The Camp Fire Girls in After Years

by Margaret Vandercook

  CHAPTER XVII

  CHRISTMAS

  STILL unreconciled, Anthony and Betty went together to spend theirChristmas with Mrs. Ashton in Woodford in the old Ashton homestead. Theytook with them both Bettina and Tony and the nurse and Faith Barton.However, Faith was of course to stay with her foster parents, Doctor andMrs. Barton.

  Only Angel refused to accompany the little party. She claimed not to befeeling well, to have some business that she must attend to, and indeedmade so many excuses that Betty, seeing that she really did wish to beleft behind, gave up arguing the matter with her. Moreover, Meg promisedto look after Angel and see that she had her Christmas dinner with them,so that she would not be particularly lonely.

  It was in Angel's mind that perhaps during the family's absencesomething might occur which would relieve her from all suspicion in theGovernor's sight. Yet if she thought that this would come about throughKenneth Helm she was mistaken, for Kenneth departed for Woodford onChristmas eve to spend the following day with Faith and her parents.

  Besides seeing her mother and giving her children the pleasure of acountry Christmas Betty was chiefly looking forward to being with Polly.Somehow she felt that Polly would be sure to cheer her up and make herfeel young again. They could take long walks through the woods anddiscover whether little Sunrise Cabin was still habitable. Billy andMollie had always looked after it, carefully attending to whateverrepairs were necessary, so doubtless it was as good as new.

  Nevertheless it was extremely difficult after her arrival for Betty andPolly to find time for the intimate hours that they both longed to havetogether, for there were so many other people about--old friends andrelatives.

  Nan Graham came from Syracuse, where she had charge of the department ofdomestic science in the High School, in order to be with her brotherAnthony, whom she had not seen since his election.

  Edith Norton with her husband and four children still lived in Woodfordand claimed the intimacy of their Camp Fire days. Then, of course, therewas Herr Krippen and Mrs. Krippen and Betty's small stepbrother to beconsidered, besides Mr. and Mrs. Wharton, Eleanor and Frank.

  But perhaps the most important and unexpected member of the Christmasgathering was the distinguished and eccentric Doctor Sylvia Wharton.Certainly it was Sylvia who kept Betty and Polly from being alone witheach other during her own brief visit.

  The morning of the day before Christmas Mollie got a letter from Sylvia,who had charge of a hospital in Philadelphia, saying that much as sheregretted it she would be unable to spend Christmas with them.

  During the late afternoon Polly, who had escaped from the noise andconfusion going on inside Mollie's big house, was taking a walk up anddown the bare wind-swept orchard to the left of the house. The groundwas covered with hard white snow and the air stung with a kind ofdelicious cold freshness.

  It was a part of Polly's regular duty to stay out of doors for a certainnumber of hours each day, so she now stopped her walk for a moment andglanced ahead at some almost blue-black pine trees silhouetted againstthe twilight sky.

  Suddenly she became conscious of what sounded like a masculine stepbehind her, and before she could turn around felt her two arms firmlygrasped by a pair of capable hands and herself swung slowly about.

  She faced a figure not so tall as her own, but broader, stronger and farmore sturdy. The blue eyes looked at her through a pair of spectacles,the flaxen hair was parted in the middle and without the least sign of acrinkle drawn straight back on either side. The mouth was firm, butcuriously kind. And just now it actually showed signs of trembling.

  "Why, Sylvia Wharton!" Polly said and straightway hid her face in thefur of her stepsister's long coat. Immediately she had a feeling ofdependence on Sylvia's judgment and affection just as she had for solong a time, although she was several years the older.

  "Don't try to hide your face from me, Polly O'Neill. I want to see howyou are looking before you get back into the house and do your best todeceive me. I can feel already that you are thin as a rail," Dr. Sylviamurmured severely. "You see if I don't straighten you out before you goback to that wretched work again!"

  "It was good of you to come, Sylvia; I was so disappointed over yourletter this morning. Only I am not your patient, dear; I am quite allright. It is 'Bobbin,' my poor little girl, I want you to look after andfind somebody to help," Polly returned with unaccustomed meekness."Really she is interesting and unusual. Both Mollie and Billy Websterthink so; it isn't only my foolishness. I suppose you thought mybringing her east with me was rather mad, didn't you, Sylvia?"

  Sylvia smiled the slow smile that had always beautified her plain face."No, not mad, only Polly!" she answered dryly. "But of course I'll lookthe little girl over for you, and then I'll find the best person to seeher and you can send her to me in Philadelphia. Only don't think you aregoing to escape by that method yourself."

  On Christmas Eve all the grown-up members of the Christmas party dinedwith Mrs. Ashton and Betty in the town of Woodford, since Mollie was tohave the tree and Christmas dinner for them and the children on the farmthe next day.

  It was an amusing change from the past to find that Anthony Graham andSylvia Wharton were really the lions of the evening. How different ithad been in the old days when Anthony was only an awkward, shabby,obscure boy and Sylvia the plainest and most unprepossessing of theSunrise Hill Camp Fire girls!

  Polly and Betty too, in spite of her wounded feelings, were bothimmensely pleased and amused by it.

  Of course Sylvia would rather have died than have mentioned the fact,but quite by accident Anthony had read the previous day of Sylvia'selection as President of the American Medical Society, the highest honorthat had ever been paid a woman in the medical profession in the UnitedStates.

  Hearing the story at the dinner table, Sylvia was of course confused bythe admiration and applause it excited, for she was still as shy andreserved about her own accomplishments as she had ever been as a younggirl.

  Moreover, it was Polly who recalled having once predicted that SylviaWharton would become the most distinguished of the Camp Fire girls andwho made a little speech in her honor, much to the confusion and disgustof Sylvia.

  Then Billy Webster offered their congratulations to Anthony, who wasalmost equally modest about his own attainments and insisted that hiselection as Governor was due to a happy accident and not to any possibleability of his own.

  The Christmas day following was even more crowded with people andexcitement. Actually Mollie and Billy were to have thirty guests to dineat the farm at two o'clock and the Christmas tree for the children wasto be given immediately after.

  Notwithstanding, Sylvia arranged to spend an hour alone with Polly andBobbin in a room at the top of the house where there could be nointerruption.

  She appeared to be deeply interested in Bobbin. She made Polly talk andthen saw how easily Bobbin seemed to be able to understand. Then sheasked questions herself which now and then the little girl was able tocomprehend.

  Polly explained that perchance Bobbin understood her better than otherpeople, because of her training as an actress, which of course requiredher to enunciate more distinctly. However, Dr. Wharton made no reply andafter a time Bobbin was sent away to watch the children at play.

  Then Polly sat quietly in a big armchair, while Sylvia strode up anddown the room with her hands clasped behind her. They were both silentfor quite five minutes.

  Afterwards Sylvia spoke first.

  "I am by no means sure your little girl is entirely deaf, Polly," sheremarked abruptly. "But I am not an expert in the matter and I don'twant to trust my own judgment. I believe she hears indistinctly perhapsand so has never learned to talk. Yet it would not surprise me if asudden shock of some kind might make her hear, and after that she wouldlearn to talk easily enough. But I'll discuss her case and we can seeabout it later. Now you are to let me look you over."

  Of course Polly shrugged her shoulders and objected, insisting that shewas entirely well and that it was absur
d to waste Sylvia's time.

  Nevertheless, as usual, Dr. Wharton had her way and at the end of a halfhour's examination Polly appeared pale and exhausted, while Sylvialooked more satisfied.

  "You are not to go back on the stage again this winter, Miss O'Neill,"she announced decisively. "But you really are in better health than Iexpected to find you. If you only would behave with a little moresense!"

  Polly sighed, waving her accuser away.

  "Do go and let me rest now, please," she commanded. "You know I havepromised to recite for the children for an hour or so after dinner. AndI do wish my friends and family would stop asking me to behave withbetter sense. How can I if I haven't got it? Everybody ought to be sorryfor me."

  Smiling, Sylvia departed. It was like old times to hear Polly talking inher old aggrieved fashion when she knew herself to be really in thewrong. But then Sylvia decided that she would probably always love Pollymore than any one else in the world, even if they saw each other soseldom. For she never expected to marry herself and doubted now whetherPolly ever would. There had been a scare years before about a RichardHunt, but as Polly never mentioned his name now she must by this timehave forgotten him.

  The Christmas dinner and tree were a great success. After Polly had madethe children shriek with pleasure by playing a dozen characters fromMother Goose, and the older people cry by reciting several exquisiteChristmas poems by Whitcomb Riley and Eugene Field, the guests then sangCamp Fire songs until darkness descended.

  It was a pity, however, that Esther and Dick and their children were inBoston and unable to come home for the holidays, for Esther's beautifulvoice was sadly needed in the music.

  But at six o'clock Sylvia was forced to leave for Philadelphia, and sothe other guests decided that it was time that the weary children shouldbe taken home.

  However, for one minute Polly and Betty did manage to slip over into acorner and in that moment made an engagement to spend the whole of thenext afternoon together. Moreover, in order to get away from every oneelse they planned to take a long walk to Sunrise Cabin.

  Nevertheless that same night each of the two friends lay awake forseveral hours, firmly resolving not to tell the other the trouble thatlay nearest their hearts. For they both decided that they should havegotten beyond their old girlhood confidences and that there were certainthings women should keep to themselves.