The Camp Fire Girls at School

took a trip into the country for bittersweet to decorate the fireplace in the library and in her father's study upstairs. With pardonable pride she arranged a little exhibition of the

tead of your mother and father. They'll be just as glad to see you if the house isn't as neat as a pin from top to bottom." And Aunt Grace resumed her rocking and her novel, as unconcerned abo

olume of his favorite essays and pored over them diligently so that she might discuss them with him and show that she had used some of her time to good advantage. She straightened out her bureau drawers and mended all her

mother from the bottom of her heart. This feeling was particularly strong one afternoon as she sat in the school room after the close of school, looking over some English papers. It was the anniversary o

the latest?" a

second voice,

wn," answered the first voice.

saw with her own eyes the account of the disaster. The list of "saved" was pitifully small, and Hinpoha's parents were not among them. Soon she came to the notation, "Among the lost are Mr. and Mrs. Adam Bradford, prominent Cleveland lawyer and his wife

nt," said one of the teachers.

father," answered Nyoda, "one

hbors and friends coming to sympathize and reporters from the newspapers seeking interviews the house was a pandemonium. Nyoda saw that Hinpoha would never quiet down in those surroundings and took her away to her own apartment. Of all the f

nt Phoebe was the sole guardian. Aunt Phoebe was a spinster of the type usually described in books, tall and spare, with steely blue eyes. She was sixty years old, but she might have been a hundred and sixty, for all the sympathy she had with youth. She had been disappointed in love when she was twenty and had never thought kindly of any man since. From her earliest childhood Hinpoha had dreaded the very name of Aunt Phoebe. W

ng the street, knocking her off her feet and into a snowdrift. It was Aunt Phoebe, coming to make a formal afternoon call. She sat bolt upright in the snow and adjusted her lorgnette to see if by any chance her grandniece could be one of those rowdy children. When she discovered that it was not only Hinpoha, but her mother as well, frolicking so indecorously, she was speechle

th into his neck. Hinpoha rescued her pet and bore him away to her room, where she shed tears of despair while he licked her hand sympathetically. Aunt Phoebe's first act was to put Hinpoha into deep mourning. Hinpoha objected strenuously, but there was no help, and she went to school

ul vase I brought your

Phoebe one day, su

ing," answered Hinpoha, with a tightening around her

. "You don't mean to tell me that you are

n't foolishness, either. I've learned more since I have

ebe, drily, "for I'll have no such nonsense about me. I can teac

other's fullest approva

and once for all that I won't have any girls holding 'meeti

u?" asked Hinpoha, the fear gripping her that she was to be denie

her mother's piano, the wedding gift of her father, and it seemed that her mother's spirit hovered over it. It was the first time she had touched the keys since that awful Wednesday when the world had been turned into chaos; she had had no heart to play, but to-day the sound of the music comforted her and her bitter resentment against her aunt lost some of its sting. She played on,

y made ashes on the rugs and were extravagant, as the house was heated by steam. The bookcases were locked and Hinpoha was forbidden to read fiction, as this was not proper when one was in mourning. "You will become acquainted with much pleasant literature

e entire evening and entertain her with the activities of the Early Presbytery. After nearly a week of this deadly dullness Hinpoha was ready to fly. And yet Aunt Phoebe was not conscious that there was anything wrong in the way she was treating Hinpoha. She cared for her in her frozen way. She was merely trying to bring her up in the way she herself had been brought up by a

t Phoebe would see for herself that the new way was best; and above all to win the respect and liking of her aunt the first thing, as more cou

We go to church morning and evening and in the afternoon I am supposed to read the Bible or a book by a man named Thomas à Ke

ned before? Oh, I have it! Did you ever read this anywhere, 'Commit to memory one hundre

she said, "there's a chance to earn an honor bead

reading you will undoubtedly come across something about 'in the wilderness a cedar,' and

er face brightened, but immediately fell again. "But what good will it do me to

ut that," said Nyoda resolutely. "I think if I explain the mission and activities of Camp F

t Phoebe's account of her last siege of rheumatism, admired her crochet work, and hoped she liked this street as well as her former neighborhood. She said she had often seen Miss Bradford's name in the papers in connection with various charitable organizations and was very glad to have the honor of meeting the sister of the prominent Judge. Aunt Phoebe was pleased and flattered at th

ciety'," broke in H

ature," returned her aunt, "and is not to b

ered hopefully; "she will come around to it eventually, but it will take time. Be patient. And in the meantime read this," and she slipped into her hand a tiny copy of "The Desert of Waiti

om cover to cover. When she finished there was a song in her heart again and a light in her eyes

to the popular young teacher of whom Gladys was so fond, and cordially invited her to spend as much time as she could at the house with the fami

moth-eaten ideas of hers! If the Judge were alive that house wouldn't look as if there was a perpetual funeral going on! I certainly

hborhood are making haste to call on the sister of Judge Bradford," she reflected complacently. Mrs. Evans made hers

aid. "I presume the death of her p

ed handkerchief. "The hand of misfortune has fall

the girl grieve herself sick. Cheerful company is what she needs at t

lf up rather stiffly.

Girls,"

echoed Mrs. Evans in well-feigned asto

uch nonsense had never been thought of in her day. "And, of course," she added, hiding behind

ans, seeing the subterfuge. "She went to a Camp Fire meeting the day after h

d if Mrs. Evans gave her sanction to this Camp Fire business, she wondered if she had not better swallow her prejudice-outwardly at least, for she declared inwardly that she had never heard of such foolishness in all her born days. When Mrs. Evans went home Aunt Pho