The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains; Or, Bessie King's Strange Adventure

field day, Bessie," said Dolly Ransom to her chum, Bessie King.

es away had led, a short time before, to a swimming contest in which skill, and not speed and strength, had been

elieve they tried as hard as they might have done. After all, girls and boys aren't the same, and if

h," said Dolly. "They just

r than we could. It was just a case of doing certain things and doing them just the right way. Anyone can learn that if they're patient enough, and it's not really

e from Hedgeville you wouldn't have believed t

o with in those days was Jake Hoover, and you saw him when he tried to help g

ve much use for boys if you thought

gh, Dolly. So I never got

l we do in this field da

outmaster, Mr. Hastings. You know the reason we're going to have it is

age by ourselves, didn't he, if we were caught out in

o at all, because I got Miss Eleanor to tell me all about it. The Camp Fire Girls are more serious. They want to prep

keep them out in the open air as much as possible, to make the boys stronge

hat we're for,

leanor says it's silly for one to laugh and jeer at the other; that all the Camp Fire people, the ones who are at the head of the movement, approv

to prove that we really

, finding water, making camp, getting firewood, and everything of that sort. A certain time is to be allowed for eating, and we are to make smoke signals when we reach the camping place, and again when

to go toget

re. And they won't be able to see how fast we are working. So each side ought to work

ch to spend the same a

there's no object in eating fast. It's to see how quietly we can march and prepare our food and clean up afterward that we're h

ide will want to win. Don't the Boy Scouts have

here the idea came

und here now! It doesn't seem possible that we've ha

y who mistook you for me

ide, when he came in to tell Miss Eleanor about how they'd taken t

at did

et them to let him go free. He said he had a friend who would pay a whole lot of money if they would let him escape, a

hey just lau

ittle tighter, so that there wouldn't be

m to let Lolla a

at happened to them, so long as he didn't have to go to jail. He's

of us, Dolly. But when he saw a chance to desert them he didn't rem

to hurt them. The sheriff said he'd see that they were kept tight until they could be tried, and Andrew guessed they wouldn't have much chance of getting off when the peopl

get off, Dolly. I don't thin

he did her best to get you into the same trap

ing to be married to him, and among the gypsies a woman isn't supposed to do any thinking when her husband tells her to do

id me. If you don't want her to be

man John got off so easily it would be a bad thing, because if he's punished it may frighten some others who'd be ready to

here in that place he found, too, with a handkerchief in my mouth, and tied up so that I couldn't move, so I don't see why I shouldn't be glad to see him su

uppose," said Bessie. "I don't like the idea of that, but Miss

ere will be pictures of us. I won't have any trouble telling them, either. I don't believe I'

ither s

of Eleanor Mercer, the Guardian of their Camp Fire, calling them. When they answ

said. "I wrote to him about the extraordinary attempt that this gypsy made

to get me into the same state I came from, so that Farmer Weeks can

much Dolly knows about this business, but I'm very much afraid that s

ked Bessie. "You don't mean tha

eave her out of any plans they are making now. We don't know what those plans are. This last time, you see, Mr. Holme

t blame the gypsy and never th

m by accident. He thought Dolly was Bessie, and the other way ar

I did!" said

st what we know about the reasons for all this, though it isn't very much. Bessie doesn't know much about her parents. Th

or. The place where we first m

ally she ran away. You know that the Camp Fire thinks people ought to stay at home, even if things aren't ve

ld say

ra and Bessie found out that Zara was to be taken by this Mr. Weeks, a miser and a money lender, Zara ran away

they stole

Mr. Holmes seems to have been responsible for that. You remember yourself how Mr. Holmes tricked

, because all the trouble w

her out of prison, because Mr. Jamieson is sure he is innocent. But we've got to be mighty careful, because we don't know how Mr. Holmes happens to be mixed up with Farmer

I can, Miss Eleanor. I wouldn't get Bessie

eson is working hard to try to find out what it is all about, and I think he's sure to find out soon. This letter

ired him, too, I shoul

even though it satisfies us. But the chief point is that Mr.