A Campfire Girl's First Council Fire

by Jane L. Stewart

  CHAPTER VI

  A PIECE OF BAD LUCK

  Bessie laughed until she cried as the bold raiders who had been so surethat they could scare the camp of girls dashed madly off. She could hearthem long after they had vanished from sight, crying out in their fear,plunging among the trees, but gradually the sounds grew fainter, andBessie, sure that they need fear no more disturbance from Jake Hooverand his brave companions, set out on her return to the camp. This timeshe had no need of the precautions she had taken as she crept in thedirection of the disturbing sounds, and she made no effort to concealherself.

  Wanaka was outside, looking about anxiously, when Bessie came again intothe firelight. Always a light sleeper, and especially so when she wasresponsible for the safety of the girls who were in her charge, EleanorMercer had waked at first of Bessie's terrifying shrieks, almost asfrightened, for the moment, as Jake himself. She had risen at once, anda glance in the various tents, where the girls still lay sound asleep,showed her that Bessie alone was missing.

  Naturally enough, she could not guess the meaning of the outcry. Thecries of the frightened jokers puzzled her, and there was nothing aboutthe din that Bessie made to enable the Guardian to recognize the voiceof her newest recruit. But she had realized, too, that to go out in thewoods in search of Bessie and of an explanation, was not likely to domuch good. Her duty, too, was with the girls who remained, and she couldonly wait, wondering. She greeted Bessie with a glad cry when she sawher.

  "Oh, I'm so glad!" she exclaimed. "But what are you doing with thatsheet? And--why, you're crying!"

  "I'm not--really," said Bessie. "But I laughed so hard that it made thetears come--that's all, Wanaka."

  Then she told her story, and Wanaka had to laugh, too. She was greatlyrelieved.

  "But you ought to have called me, Bessie," she said. "That's why I'mhere, you know--to look out for things when there seems to be anydanger, or anything you girls don't quite understand."

  "But I wasn't quite sure, you see," said Bessie. "And if it had reallybeen a bird, it would have been awfully foolish to wake everyone up justbecause I thought I heard something."

  "You'll be able to win a lot of honors easily, Bessie, when you comeinto the Camp Fire. That's one of the things the girls do--they learnthe calls of the birds, and to describe them and all sorts of thingsabout the trees and the flowers. You must know a lot of them already."

  "I guess everyone does who's lived in the country. Some people canimitate a bird so it would almost fool another bird--but not Jake. He'sstupid."

  "Yes, and like most people who try to frighten others, he's a coward,too, Bessie. He showed that to-night."

  "I'm not afraid of him any more. If I'd known before how easy it was tofrighten him I'd have done it. Then he'd have let me alone, probably."

  "Well, you go to bed now, and get to sleep again. And try to forgetabout Jake and all the other people who have been unkind to you.Remember that you're safe with us now. We'll look after you."

  "I know that, and I can't tell you how good it makes me feel."

  Wanaka laughed then, to herself.

  "I say we'll look after you," she said, still smiling. "But so far itlooks more as if you were going to look after us. You saved Minnehaha inthe lake--and to-night you saved all the girls from being frightened.But we'll have to begin doing our share before long."

  "As if you hadn't done a lot more for me already than I'll ever be ableto repay!" said Bessie. "And I know it, too. Please be sure of that.Good-night."

  "Good-night, Bessie."

  In the morning Bessie and Zara woke with the sun shining in their faces,and for a long minute they lay quiet, staring out at the dancing water,and trying to realize all that happened since they had said good-bye toHedgeville.

  "Just think, Zara, it's only the day before yesterday that all thosethings happened, and it seems like ever so long to me."

  "It does to me, too, Bessie. But I'll be glad when we get away fromhere. It's awfully close."

  "And, Zara, Jake Hoover was around here last night!"

  "Does he know you're here? Was that why he came?"

  "No," said Bessie, laughing again at the memory of the ghost. And shetold Zara what had happened.

  "He won't come around again at night, but it would be just like him tosnoop around here in the daytime, Bessie."

  "I hadn't thought of that, Zara. But he might. If he stops to think andrealizes that someone turned his own trick against him, or if he tellssomeone, and they laugh at him, he'll want to get even. I'd certainlyhate to have him see one of us."

  But their fears were groundless. For, as soon as breakfast was over,Wanaka called all the girls together.

  "We're going to move," she said. "I know we meant to stay here longer,but Bessie and Zara will be happier if we're somewhere else. So we willgo on to-day, instead of waiting. And I've a pleasant surprise for you,too, I think. No, I won't tell you about it now. You'll have to waituntil you see it. Hurry up and clean camp now, and begin packing. Wewant to start as soon as we can."

  Bessie was amazed to see how complete the arrangements for packing were.Everything seemed to have its place, and to be so made that it could gointo the smallest space imaginable. The tents were taken down, dividedinto single sections that were not at all heavy, and everything else hadbeen made on the same plan.

  "But how about the canoes?" asked Bessie. "We can't carry those with us,can we?"

  "I've often carried one over a portage--a short walk from one lake tothe next in the woods," said Minnehaha, laughing. "It's a lot easierthan it looks. Once you get it on your back, it balances so easily thatit isn't hard at all. And up in the woods the guides have boats thatthey carry that way for miles, and they say they're easier to handlethan a heavy pack. But those boats are very light."

  "But we'll leave them here, anyhow," said another girl. "They don'tbelong to us. They were just lent to us by some people from the city whocome here to camp every summer. They own this land, too, and they let ususe it."

  And then Bessie saw, as the first canoe was brought in, the cleverhiding-place that had been devised for the boats. They were dragged up,and carried into the woods a little way, and there a couple of fallentrees had been so arranged that they made a shelter for the canoes. Afew boards were spread between the trunks, and covered with earth andbranches so it seemed that shrubbery had grown up over the place wherethe canoes lay.

  "In the winter, of course, the people that own them take them away wherethey'll be safe. But they leave them out like that most of the summer.Some of them come here quite often, and it would be a great nuisance tohave to drag the canoes along every time they come and go."

  Long before noon everything was ready, and Wanaka, who had gone away fora time, returned.

  "You and Zara look so different that I don't believe anyone wouldrecognize either of you," she told Bessie. "You look just like the restof the girls. So, even if we should meet anyone who knows you, I thinkyou'd be safe enough."

  "Not if it was Maw Hoover," said Zara so earnestly that Wanaka laughed,although she felt that there was something pathetic about Zara's fear ofthe farmer's wife, too.

  "Well, we're not going to meet her, anyhow, Zara. And she'd never expectto find you and Bessie among us, anyhow. We aren't going across the lakeand over to the main road. We're going right through the woods to thenext valley. It's going to be a long day's trip, but it's cool, and Ithink a good long tramp will do us all good."

  "That's fine," said Bessie. "No one over there will know anything aboutus. Is that why we made so many sandwiches and things like that--so thatwe could eat our lunch on the way?"

  "Yes, and we'll build a fire and have something hot, too. Now you canwatch us put out the fire."

  "I hate to see it go out," said Zara. "I love the fire."

  "We all do, but we must never leave a fire without someone to tend it.Fire is a great servant, but we must use it properly. And a littlefire, even this one of ours, might start a bad blaze in the woods hereif
we left it behind us."

  Bessie nodded wisely.

  "We had an awful bad fire here two or three years ago. It was justbefore Zara came out here. Someone was out in the woods hunting, orsomething like that, and they left a fire, and the wind came up and setthe trees on fire. It burned for three or four days, and all the men inthe town had to turn out to save some of the places near the woods."

  "Almost all the big fires in the forests start because someone iscareless just like that, Bessie. They don't mean any harm--but theydon't stop to think."

  Then all the girls gathered about the fire, and each in turn did herpart in stamping out the glowing embers. They sang as they did thisduty, and Bessie felt again the curious thrill that had stirred her whenshe had heard the good-night song the evening before.

  "I know what it is that is so splendid about the Camp Fire Girls,Zara," she said, suddenly. "They belong to one another, and they dothings together. That's what counts--that's why they look so happy.We've never had anything to belong to, you and I, anything like this.Don't you see what I mean?"

  "Yes, I do, Bessie. And that's what makes it seem so easy when theywork. They're doing things together, and each of them has something todo at the same time that all the others are working, too."

  "Why, I just loved washing the dishes this morning," said Bessie,smiling at the thought. "I never felt like that before, when Maw Hooverwas always at me to do them, so that I could hurry up and do somethingelse when I got through. And I did them faster here, too--much faster.Just because I enjoyed it, and it seemed like the most natural thing todo."

  "I always did feel that way, but then I only worked for myself and myfather," said Zara.

  Then the walk through the cool, green woods began. The girls startedout in Indian file, but presently the trail broadened, so that theycould walk two or three abreast. It was not long before they came intocountry that Bessie had never seen, well as she knew the woods near theHoover farmhouse.

  Wanaka, careful lest too steady a walk should tire the girls, called ahalt at least once an hour, and, when the trail led up hill, oftener.And at each halt one girl or another, who had been detailed at the laststop, reported on the birds and wild animals she had seen since the lastcheck, and, when she had done, all the others were called on to tell ifthey had seen any that she had missed.

  "It's just like a game, isn't it?" said Zara. "I think it's great fun!"

  The halt for lunch was made after they had come out of the woods, by theside of a clear spring. They were on a bluff, high above a windingcountry road, with a path worn by the feet of thirsty passersby who knewof the spring, and some thoughtful person had piped the water down to abig trough where horses could drink. But they could not, from the placewhere the fire had been made, see the road or the carriages.

  "I don't think anyone will come along looking for you," Wanaka toldBessie, "but if we stay out of sight we'll surely be on the safe side."

  Suddenly, as they were about to sit down, Zara cried out.

  "My handkerchief!" she said. "It's gone--and I had it just before wecrossed the road. I must have dropped it there. I'll go back and see."

  "I'll go with you," cried Bessie, jumping up. But before she could move,Zara, laughing, had dashed off, and Bessie dropped back to her placewith a smile.

  "She's as quick as a flash," she said. "She always could beat me in arace. There's no use in my going after her."

  But, even as she spoke, a wild cry of terror reached their ears--thatand the sound of a man's coarse laughter. Bessie started to her feet,her eyes staring in fright. And she led the rush of the whole party tothe edge of the bluff.

  Driving swiftly down the road away from Hedgeville was a runabout. Andin it Bessie saw Zara, held fast by a big man whose back she recognizedat once. It was Farmer Weeks!

  "Oh, that's Farmer Weeks!" she cried "He'll get them to give Zara tohim, and he'll beat her and treat her terribly."

  Despairingly she made to run after the disappearing horse. But Wanakachecked her, gently.

  "We must be careful--and slow," she said.