant Fleury's +mother had not had the good sense to have him taught English by an +English governess when he was a small boy. His accent Miss Patricia +considered as peculiar as her own French one, nevertheless they were +able to understand each other amazingly well. + +One brilliant morning Miss Patricia entered the French officer's room +bearing a cup of bouillon to find him staring out a window which he had +just opened in order to let in the air and for another purpose which +Miss Patricia instantly suspected. + +"Breaking parole," she commented tersely. + +The young officer had not heard her entrance. In return he swung round +and laughed. + +"Is that fair, Miss Lord? A cat may look at a king, _comme ca_ why +not at a number of queens? Besides, don't you realize it is a miracle +for a French soldier to be able to dream that these devastated fields of +France are soon to become green and fruitful again? Having lost +everything in the early days of the German invasion, my family, home, my +small fortune, nevertheless I rejoice that for other French soldiers +there may be a happier future when they return to their former homes, +thanks to the great hearts of the American people!" + +The young officer's deep feeling and his quiet self-contained manner +caused a lump to rise in Miss Patricia's throat and a mist before her +eyes. Therefore her manner became more belligerent than ever. + +"Here, sit down and drink this," she commanded. "I suppose you consider +that you have entirely recovered your strength and that I am the veriest +old termagant not to permit you to enjoy your convalescence with a group +of more or less charming American girls. But as a matter of fact I am +really protecting you as well as the girls. We have lived without +masculine society, unless you wish to count old Jean, ever since our +arrival at the farm house. So whatever your impression, I am afraid you +would soon be overpowered with attention once I allowed you to leave +this room." + +Lieutenant Fleury finished his bouillon with a proper degree of +gratitude and enthusiasm before replying. + +Afterwards he gazed at Miss Patricia for several moments in silence as +if carefully considering a number of important matters. + +The young French officer was of more than medium height, had dark eyes +and hair, and except when he was talking, his expression was grave and +sad. His arm remained bandaged. + +"Miss Patricia, I do not wish to meet _all_ your Camp Fire girls. I +agree with you I am not strong enough to make myself agreeable to them. +But I do wish to see _one_ of them again. You are aware that I mean +Miss Ashton. If ever a man had cause to be grateful to a girl-----" + +"Nonsense!" Miss Patricia interrupted, picking up the empty cup as if +she were intending to leave the room immediately. "Sally was a goose and +ran the risk of being the death of you instead of saving your life as +you like to think. Besides, she has not the slightest desire to see you; +she told me this herself. She feels now that she was ridiculous. She +should never have paid any attention to the disjointed tale of an ill +man, or to the promise which you seem to have exacted of the poor child +in your original interview. As for being grateful to Sally, that is also +a waste of energy when you have none too much to spare. The one dream of +every girl in the world these days is to be allowed the privilege of +caring for a good-looking soldier. Sally had her opportunity under +particularly romantic and nonsensical circumstances. Besides, men will +always be grateful to Sally Ashton for something or other as long as she +lives, grateful because she is pretty and soft and selfish and, dear me, +I suppose she is what one calls essentially feminine! I confess I have +rather a tender feeling toward the child myself." + +And without further answer to his request Miss Patricia hurriedly +departed. + +Outdoors at the same time Sally was occupied in the garden digging in a +desultory fashion. As soon as there was no further danger of the ground +freezing the Camp Fire girls were planning to plant a garden. + +Sally was alone at her task and alone because she preferred solitude. + +After her fantastic escapade had been disclosed to the other Camp Fire +girls, those of them who had been particularly annoyed by her mysterious +behavior were frankly regretful of their condemnation. They did not +whole-heartedly approve of what she had done, but no one doubted Sally's +good intention or the unselfishness of her motive. Aside from Yvonne, +whose attitude continued puzzled and distrustful, each girl individually +had approached Sally with a carefully veiled apology. However, Sally, +who was not in a friendly state of mind toward the world at present, +received their advances coldly. + +The only two persons whose opinion she really valued were Aunt +Patricia's and Mrs. Burton's. Aunt Patricia had been kinder and more +understanding than any human being could have dreamed possible. Mrs. +Burton had not yet returned from her journey into southern France. +Indeed, no word had been heard from her in a number of days, so that not +alone did Aunt Patricia suffer from uneasiness. The great German drive +so long expected was fanning the long line of the French battlefront +into fiercer and more terrorizing flames. At any hour the greatest +struggle in human history would once more burst upon the world. + +An hour later Sally Ashton knocked shyly upon Lieutenant Fleury's closed +door. She did not do this in accordance with her own wishes, but because +of an urgent appeal made by Miss Patricia. + +As a matter of fact, for some days Miss Patricia had been haunted by the +story of his life, since the outbreak of the war, which the young French +officer had recounted to her. He was not conscious of asking for +sympathy, nor did he consider his story unusual. Nevertheless it +occurred to Miss Patricia this morning that she was unwilling to add +loneliness to the difficulties which he must face during the hours of +his return to health. Up to the present time he had been too engaged +with his soldiering to allow much opportunity for reflection. + +Miss Patricia was also convinced of the truth of what Lieutenant Fleury +had told her of himself, although she had no thought of not adding the +necessary proof to her instinctive conviction. But in the meantime if he +really earnestly desired to see and talk to Sally Ashton and to express +his gratitude, what possible harm could come of allowing them an +interview? Their acquaintance had been achieved under such remarkable +circumstances, to meet in a more ordinary and formal fashion would +doubtless be best for them both. Afterwards they would not develop +fantastic and untruthful ideas concerning each other. + +At the moment of Sally's arrival Lieutenant Fleury was despondent. It +was true he had managed to escape from the Germans and could +congratulate himself that he was not a prisoner and might hope within a +reasonable length of time to return to his own regiment. Nevertheless +what an extraordinarily stupid adventure he had stumbled into in his +sub-conscious effort to seek the neighborhood of his former home! + +He had come out of the experience a thousand times better than he had +any right to hope, yet had he not involved an American girl in what must +have been an extremely disagreeable and ungrateful task? + +At this moment of her entrance into the invalid's room Sally Ashton did +not appear to have been seriously affected by her experience. + +Her hour of working in the garden in the warm late winter sun had given +her cheeks the color they frequently lacked, or else it was her +embarrassment at meeting the young officer. Sally's hair was also +curling in the delicious and irresponsible fashion it often assumed, +breaking into small rings on her forehead and at the back of her neck in +the fashion of which she at least pretended to disapprove. + +"Miss Patricia said you wished to speak to me. I am glad you are so much +better," she began in a reserved and ceremonious fashion as if she and +the lieutenant had met on but one previous occasion before today. + +In truth it seemed impossible to Sally that the French officer whom she +was facing at present had been the ill and disheveled boy she had found +in hiding at the chateau and nursed back to comparative health. + +In announcing that Sally did not desire to see the young French officer +again, Miss Patricia had been correct. Sally considered that she had +made a grave and foolish mistake and preferred, as most of us do, that +her mistake be ignored and forgotten. + +Yet Lieutenant Fleury had no idea either of ignoring or forgetting +Sally's effort in his behalf. + +Immediately in reply to her knock he had risen. His serious expression +had now changed to one of boyish gratitude and good humor. + +"Yes, I did wish to speak to you; you are kind to have come," he +returned, although in reality surprised by Sally's extremely youthful +appearance. He had only a confused memory of her face bending above him +during his delirium. They had enjoyed but one conversation when he was +entirely himself. On that occasion he had supposed his rescuer a young +woman of some years and dignity, and Sally at present looked like a +school girl. Indeed, she was a school girl when at home in her own part +of the world if one can count college and school as one and the same +thing. + +After coming in from the garden this morning she had hastily changed her +everyday Camp Fire dress for a white flannel of which she was especially +fond, and without observing that the skirt had shrunk until it was +extremely short. + +"I wished to tell you once again how more than grateful I am to you for +your great kindness," the officer continued, smiling in spite of his +serious state of mind at the unexpectedness of Sally's appearance. +Looking at her now, it was hard to believe that she had ever assumed the +arduous burden of nursing a wounded soldier under more than trying +conditions. Yet if Sally had not been immature, she would have never +have shouldered such a responsibility! + +She was smiling now and dimpling in an irresistible fashion. + +"Will you make me a promise?" she demanded. "It is the one thing I ask +of you. If you are really under the impression that I was good to you +when I was merely risking your life, then promise never to refer to what +I did for you as long as you live and never mention the story to anybody +who could have the faintest chance of knowing me. You see," Sally +continued, her manner becoming more confidential, "I realize now that +from every point of view I was foolish. It is kind of you to have turned +out to be some one whom Miss Patricia and all of us are able to know, +for you might have been a most impossible person." + +The young French officer laughed. As he recalled their last meeting and +this one his benefactress struck him as a person who had the gift of +provoking laughter. + +"I think this a good deal to require of me," he returned. "I will do +what you ask only on condition that you-----" + +"That I promise to allow you to do a favor for me some day?" Sally +completed the unfinished sentence. "I suppose that is what you were +about to say, wasn't it? Of course you can do whatever kindness you like +if you have the chance. But it does not seem probable. After you go away +from the farm I can't imagine any reason why we should ever see each +other again. Besides, you would do whatever you could for me whether I +gave you permission or not." Here Sally smiled a second time. + +For an instant the French officer stared, nonplussed. + +But he was not the first person whom Sally had puzzled. She was so +matter of fact and so sure of herself one could not tell whether she was +extremely simple or correspondingly subtle. + +Since her companion regarded her as a child, he could have but one +impression. + +When finally he held out his hand, Sally hesitated an instant before +placing her own inside his. His exhibition of French courtesy and +gratitude at their last meeting had been slightly embarrassing. But this +time the lieutenant only held her hand gravely. + +"You are right, Miss Ashton, whatever was possible to show my gratitude +to you I should do, with or without your permission. If I am spared when +the war is over I may even create the opportunity which you seem to +doubt my ever having. When the war began I had a sister who was, I think +perhaps only a few years older than you. If you can ever make up your +mind to regard me as she would have done, it would mean a great real to +me." + +Sally was beginning to feel bored. She thought her companion was very +conventional and a little stupid. + +She had not the faintest desire to adopt an unknown young man as a +brother. Sally knew herself sufficiently well to realize that the +sisterly attitude would make but little appeal to her as long as she +lived. And she hoped that her interview with the rescued officer might +be entertaining. Life was dull now at the farm with Mrs. Burton away and +her own occupation, which had been exciting even if fatiguing, +withdrawn. + +"What happened to your sister?" Sally inquired politely, although +intending to make her escape as soon as possible should their +conversation continue on such sentimental lines. + +"She was killed in the retreat when the Germans conquered this part of +France at the outbreak of the war. I had gone to the front to join my +regiment, so Yvonne and my mother were alone except for my little +brother and a few women servants. Our chateau was destroyed." + +The French officer paused because Sally was looking at him with a +curious expression as if an idea which she may have had in her mind for +some time was now slowly crystalizing into a fact. + +"Your sister's name was Yvonne Fleury and your chateau was not far from +here, was it not?" Sally demanded. + +The young officer nodded. He did not care to discuss his past history +with Sally or with any one else in the world. There was nothing to be +gained by recalling the inevitable tragedies of the war. + +Sally did not appear seriously distressed. Unless she happened to be an +actual witness to suffering it did not touch her deeply. Besides, at the +present time she was smiling oddly, as if she were pleased and +displeased at the same time. + +"I don't think that you need adopt me as your sister," she remarked. + +Until this moment they had both continued standing. + +Now Sally made a little motion toward the invalid's chair which Miss +Patricia had removed from their sitting-room to bestow upon her patient. + +"Suppose we both sit down," she suggested, taking the only other chair +at the same instant. + +"There is something else I wish to talk to you about if you feel you are +strong enough to hear. It may prove to be good news. I suppose it seems +a strange coincidence, although some people would call it an act of +Providence, but I am sure I don't understand such things. It is just +barely possible your sister Yvonne Fleury was not killed. When we were +crossing to France from the United States we met a girl on shipboard +named Yvonne Fleury, whose home, the Chateau Yvonne, had been destroyed +in the early part of the war. As she believed her brother had been +killed at the front, she had gone to New York City, where she had been +living with some friends for several years. She told the entire family +tragedy to our chaperon, Mrs. Burton, who afterwards told the story to +us, hoping we might be especially kind to Yvonne because of her +unhappiness. The other girls have been, but Yvonne and I do not like +each other and she has been very disagreeable to me. Still, if she turns +out to be your sister, it does not matter. Under the circumstances I +suppose I ought to say nothing against her. + +"I have been thinking of this for some time, ever since you told me your +name, but of course there may be nothing in it. I only thought if you +might like to meet this Yvonne Fleury--you see she came here to the farm +and is living with us--I will speak first to Aunt Patricia and together +you can decide." + +In reality Sally was not so unsympathetic or so childish as at present +her words and manner suggested. During her long speech she had been +watching the young officer narrowly. She had arrived at her present +conclusion by putting certain facts together in a practical and +commonsense fashion. There was more than a possibility that she might be +wrong, so there was no reason for working oneself up into a state of +hysteria or of heroics. Moreover, Sally had been entirely frank. She +understood that the French officer would be overjoyed if Yvonne should +prove to be his sister, but Sally herself would have felt no enthusiasm +over the same discovery. As a matter of fact, she had no particular +interest in Yvonne's opportunity for happiness through her aid. + +She was worried, however, because her former patient suddenly appeared +so white and shaken by her words, when only a few moments before he had +looked so remarkably well. + +Sally moved slowly backwards toward the door. + +"I'll go and find Aunt Patricia; perhaps I should have spoken to her +first of my idea. Then after you have talked with her if you would like +me to find Yvonne and ask her to come to you----" + +With these words, having managed to reach the half closed door, Sally +disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE EXPECTED HAPPENS + + +Miss Patricia Lord was on her way to the French village only a few miles +from their farm house. Unless the call were urgent, rarely did Miss +Patricia bestow her activities outside the environments of the farm, +which of course included the house, garden, barns, fields, really a +sufficient large sphere of activity even for her. + +It is true she had been an extremely practical benefactress to the +entire neighborhood, yet her gifts had been made largely through other +persons; Mrs. Burton or one of the Camp Fire girls reporting a special +need among their neighbors, as promptly as possible Miss Patricia had +seen that need supplied. + +So, as she took her walk on this summer afternoon, had she liked she +might have given a good deal of credit to herself for the change in the +appearance of the countryside which the past two months had wrought. + +A number of the peasants' huts near the road had been either entirely or +partly rebuilt. But more important than the actual physical shelter, +Miss Patricia's tractor had plowed its way over many acres which +otherwise must have remained unproductive until, as far as the eye could +see, the fields were now being made ready for planting. Even if German +guns were thundering along the battle line, nevertheless behind that +line the French peasants toiled on with their patience and their eternal +industry. + +Today Miss Patricia was thinking of life's contrasts, of the peaceful +scenes through which she was passing which only a few years before had +been an altar of the world's carnage and which might soon be so +sacrificed again. + +For it would seem as if the last gigantic struggle of the present war +were now about to take place. Surely humanity would never pass through +this universal Calvary again! + +Not yet had Mrs. Burton returned from her journey into southern France! + +A few days before, a letter stating that, having accomplished a portion +of their mission, she, Mrs. Bishop and Monsieur Duval were preparing to +start on their homeward way, had arrived for Miss Patricia, although the +letter had been delayed for a week. + +A more important witness of their mission had been the actual return to +the French village of a number of the refugees in whose welfare Mrs. +Burton had been especially interested. Among them was the French girl, +Elise. + +At this moment Miss Patricia was intending to pay a call to offer her +congratulations to Elise and her grandmother and also to learn if Elise +had seen Mrs. Burton or heard any definite information concerning her. +The visit was not one to which she looked forward with pleasure, but was +due to the fact that Mrs. Burton had asked it of her as a favor. Miss +Patricia's use of the French tongue was so impossible that all +conversation between her and her French neighbors was an agony. +Moreover, her unconsciously fierce manner seemed always to disconcert +the courteous peasants. + +Nevertheless, the old men and women and children whom she met on the +road into the village and later upon the village streets bowed to her +with more than ordinary friendliness. If they could not comprehend her +words or her manner, the value of her kindness they could understand. + +A child ran out of one of the houses and unexpectedly presented Miss +Patricia with a little battered image of St. Joseph, and although St. +Joseph is one of the patron saints of marriage, Miss Patricia accepted +her gift with warm appreciation. + +An hour later, when she received the first intimation of what had +occurred, Miss Patricia was standing in the little yard in front of +their hut with Grand'mere and Elise. + +There was no restraint about Grand'mere's conversation now that her +granddaughter was restored to her; indeed, she was pouring forth such a +flood of rapid speech that Miss Patricia had the sensation of drowning +in a sea of words of which she could understand about one in fifty. + +Nevertheless, it was pleasant to glance now and then toward Elise, who +was as charmingly pretty as her neighbors and friends had described her. +From her weeks of enforced imprisonment and something nearly approaching +starvation, the young French girl was thin and haggard. Yet as nothing +more terrible had happened, she was too rejoiced over her return not to +show delight and gratitude in every expression of her vivid face. +Moreover, after being allowed to cross the borderland from Germany into +France, she really had a meeting of a few moments with Mrs. Burton, who +had given her the money and the information necessary for her +homecoming. + +At the moment when one of Elise's friends ran into the yard from an +unexpected direction, Miss Patricia's first sensation was that of +relief. At least she could enjoy a short respite from her position of +exclusive audience to Grand'mere. The woman appeared so excited and so +full of some story she undoubtedly had come to tell, that immediately +she became the center of attention. Moreover, a dozen other persons soon +followed her until in a few seconds the little yard was crowded with +gesticulating figures. + +Miss Patricia was about to withdraw when a single word arrested her +attention. The word was of course pronounced in French fashion, yet in +the past few weeks Aunt Patricia had learned to recognize its peculiar +French intonation. The word was Mrs. Burton's name. + +Through guessing, through intuition and also through the united efforts +of her new friends, soon after Miss Patricia learned as much of the +woman's tale as it was desirable for her to hear at the present time. + +This story had spread through the village. A French ambulance bearing +the sign of the _croix de rouge_ had just driven through the town +en route to the farm house on the Aisne, the present home of the Camp +Fire girls. Returning from her work in southern France, Mrs. Burton had +been injured and rather than be cared for in a hospital had begged to be +brought directly to the farm. + +As a matter of fact, Miss Patricia arrived at the farm house exactly two +minutes before the Red Cross ambulance drew up before the front door. +How she managed this one could only discover from Miss Patricia. The +village owned a single motor car used in transporting supplies and Miss +Patricia saw that it traveled faster on this occasion than ever before +in its history. + +Besides, Mrs. Burton, who was so swathed in bandages one could scarcely +recognize her, the ambulance contained Monsieur Duval, the French +senator, Mrs. Bishop and a Red Cross nurse. + +Ignoring them all, Aunt Patricia lifted Mrs. Burton in her arms and +carried her upstairs to her room, placing her upon the bed. + +An hour later, when the farm house had grown strangely quiet and +everybody had been sent outdoors except the nurse and a doctor who had +been hastily summoned, Aunt Patricia stalked down the steps into the +drawing-room. Here she found Monsieur Duval and Mrs. Bishop waiting to +explain the situation to her. + +They had been motoring toward home and several miles back of the French +line, when without any reason for such a catastrophe, a shell had +dropped from a German aeroplane and exploded near their car. + +Aside from Mrs. Burton, no member of the party had been hurt, but a +piece of the shell had imbedded itself inside her chest and was supposed +to be too near her lungs for an operation. + +"Do you mean that Polly Burton has a chance to live without an +operation?" Miss Patricia demanded in grim tones when her two companions +had finished their unsatisfying explanation of what had taken place. + +Mrs. Bishop shook her head. + +"I am afraid not; that is why we took the risk of bringing her home to +you when she wished so much to come." + +"Is there a chance for her to recover through an operation?" Miss +Patricia next asked without a perceptible change either in her +expression or manner. + +This time, as Mrs. Bishop appeared unable to speak, Monsieur Duval +answered instead. + +"There is one in a hundred, but we dared not accept the responsibility +without first coming to you." + +"Then telegraph at once for the best surgeon in Paris who can be spared +and also for Captain Richard Burton. I will give you his address. In the +meantime, if you can find hospitality elsewhere than at our farm I shall +be grateful. We shall have but little opportunity to make visitors +comfortable for the next few days." + +With this Miss Patricia withdrew. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE FIELD OF HONOR + + +Some little time afterwards, late on a March afternoon, the yard in +front of the farm house on the Aisne, chosen by the Camp Fire girls for +their temporary home in France, was occupied by a number of persons. +They had separated into groups and were either walking about the place +or else were seated in informal attitudes. + +On the wooden steps leading directly down from the house two girls moved +aside to allow a woman and a man to pass them. + +The woman was Miss Patricia, who appeared taller and more painfully +gaunt than ever, and moreover, was laying down the law upon some subject +in her usual didatic fashion. Yet the man whose arm was slipped through +hers was regarding her with devoted and amused affection. According to +Captain Richard Burton and in the opinion of a number of other persons, +Miss Patricia's good sense and devotion in the past few weeks had saved +his wife's life. + +Miss Patricia was discussing with him the question of increasing the +number of cows upon the farm until a dairy could be run upon really +scientific principles. She desired a dairy sufficiently large to supply +milk to the nearby hospitals as well as to the babies in the villages. +Up to the present time she had been largely interested in preserving the +health of the young children who came within her sphere of effort. But +realizing that milk at present was one of the greatest needs in France +for the proper feeding of the wounded soldiers and of the convalescents, +Miss Patricia was arranging for the shipment of a herd of a hundred cows +from the United States. As a matter of fact, she was supposed to be +asking Captain Burton's advice upon the subject, though Miss Patricia's +method of asking advice was merely to announce what she intended doing. + +After watching the two older persons disappear toward the barn, which +had been restored until it presented a very comfortable aspect, Peggy +Webster glanced up from her knitting to look earnestly at her companion. + +"How long do you intend remaining in France to continue with the +reconstruction work, Vera?" she inquired. + +Vera Lagerloff was sewing upon a dress for one of the children in the +neighborhood, since few of them had clothing enough to keep them warm +and comfortable in spite of all that was being done for them in the +reclamation districts by an increasing force of American women and +girls. + +Vera's eyes followed the direction Miss Patricia's tall figure had just +taken. + +"I intend to stay on indefinitely until the war is over and afterwards +if I feel I can be of more use here than anywhere else. A few days ago +Miss Patricia told me that she would be very glad to pay my expenses, as +she believed I was 'a laborer worthy of my hire.' What an extraordinary +woman she is and how much she seems to get out of life, if not for +herself, then certainly for other people! I shall never forget our first +meeting and the way in which she then took hold of the situation. I +think none of us will forget her recent devotion to Mrs. Burton. Any one +of us would have been willing to do what she did, only no one would have +had the courage or the intelligence." + +Peggy nodded. "I have written mother pretty much the same thing you have +just said. Certainly no one of our family can ever pay our debt to Aunt +Patricia. Not that I should dare make the attempt!" Peggy added, smiling +and looking a little anxiously at the sock she was about to finish. "But +I wonder if I am envious of you, Vera, I mean of your planning to remain +over here so long? Mother and father have written they would like me to +come home as soon as I feel I am not especially needed and Tante has +entirely recovered. They wish her to return as well, but I am by no +means sure she will. There are moments of course when I am homesick and +feel it my duty to be with my own people, now that Billy is gone and Dan +has at last been permitted to volunteer. Then on the other hand, I +naturally want to be in France while Ralph is here fighting. Have I told +you that after Ralph's visit to us at the farm my family has consented +to our engagement. We have promised not to consider marrying until the +war is over. I am not speaking of this to any of the other Camp Fire +girls, Vera, only to you and Bettina. But I shall always think of you, +even if the future should separate us for a long time, as if you were +almost my sister. I suppose if Billy had lived you would have been my +sister." + +In response Vera shook her head with its heavy mass of dark hair. + +"I don't know, Peggy. I am not at all sure. I don't believe Billy's +friendship and mine were like that. Perhaps when he grew older he would +have wished to marry a prettier and more romantic girl, but always he +would have come back to me for criticism and praise. Yet I should never +have wished to marry any one else and now I shall never marry any one." + +As there is no real answer to a speech of this character, Peggy Webster +made no reply. What Vera's future held in store for her was, according +to an ancient pagan expression, "in the lap of the gods." + +But Peggy wrinkled her brows at this moment, making a little motion with +her hand to attract Vera's attention to the figure of a girl who was +standing alone about a dozen yards beyond them. + +"Sally looks pretty, does she not, with her dark hair and white dress? +But of course nothing would induce her to confess that there is any +especial reason why she wishes to look particularly attractive this +afternoon. She is a funny child," Peggy concluded with the superior +manner of an engaged person. + +This afternoon the Camp Fire girls were enjoying a half holiday and the +unusual celebration of afternoon tea in honor of Mrs. Burton's recovery +and also the arrival of the two guests whom they were now waiting out of +doors to greet. + +Almost immediately after the reunion of Yvonne Fleury and her brother +they left the farm together, returning to the neighborhood of their own +chateau. Mrs. Burton's dangerous condition had made them feel it wiser +to add no more responsibility to the household. They also desired to +look up the old friends whom they might be able to find still living +near their former home. + +Until this afternoon neither one of them had returned to the farm house +even for a brief visit, although of course many letters had been +exchanged between Yvonne and the other girls. Now Mary Gilchrist had +motored over to the nearest railroad station to meet them and Yvonne and +her brother, Lieutenant Fleury, were expected at any moment. + +Ten minutes later, when the motor containing the two guests finally +arrived, Sally Ashton was the only one of the group of friends who did +not go forward to welcome the newcomers. + +She did not believe that she particularly liked either of them and there +would be time enough to do her duty later. + +As a matter of fact, Sally was about to slip around the side of the +house toward the kitchen to assist in the preparation of their simple +tea when Lieutenant Fleury followed her and as he called her by name she +felt obliged to stop and speak to him. + +He looked extremely well as if he had entirely recovered from his +illness and was better looking than Sally would have dreamed possible. + +"You do not seem enthusiastic about seeing me again?" Lieutenant Fleury +began, smiling at Sally. + +"I am very glad to find you so well," Sally announced as she shook +hands. It was difficult to confuse Sally. She had a great deal of poise +of her own kind and a little superior air of detachment which was oddly +amusing. + +"Yes, I am very well, thanks to you. Still I insist upon knowing why you +are not pleased to see me? I remember you snubbed me for suggesting that +we might develop a sisterly and brotherly affection for each other, but +now I have discovered Yvonne, won't you be friends? It is hard upon me +if you refuse to consent because my burden of gratitude to you must then +be all the heavier. I am going back to join my regiment in a few days. +Today I also came to warn Miss Lord and Captain Burton that there will +be danger later this spring if you insist upon remaining here at your +farm house. I cannot speak plainly, but I have reason to believe the +German drive will not be long delayed. The Allied line will hold; they +shall never break through, yet it might be wiser if you were out of the +range of any possible danger." + +Without discussion of the question and disregarding the delightful +possibility of tea, Sally and Lieutenant Fleury were walking side by +side away from the farm house yard and toward the old chateau. + +"You are very kind, Lieutenant Fleury," Sally answered, speaking more +gravely and with less childishness than one might have imagined, "but I +do not believe we will consent to leave our farm house and to give up +our work unless the war comes almost to our very door. Even then you +know food might be useful to the soldiers and I am an extremely good +cook." + +Sally's seriousness had disappeared and she was more her accustomed +self. + +"Yet you have not answered my question or promised to be my friend," +Lieutenant Fleury argued, looking at his companion with an amused frown. +Undoubtedly it was difficult to understand any human being who could be +such a complete child at one moment and so wise the next; but perhaps +Sally embodied the Biblical idea that true wisdom is only found among +childish spirits. + +As a matter of fact, Sally answered simply, "Why, of course I am your +friend, Lieutenant Fleury. Now when I am beginning to understand more of +what soldiers must endure, I feel as if I were a friend to every man in +our allied armies, although they probably are not aware of the honor," +and again Sally dimpled in irresistible fashion. + +Moreover, with this general acceptance of his friendship, Lieutenant +Fleury was obliged to appear content, since Sally would give him no more +satisfactory reply. + +A few weeks later the long-heralded German drive burst with renewed fury +along a long line in France. How the group of American Camp Fire girls +met the unexpected dangers and demands upon their courage and resources +will be the subject of the next Camp Fire book. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Campfire Girls on the Field of +Honor, by Margaret Vandercook + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMPFIRE GIRLS *** + +***** This file should be named 31393.txt or 31393.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/3/9/31393/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. 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