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

crying out in their fear, plunging among the trees, but gradually the sounds grew fainter, and Bessie, sure that they need fear no more disturbance from Jake Hoover and his brave companions,

for the safety of the girls who were in her charge, Eleanor Mercer had waked at first of Bessie's terrifying shrieks, almost as frightened, for the moment,

o enable the Guardian to recognize the voice of her newest recruit. But she had realized, too, that to go out in the woods in search of Bessie and of an explanation, w

"But what are you doing with tha

t I laughed so hard that it made t

nd Wanaka had to laugh, to

hy I'm here, you know-to look out for things when there seems

had really been a bird, it would have been awfully foolish t

t's one of the things the girls do-they learn the calls of the birds, and to describe them a

y. Some people can imitate a bird so it would al

o frighten others, he's a coward, to

efore how easy it was to frighten him I'd have

get about Jake and all the other people who have been unkind to

can't tell you how g

ghed then,

ou were going to look after us. You saved Minnehaha in the lake-and to-night you saved a

an I'll ever be able to repay!" said Bessie. "And I

ight, B

for a long minute they lay quiet, staring out at the dancing water, and try

re yesterday that all those things happen

t I'll be glad when we get away

Hoover was around

u're here? Was t

n at the memory of the ghost. An

but it would be just like him to sno

that someone turned his own trick against him, or if he tells someone, and they l

r, as soon as breakfast was over, W

se. So we will go on to-day, instead of waiting. And I've a pleasant surprise for you, too, I think. No, I won't tell you about

ace, and to be so made that it could go into the smallest space imaginable. The tents were taken down, di

asked Bessie. "We can't ca

sier than it looks. Once you get it on your back, it balances so easily that it isn't hard at all. And up in the woods the guides hav

to us. They were just lent to us by some people from the city who come he

rried into the woods a little way, and there a couple of fallen trees had been so arranged that they made a shelter for the canoes. A few boards

ut they leave them out like that most of the summer. Some of them come here quite often, an

s ready, and Wanaka, who had g

ither of you," she told Bessie. "You look just like the rest of the girls. So

Wanaka laughed, although she felt that there was somethi

ow. We aren't going across the lake and over to the main road. We're going right through the woods to the next

ything about us. Is that why we made so many sandwiches and

have something hot, too. Now yo

go out," said Zara

a great servant, but we must use it properly. And a little fire, even this on

nodded

e woods hunting, or something like that, and they left a fire, and the wind came up and set the trees on fire. It b

use someone is careless just like that, Bessie. The

ut the glowing embers. They sang as they did this duty, and Bessie felt again the curio

belong to one another, and they do things together. That's what counts-that's why they look so happ

ey work. They're doing things together, and each of them has some

re, when Maw Hoover was always at me to do them, so that I could hurry up and do something else when I got through. An

but then I only worked for my

tly the trail broadened, so that they could walk two or three abreast. It was not long before they

oftener. And at each halt one girl or another, who had been detailed at the last stop, reported on the birds and wild animals she ha

isn't it?" said Zara.

country road, with a path worn by the feet of thirsty passersby who knew of the spring, and some thoughtful person had piped the water dow

for you," Wanaka told Bessie, "but if we stay

ere about to sit do

had it just before we crossed the road. I must

efore she could move, Zara, laughing, had dashed of

"She always could beat me in a race.

sound of a man's coarse laughter. Bessie started to her feet, her eyes starin

runabout. And in it Bessie saw Zara, held fast by a big m

e'll get them to give Zara to him, and

fter the disappearing horse. B

areful-and sl