The Camp Fire Girls at the Seashore; Or, Bessie King's Happiness

by Jane L. Stewart

  CHAPTER III

  AN UNEXPECTED REUNION

  "I like that Mr. Trenwith, Bessie," said Dolly, when the meal was overand she and Bessie were working together. They usually managed toarrange their work so that they could be together at it.

  "So do I, Dolly. He doesn't seem to be a bit afraid of Mr. Holmes, and Ido believe he will help Mr. Jamieson an awful lot."

  "I guess he'll need help, all right," said Dolly, gravely. "The more Ithink about that fire, the more scared I get. Why, how did thosewretches know that some of us wouldn't be hurt?"

  "I guess they didn't, Dolly."

  "Then they simply didn't care, that's all. And isn't that dreadful,Bessie? The idea of doing such a thing!"

  "I wish we knew why they did it, or why Mr. Holmes wants them to do suchthings. It's easy enough to see why _they_ did it--they wanted the moneyhe had promised to pay if they got Zara and me away from here."

  "You remember what I told you. Mr. Holmes expects to make a lot of moneyout of you two, in some fashion. I know you laughed at me when I saidthat before, and said he had so much money already that that couldn't bethe reason. But there simply can't be any other, Bessie; that's allthere is to it."

  Bessie sighed wearily.

  "I wish it was all over," she said. "Sometimes I'm sorry they haven'tcaught me and taken me back."

  "Why, Bessie, that's an awful thing for you to say! Don't you want to bewith us?"

  "Of course I do, Dolly! I've never been so happy in my whole life as Ihave been since that morning when I saw you girls for the first time.But I hate to think of the trouble my staying makes, and when I thinkthat maybe there's danger for the rest of you, as there was lastnight--"

  "Don't you worry about that, Bessie! I guess we can stand it if you can.That's what friends are for--to share your troubles. You musn't get tofeeling that way--it's silly."

  "Well, it doesn't make much difference, Dolly. I don't seem to be ableto help it. But I wish it was all over. And do you know what worries memost of all?"

  "No. What?"

  "Why, what that nasty lawyer, Isaac Brack, said to me one time. Do youremember my telling you? That unless I went with him, and did what heand his friends wanted, I'd never find out about my father and mymother."

  "I don't believe it, Bessie! I don't believe he knows anything at allabout them, and I don't believe, either, that that's the only way you'llever hear anything about them."

  "But it might be true!"

  "Oh, come on, Bessie, cheer up! You're going to be all right. And I'llbet that when you do find out about your parents, and why they left youwith Maw Hoover so long, you'll be glad you had to wait so long, becauseit will make you so happy when you do know."

  Just then Eleanor's voice called the girls together.

  "All hands to work rebuilding the camp," she said. "We want to have thenew tents set up, and everything ready for the night. I'd like thosepeople to know, if they come snooping around here again, that it takesmore than a fire to put the Camp Fire Girls out of business!"

  "My, but you're a slave driver, Nell," said Charlie Jamieson, jovially.He winked in the direction of Trenwith. "I'm sorry for your husband whenyou get married. You'll keep him busy, all right!"

  Hearing the remark, Trenwith grinned, while Eleanor flushed. His looksaid pretty plainly that he wouldn't waste any sympathy on the man luckyenough to marry Eleanor Mercer, and Dolly, catching the look, drewBessie aside. Her observation in such matters was amazingly keen.

  "Did you see that!" she whispered, excitedly. "Why, Bessie, I do believehe's fallen in love with her already!"

  "Well, I should think he would!" said Bessie, surprisingly. "I wouldn'tthink much of any man who didn't! She's the nicest girl I ever saw ordreamed of seeing."

  "Oh, she's all of that," agreed Dolly, loyally. "You can't tell meanything nice about Miss Eleanor that I haven't found out for myselflong ago. But Mr. Jamieson isn't in love with her--and he's known hermuch longer than Mr. Trenwith has."

  "That hasn't got anything at all to do with it," declared Bessie."People don't have to know one another a long time to fall inlove--though sometimes they don't always know about it themselves rightaway. And, besides, I think she and Mr. Jamieson are just like brotherand sister. They're only cousins, of course, but they've sort of grownup together, and they know one another awfully well."

  "You may know more about things like that than I do," agreed Dolly,dubiously. "But I know this much, anyhow. If I were a man, I'd certainlybe in love with Miss Eleanor, if I knew her at all."

  She stopped for a moment to look at Eleanor.

  "Better not let her catch us whispering about her," she went on. "Shewouldn't like it a little bit."

  "It isn't a nice thing to do anyhow, Dolly. You're perfectly right. I dothink Mr. Trenwith's a nice man. Maybe he's good enough for her. But Ithink I'll always like Mr. Jamieson better, because he's been so nice tous from the very start, when he knew that we couldn't pay him, the waypeople usually do lawyers who work so hard for them."

  "He certainly is a nice man, Bessie. But then so is Mr. Trenwith."

  "Look out, Dolly!" cautioned Bessie, with a low laugh. "You'll begetting jealous and losing your temper first thing you know."

  "Oh, I guess not. Talking about losing one's temper, I wonder if GladysCooper is still mad at us?"

  "Oh, I hope not! That was sort of funny, wasn't it, as well asunpleasant? Why do you suppose she was so angry, and got the other girlsin their camp at Lake Dean to hating us so much when we first wentthere?"

  "Oh, she couldn't help it, Bessie, I guess. It's the way she's beenbrought up. Her people have lots of money, and they've let her thinkthat just because of that she is better than girls whose parents arepoor."

  "Well, the rest of them certainly changed their minds about us, didn'tthey?"

  "Yes, and it was a fine thing! I guess they realized that we were betterthan they thought, when Gladys and Marcia Bates got lost in the woodsthat time, and you and I happened to find them, and get them homesafely."

  "I think they were mighty nice girls, Dolly--much nicer than you wouldever have thought they could be from the way they acted when we firstmet them, and they ordered us off their ground, just as if we were goingto hurt it. When they found out that they'd been in the wrong, andhadn't behaved nicely, they said they were sorry, and admitted that theyhadn't been nice. And I think that's a pretty hard thing for anyone todo."

  "Oh, it is, Bessie. I know, because I've found out so often that I'dbeen mean to people who were ever so much nicer than I. But there's onething about it--it makes you feel sort of good all over when you haveowned up that way. I wish Gladys Cooper had acted like the rest of them.But she was still mad."

  "Oh, I think you'll find she's all right when you see her again, Dolly.I guess she's just as nice as the rest of them, really."

  "That's one reason I'm sorry she acted that way. Because she's as niceas any girl you ever saw when she wants to be. I was awfully mad at herwhen it happened, but now, somehow, I've got over feeling that way abouther, altogether, and I just want to be good friends with her again."

  "You lose your temper pretty quickly, Dolly, but you get over beingangry just as quickly as you get mad, don't you?"

  "I seem to, Bessie. And I guess that's helping me not to get angry atpeople so much, anyhow. I'm always sorry when I do get into one of myrages, and if I'm going to be sorry, it's easier not to get mad in thefirst place."

  While they talked, Bessie and Dolly were not idle, by any means. Therewas plenty of work for everyone to do, for the fire had made a prettyclean sweep, after all, and to put the whole camp in good shape, so thatthey could sleep there that night, was something of a task.

  Trenwith and Jamieson, laughing a good deal, and enjoying themselvesimmensely, insisted on doing the heavy work of setting up the ridgepoles, and laying down the floors of the new tents, but when it came tostretching the canvas over the framework, they were not in it with thegirls.

  "You men mean we
ll, but I never saw anything so clumsy in my life!"declared Eleanor, laughingly. "It's a wonder to me how you ever comehome alive when you go out camping by yourselves."

  "Oh, we manage somehow," boasted Charlie Jamieson.

  "That's just about what you do do! You manage--somehow! And, yet, whenthis Camp Fire movement started, all the men I knew sat around andjeered, and said that girls were just jealous of the good times the BoyScouts had, and predicted that unless we took men along to look afterus, we'd be in all sorts of trouble the first time we ever undertook tospend a night in camp!"

  Charlie shook his head at Trenwith in mock alarm.

  "Getting pretty independent, aren't they?" he said to his friend. "Youmark my words, Billy, the old-fashioned women don't exist any more!"

  "And it's a good thing if they don't!" Eleanor flashed back at him."They do, though, only you men don't know the real thing when you seeit. You have an idea that a woman ought to be helpless and clinging.Maybe that was all right in the old days, when there were always plentyof men to look after a woman. But how about the way things are now?Women have to go into shops and offices and factories to earn a living,don't they, just the way men do?"

  "They do--more's the pity!" said Trenwith.

  Eleanor looked at him as if she understood just what he meant.

  "Maybe it isn't so much of a pity, though," she said. "I tell you onething--a girl isn't going to make any the worse wife for beingself-reliant, and knowing how to take care of herself a little bit. Andthat's what we want to make of our Camp Fire Girls--girls who can helpthemselves if there's need for it, and who don't need to have a manwasting a lot of time doing things for them that he ought to be spendingin serious work--things that she can do just as well for herself."

  She stood before them as she spoke, a splendid figure of youth, andhealth and strength. And, as she spoke, she plunged her hand into acapacious pocket in her skirt.

  "There!" she said, "that's one of the things that has kept womenhelpless. It wasn't fashionable to have pockets, so men got one greatadvantage just in their clothes. Camp Fire Girls have pockets!"

  "You say that as if it was some sort of a motto," said Charlie,laughing, but impressed.

  "It is!" she replied. "Camp Fire Girls have pockets! That's one of thethings you'll see in any Camp Fire book you read--any of the books thatthe National Council issues, I mean."

  "I surrender! I'm converted--absolutely!" said Jamieson, with a laugh."I'll admit right now that no lot of men or boys I know could have putthis camp up in this shape in such a time. Why, hullo--what's that?Looks as if you were going to have neighbors, Nell."

  His exclamation drew all eyes to the other end of the cove, and thesurprise was general when a string of wagons was seen coming down a roadthat led to the beach from the bluff at that point.

  "Looks like a camping party, all right," said Trenwith. "Wonder who theycan be?"

  Eleanor looked annoyed. She remembered only too well and too vividly thedisturbance that had followed the coming of the yacht, and she wonderedif this new invasion of the peace of Plum Beach might not likewise bethe forerunner of something unpleasant.

  "They've got tents," she said, peering curiously at the wagons."See--they're stopping there, and beginning to unload."

  "They're doing themselves very well, whoever they are," said Trenwith."That's a pretty luxurious looking camp outfit. And they're having theirwork done for them by men who know the business, too."

  "Yes, and they're not making a much better job of it than these girlsdid," said Charlie. "Great Scott! Look at those cases of canned goods!They've got enough stuff there to feed a regiment."

  "Oh, I'm sorry they're coming!" said Eleanor, "whoever they are! I don'twant to seem nasty, but we were ever so happy last summer when we wewere here quite alone."

  "These people won't bother you, Nell," said Jamieson.

  "You don't suppose this could be another trick of Mr. Holmes's, do you,Charlie?"

  "Hardly--so soon," he said, frowning.

  "He didn't leave us in peace very long after we got here, you know. Weonly arrived yesterday--and see what happened to us last night!"

  "Well, we might stroll over and have a look," suggested Trenwith. "Iguess there aren't any private property rights on this beach. We'll justlook them over."

  "All right," said Eleanor. "Want to come, Dolly and Bessie? I see you'vefinished your share of the work before the others."

  So the five of them walked over.

  "Who's going to camp here?" Trenwith asked one of the workmen.

  "I don't know, sir. We just got orders to set up the tents. That's allwe know about it."

  The three girls exchanged glances. That sounded as if it might indeed beMr. Holmes who was coming. But before any more questions could be asked,there was a sudden peal of girlish laughter from above and a wild rushdown from the bluff.

  "Dolly Ransom! Isn't this a surprise? And didn't we tell you we had asurprise for you?"

  "Why, Marcia Bates!" cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath, as thenewcomer reached them. "I didn't know you were going to leave Lake Deanso soon."

  "Well, we did! And we're all here--Gladys Cooper, and all the HalstedCamp Girls!"