A Campfire Girl's First Council Fire / The Camp Fire Girls In the Woods

get them dishes washed! An' then you can go ou

ning. She had come suddenly into the kitchen of the Hoover farmhouse and

nd of the voice she knew so well, a

was awful tired-an' I wante

about! Ain't you got a good home? Don't we board you and give you a good bed

ears in her eyes, but she went at her dishes, and Mrs. Hoover, after a minute in which she gl

g time, and she could think of no way of escaping to happier conditions. Mrs. Hoover was no relation to her at all. Bessie had a father and mother, but they had left her with

"Leavin' you here on our hands when he went away-an' promisin' to send board money for you. Did, too,

happened to overhear one of these outbursts, "Bessie's a good girl, an'

f I didn't stand over her. All she's good fer is to eat an' sleep-an' to hide off som'ere'

ll to argue with her. But he liked Bessie, and he did his best to comfort her when he

t-and the sun rose early on those summer mornings. Every bone and muscle in her tired little body ached, but she knew well that Mrs. Hoover ha

had been chopping wood for a fe

, complainingly. "When you get that done there's

progress was slow. She was still at it when Mrs. Hoover, dressed in her

she said. "An' if that butter ai

lenty of memories of former punishments. She made no an

as fair, a mischievous, black-eyed girl, who danced like a sprite as she approached Bessie. Her brown legs were bare, h

although Zara was her best and almost her only friend. "You know

fro, after she had kissed Bessie, still laughing. "I'm not afraid of her, though,

ly from Zara's olive skin

or herself!" she said. "

"She's been good to me. She's looked after me all this

t it isn't. I know-and it's the same way with you. If we had lots of money and pretty clothes and things like the rest of them, they woul

't got time to play with them, and that I can't ask them

make you work like a hired girl, and pay you nothin' for it? You work all the time-she'd have to pay a hired girl good wages for what you

mong the leaves back of the woodshed, nor saw a grinning face that appeared around the corner. The first warning that they had that they

nd and arm, appearing from around the corner of the shed

u big sneak, you! Let her go this instant! Aren't

rls. He was a tall, lanky, overgrown boy of seventeen, and he was enjoying himself thoroughly. He seemed to have inherited all his mother's meanness of disposition and rea

Bessie. "Please, Jake, if you do, I'll help

ill holding poor Zara. "I've got a dreadful h

at she was helpless against his greater strength, had stopped

k that worthless critter you call your paw off to jail jest

ole anything. They're just picking on him because he'

goin' to lock you up, too, an' keep you here till maw com

his word, thrusting her into the woodshed and locking the great padlock on

for Bessie, he went off,

id Bessie, sobbing

essie. Don't you cry!

she'll give you a beating, just like she said. I've got to go churn some milk into butter now

about my father. It can't be true-but how would he ever

some way to get you out,"

ever felt by Jake Hoover's bullying of poor

tinued, long after he had outgrown his weakness, and sprouted up into a lanky, raw-boned boy, to trade upon the fears his parents

ced countless other little tricks that she could not resent. His father tried to reprove him at times, but his mother always rushed to his defence, and in her eyes

ngs of which he was accused, and, as his word was always taken against hers, no matter

n abandoned house, but no one seemed to understand how he lived. He disappeared for days at a time, but he seemed always

nd that seemed to be the favorite theory. And whenever chickens were missed, dark looks were cast at Zara and her

But she could see no sign of Jake. The summer afternoon had become dark. In the west heavy black clouds were forming, and as Bessie looked about it grew

old Zara what she meant to do, and set to work. It was hard work, but her fingers were willing, and Zara's frightened pleading, as the thunder began to roar, and flashes of lightni

w he tossed them at her so that she had to dance about to escape the sparks. It was a dangerous game, but one that Jake loved to play. He knew that Bessie was afraid of fire, and he had often teased her in that fashion. But sud

set it on fire!" she shrieke

then, ran toward her w

" Bessie called

d by the fire, out. But Jake stood there stupidly,

Maw'll just about skin you alive for tha

d a white fa

say that!" s

ie that would save him from the consequences of his rec

" she cried.

ra. "She'll believe you

think much, suddenly yielded to her frig