The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World

her hands. And although the hallway was in semi-darkness, the candles had not yet be

elpiece. Her breath was like a small gray cloud before her; and

il finally they burned with a steady glow. "If one has these three things in life as I have, what else is wort

this has been, when even the Camp Fire ideals won't comfort me! Dick 'way off in Germany, Polly and Esther studying in New York and me face to face with my failure to save the old hous

pon her. They had not been of the stuff of which failures are made. Her grand piano was closed and dusty, the window blinds were partly pulled

r face a new expression, the girl suddenly pulled open a table drawe

pen the piano and place Esther's song, 'The Soul's Desire,' on the music rack, just as though she were at home to sing it for me. Dick's dull old books shall lie here on the table where he used to leave them, near this red rose that

indow and stood there staring out into the street, too deep

adows under her gray eyes and worried lines about the corners of her mouth. Instead of being slim as former

rs from half a dozen sources. But Mrs. Ashton had not been well in several months and was today too ill for her daughter to leave her. The two women were now entirely alone in the house.

dd how quiet and cold the world seemed with her mother asleep in one of the far-away rooms upstairs and ot

and a cap pulled down over his eyes. Without being frightened, she was curious and interested. Why should the man behave so queerly? He now walked past the house and then turned and came back, not once but several times. Evidently he had not observed the girl at the window. At last however he gave up, and Betty believed that sh

s the fagots

your deep

he truth tha

h. Then with greater strength and resolution in her face she blew out tw

me a quick, muffled ring

she thought, could come at this hour. Shading her light from the wind with one hand she pulled ope

d the young man whom she had seen on

peak nor mov

and had not the courtesy to remove his hat. With a slight sense of uneasiness, Betty thought of closing the do

is Mrs. Ashton's house if you are looking for it. My mother and I are entirely alone

thrust toward her. On the wrapper in big letters, such as a child might have written, the girl was able to decip

e it rapidly undid her parcel. Inside the paper she discovered a crudely hand

e victim of a joke? But from between the blank sheets something slowly fluttered to her fe

effort of will could the tears be kept from falling. Did any one of her friends consider

that the messenger was not yet out of sight. Sure enough, there he was still loitering on the corner about half a block away. Bareheaded, and i

ke it back at once and say that though I am very much oblig

plainly. Betty observed a tall, overgrown boy with thin, straight features and clear hazel eyes,

since it belongs to you," th

For the ten dollars would buy Christmas presents for her mother, for Pol

that her insistence was failing to have any effect, she dropped t

this money is yours. Oh, of course I don't mean this special ten dollar bill; for yo

ne-a determined appeal. But what on earth could he be talking about? He

ellow when instead you ought to have sent him to jail? He did not deserve your kindness then. He was actually trying

were shining and she was thrusting

ot!" she

," the bo

not understand that you were returning the loan. Of course I understand how you feel about it. And do come ba

ance did not suggest sudden r

him. He could still see the picture of a girl moving toward him, her face filled with shame-for him-and her eyes downcast; and thrusting into his clenched fist,

ore like kneeling in the dust at her feet. Yet being a boy he c

e had the horridest kind of a Thanksgiving day. Only a little while ago I was h