The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows Page 3

  CHAPTER III "A Rose of the World"

  However much of a fairy Princess Betty Ashton's friends may haveconsidered her, Sunrise cabin had not arisen like "Aladdin's WonderfulPalace" in a single night, although six months would seem a short enoughtime in which to see one's dream come true. Particularly a dream which inthe beginning had appeared to have no chance of ever becoming a reality.

  For in the first place "The Lady of the Hills," Miss McMurtry, on thatvery afternoon when coming across the fields to the Camp Fire she hadthere been told of the plan for keeping the Sunrise Camp Fire clubtogether for the winter, had not approved the idea. The country wouldcertainly be too cold and too lonely for the girls and the getting backand forth from the cabin to school too difficult. Fathers and motherscould never be persuaded to approve and, moreover, there would be noguardian, since Miss McMurtry could not attend to her work at the HighSchool and also look after a permanent winter camp fire.

  In a measure of course even the greatest enthusiasts for the new idea hadknown that there might be just these same difficulties to be overcome.Yet in conference they had decided to meet the obstacles one by one andin turn by following the old axiom of not climbing fences before comingto them. So as the money for building the cabin was a first necessityBetty Ashton had written at once to her brother Dick. Sylvia Wharton hadseen her father, who had in September returned to Woodford, and Polly andMollie had sent off appealing letters to Ireland asking for theirmother's approval and whatever small sum of money they might be allowedto contribute. Indeed each Sunrise Camp girl had met the demands of thesituation in the best way she knew how. But really, although help andinterest developed in various directions, once the business of buildingthe cabin had been fairly started, it was from Richard Ashton that thefirst real aid and encouragement came. For Dick was a student in themodern school of medical science which believes in fresh air, exerciseand congenial work as a cure for most ills instead of the old-timemethods of pills and poultices, and having seen the benefit of a summercamp upon twelve girls he had faith enough for the winter experiment.Besides this plan had appeared to him as a solution for certain personalproblems which had been worrying him for a number of weeks. His fatherand mother were not returning to America this fall as they had expected,since Mr. Ashton's health required a milder climate than New Hampshire.It had seemed almost impossible for Dick to give up the graduating yearof his study of medicine in Dartmouth in order to come home to Woodfordto look after his sister and her friend, Esther Clark, who rather,through force of circumstances, appeared now to be Betty's permanentcompanion.

  So an offering from Dick Ashton with Betty's fifty dollars, which hadbeen returned to her by Polly O'Neill, had actually laid the foundationof Sunrise Cabin, although every single member of the club gave somethingbig or little so that the house might belong alike to them all. As Estherand Nan Graham had no money of their own and Edith Norton very little andno parents able to help, the three girls added their portions by doingwork for their friends in the village which they had learned in theirsummer camp fire. At last they were able to stock the new kitchen withalmost a complete set of new kitchen utensils, the summer ones havingsuffered from continuous outdoor use.

  Of course all the summer club members could not share the winterhousekeeping scheme, but that did not affect their interest nor desire tohelp. Meg and "Little Brother" to everybody's despair had to return home,since with John leaving for college, that same fall, their professorfather could not live or keep house without them. But then they were tobe allowed to come out to the cabin each Friday for week ends, and EdithNorton, whose work in the millinery store made living in town imperative,was to take her Sunday rests in camp. Of the summer Sunrise Camp Firegirls, only Juliet and Beatrice Field had really to say serious farewellswhen returning to their school in Philadelphia, but they departed with atleast the consoling thought that they were to come back to the cabin fortheir Christmas holidays. So that there remained only seven of theoriginal girls pledged to give this experiment of winter housekeeping asa Camp Fire club a real test. And as they worked, pleaded and waited, oneby one each difficulty had been overcome until now there remained butone--the necessity for finding a new guardian able to give all of hertime to living at Sunrise cabin and to working with the girls.

  One evening toward the early part of November after the cabin had beencompleted, Betty Ashton had called a meeting at her home for the finaldiscussion of this serious problem. As there were no outsiders present,before mentioning the subject the girls had arranged themselves in theiraccustomed Camp Fire attitudes, in a kind of semi-circle about the greatdrawing room fire, in order to talk more freely. For the past week eachgirl had been asked to search diligently for a suitable guardian. Yetwhen Betty looked hopefully about at the faces of her friends withoutspeaking she sighed, shading her gray eyes with her hand. Only by aneffort of will could she keep her tears from falling--not a line ofsuccess showed in a single countenance.

  Mollie O'Neill, understanding equally well, made no such effort atself-control. Placing her head on her sister's shoulder she frankly gaveway to tears, while Polly stared moodily into the fire with SylviaWharton's square hand clutching hers despairingly. Esther and Eleanorfrowned. Nan Graham, who had more at stake than the other girls, nottrusting herself, jumped up and running across to a far corner of the bigroom flung herself face downward on a sofa. So there was a most unusualsilence in the Sunrise Camp Fire circle and yet when a light knocksounded on the door no one said "Come in." An instant later, however, theknock was repeated, but this time, not waiting for an answer, the dooropened and a figure walked slowly toward the center of the floor. It wasa lovely figure, nevertheless, there was scarcely a person in Woodfordwhom the girls at this moment desired less to see. Certainly there was noone who had been more bitterly opposed to the whole Camp Fire idea andparticularly to Betty Ashton's having a part in it.

  "I don't know whether you allow an outsider to come into one of yourmeetings," the intruder began, dropping into a near-by chair.

  From her place on the sofa Nan Graham lifted her head. She alone of thelittle company did not know their visitor's name. She saw a young womanof about twenty-six or seven with light golden brown hair and eyes withthe same yellow lights in them, dressed in a lovely crepe evening gownwith a bunch of roses at her belt and a scarf thrown over her shoulders.Nan's eyes glowed with a momentary forgetfulness, having long cherishedjust such an ideal and never before seen it realized.

  But Betty only shook her head, answering with little enthusiasm:

  "Oh, it doesn't matter this evening, Rose, you may stay if you like,though we don't generally have strangers at our meetings." And then,though she usually had good manners, Betty fell to studying the dancinglights in the fire without making any further effort at conversation. Shehad no desire to be rude, but it was trying to have Rose Dyer, hermother's intimate friend, the one older girl, held up as a model for herto follow, who had done her best to prejudice Mrs. Ashton against theCamp Fire plan the summer before, come into their midst at an hour whentheir very existence as a club seemed to be in peril.

  For a few moments Miss Dyer waited without trying to speak again.Although Polly and Esther were both endeavoring to make themselvesagreeable, the atmosphere of the drawing room continued distinctlyunfriendly.

  "I--I am afraid I am in the way although you were kind enough not to sayso," Rose suggested, finding it difficult to explain what had inspiredher visit with so many faces turned away from hers. "I think I had bestgo; I only came to ask you a great favor and now----" She was getting upquietly, when Betty with a sudden realization of her duties as a hostessmade a little rush toward her and taking both the older girl's hands drewher into the center of their circle.

  "Please forgive our bad manners and do stay, Rose," she pleaded. "Wereally have no business to attend to to-night and perhaps company maycheer us up."

  But although Rose, without the least regard for her lovely gow
n, hadimmediately dropped down on the floor in regular Camp Fire fashion,apparently she had not heard what Betty had suggested, for straightwayher expression became quite as serious as any one else's.

  "You may not care for what I am going to say and you must promise to betruthful if you don't," Rose began, as timidly as though she were not tenyears older than any other girl in the room, "but I have been hearing forthe past two months that you were looking for a Camp Fire guardian tospend the winter with you and I have been wondering----" Here pulling theflowers from her belt she let her gaze rest upon them. "I have beenwondering if you would care to have me?"

  The silence was then more conspicuous than before and Rose flushed hotly.

  "I am sure you are very kind," Polly began in a perfectly unfamiliar toneof voice and manner since she too had known Rose all her life.

  "We appreciate your kindness very much," Eleanor added, fearing thatPolly was about to break down.

  But Betty Ashton dropped her chin into her hands in her familiar fashionand stared directly at their visitor. "My dear Rose, whatever hashappened to you?" she demanded. "Why it's too absurd! You know you don'tcare for anything but parties and dancing and having a good time. Yousimply haven't any idea of what it means to be a Camp Fire guardian; whyit is difficult enough when you have only to preside at weekly Camp Firemeetings and to watch over the girls in between, but when it comes toliving with us and teaching us as Miss McMurtry did last summer----"Betty bit her lips. She did not wish to be discourteous and yet thevision of the fashionably dressed girl before her fulfilling therequirements of their life together in the woods was too much for hersense of humor.

  Then suddenly, to Betty's embarrassment and the surprise of everyoneelse, Miss Dyer's eyes filled with tears.

  "Please don't, Betty," she said a little huskily. "You know, dear, onecan get rather tired of hearing one's self described as an absolutegood-for-nothing. Oh, I know I was opposed to your Camp Fire club lastsummer, but I have watched you more carefully than you dream and haveentirely changed my mind. I am not asking you to let me come into yourclub to help you. I am afraid I am selfish, I can't explain it to younow, but I want to help myself. Of course I am not wise enough to be yourguardian, but I have been talking to Miss McMurtry and she has promisedto help me and it is only because you don't seem able to find anyone elsethat I dare offer myself."

  At this moment Nan Graham, whom Rose had not seen before, tumbledunexpectedly off her sofa. It was because of her eagerness to reach theother girls. They, at a quick signal from one to the other, had arisen,and now, forming a circle, danced slowly about their new guardianchanting the sacred law of the Camp Fire.