Produced by John Pobuda. HTML version by Al Haines.
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SUNRISE HILL
By Margaret Vandercook
First of a series
CONTENTS
I. THE VOICE
II. "METHINKS YOU ARE MY GLASS"
III. "WORK, HEALTH AND LOVE"
IV. "MEG"
V. THEIR FIRST MEETING
VI. THE LAW OF THE CAMP FIRE
VII. WHITE CLOUDS
VIII. OTHER GIRLS
IX. THE GUARDIAN
X. PIPES OF PEACE
XI. UNDER THE ROSE MOON
XII. NAN
XIII. "NOBODY WANTS TO BE DONE GOOD TO"
XIV. SURPRISING THE CAMP
XV. A WARNING
XVI. LEARNING TO KEEP STEP
XVII. THE SUSPICION
XVIII. ONE WAY TO FIND OUT
XIX. THE DISAPPEARANCE
XX. "POLLY"
XXI. THE END OF THE SUMMER CAMP
CHAPTER I
THE VOICE
Betty Ashton sighed until the leaves of the book she held in her hand
quivered, then she flung it face downward on the floor.
"Oh dear, I do wish some one would invent something new for girls!" she
exclaimed, although there was no one in the room to hear her. "It seems
to me that all girls do nowadays is to imitate boys. We play their
games, read their old books and even do their work, when all the time
girls are really wanting girl things. I agree with King Solomon: 'The
thing that hath been, it is that which, shall be; and that which is done
is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.'
At least not for girls!"
Then with a laugh at her own pessimism, Betty, like Hamlet, having found
relief in soliloquy, jumped up from her chair and crossing her room
pressed the electric button near the fireplace until the noise of its
ringing reverberated through the big, quiet house.
"There, that ought to bring some one to me at last," she announced.
"Three times have I rung that bell and yet no one has answered. Do the
maids in this house actually expect me to build my own fire? I suppose
I could do it if I tried."
She glanced at the pile of kindling inside her wood box and then at the
sweet smelling pine logs standing nearby, but the thought of actually
doing something for herself must have struck her as impossible, for the
next moment she turned with a shiver to stare through the glass of her
closed window, first up toward the sullen May sky and then down into her
own garden.
Outside the gray clouds were slowly pursuing one another against a
darker background and in the garden the lilacs having just opened their
white and purple blossoms were now looking pale and discouraged as
though born too soon into a world that was failing to appreciate them.
In spite of her petulance Betty laughed. She was wearing a blue
dressing gown and her red-brown hair was caught back with a velvet
ribbon of the same shade. Her room was in blue, "Betty's Blue" as her
friends used to call it, the color that is neither light nor dark, but
has soft shadows in it.
Betty herself was between fifteen and sixteen. She had gray eyes, a
short, straight nose and her head, which was oddly square, conveyed an
effect of refinement that was almost disdain. Her mouth was a little
discontented and somehow she gave one the impression that, though she
had most of the things other girls wish for, she was still seeking for
something.
"The outdoors is as dismal as I am, no wonder we used to be sun
worshipers," she said after a few more minutes of waiting; "but since
Prometheus stole the fire from heaven some ages ago, I really don't see
why I should have to freeze because the sun won't shine."
Frowning and gathering her dressing gown more closely about her with
another impatient gesture, Betty swept out into the hall.
The house was strangely silent for the middle of a week-day afternoon;
not a sound came either from below stairs or above, not the rattle of a
window blind nor the echo of a single pair of footsteps.
At some time has a sudden silence ever fallen upon you with a sense of
foreboding like the hour before a storm or the moment preceding some
unexpected news or change in your life?
Betty hurried toward the back-stairs. She was leaning over the
banisters and had called once for one of the maids, when she ceased
abruptly, and stood still for several moments with her head tilted back
and her body tense with surprise.
So long as Betty could recall, there had been a vacant room in the rear
of the old Ashton homestead, which had stood for more than a hundred
years at the comer of Elm Street in Woodford, New Hampshire. She was
stupider than other people about remembering the events of her childhood
and yet she was sure that this room had never been used for any purpose
save as a storehouse for old pieces of furniture, for discarded
pictures, for any odds and ends that found no other resting place about
the great house. It was curious because the room was a particularly
attractive one, with big windows overlooking the back garden, but then
there was some story or other connected with it (old houses have old
memories) and this must have made it unpopular. Betty did not know what
the story was and yet she had grown up with a queer, childish dread of
this room and rarely went into it unless she felt compelled.
Now, though she was not a coward, it did give her an uncanny sensation
to hear a low, humming sound proceeding from this supposedly empty room.
Cautiously Betty stole toward its closed door and quietly turned the
knob without making the least noise. Then she looked in.
What transformation had taken place! The room was a store place no
longer, for most of the old furniture and all the other rubbish had been
cleared away and what was left was arranged in a comfortable, living
fashion. An old rug was spread out on the floor, a white iron bed stood
in one corner with an empty bookshelf above it. There was a vase on a
table holding a branch of blossoming pussy willow, and seated before one
of the big, open windows was a strange girl whom Betty Ashton never
remembered to have seen before in her life.
The girl was sewing, but this was not what kept Betty silent. She was
also singing a new and strangely beautiful song.
"Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame, O Master of the Hidden Fire; Wash
pure my heart, and cleanse for me My soul's desire."
Unconscious of the intruder and forgetful of everything else the
singer's voice rose clearer and sweeter with the second verse.
"In flame of sunrise bathe my mind, O Master of the Hidden Fire, That
when I wake, clear-eyed may be My soul's desire."
Then in silence, as she leaned closer to the window to get a better
light on her sewing, an unexpected ray of sunshine managing at this
moment to break through the clouds fell directly on her bowed head. Her
hair was not auburn, like Betty's, but bright, undeniable red.
"That is a charming song and you have lovely voice, but would you mind
telling me who you are, where you have come from and how you happen to
be so at home in a room in our house?" Betty Ashton inquired, coolly,
still keeping her position just outside the opened door.
The stranger jumped instantly to her feet, letting fall some brown
embroidery silk and a number of bright-colored beads, then she stood
with her eyes fixed anxiously on the apparition before her, nervously
twisting her big, rather coarse-looking hands. She was a year older
than Betty Ashton and at the first glance it would have been difficult
to imagine two persons more unlike. Betty was slender but perfectly
proportioned and had an air of unusual beauty and refinement, which her
friends believed must come of her long line of distinguished ancestors,
while the new girl was thin and angular, with hands and feet that seemed
too big for her, and a pale, freckled skin. She too had gray eyes, but
while Betty's brows and lashes were the color of her hair, this girl's
were so light that they failed to give the needful shadows to her eyes.
In order to gain time and courage the newcomer walked slowly across the
room, but when she spoke the beauty of her voice gave her unexpected
charm and dignity.
"Hasn't your mother told you of my coming? didn't she ask you if you
wanted me to come?" she questioned slowly. "I am sorry; my name is
Esther Clark, but my name can mean nothing to you. Your mother has
asked me here to live, to take care of your clothes, to read to you, to
take walks when there is no one else--"
"Oh, you mean you are to be my maid," Betty finished, coming now into
the center of the room and studying the other girl critically, her eyes
suddenly dark with displeasure and her lips closed into a firm red line.
"I must say it is strange no one has thought to mention your coming to
me, and as I am not a child, I think I might have been consulted as to
whether I wished to be bothered with you." Betty bit her lips, for she
did not mean to be unkind; only she was extremely provoked and was
unaccustomed not to having her wishes consulted.
The older girl's face was no longer pale but had suddenly grown crimson.
"No, I am not to be your maid," she returned. "At least Mrs. Ashton
said I was to be a kind of companion; though I am to be useful to you in
any way you like, I am still to go to school and to have time for
studying. Of course the holidays are nearly here now, but later on I
hope to graduate. If you don't wish me to stay you will please explain
it to your mother, only--" Esther tried to speak naturally, but her
voice faltered, "I hope you will be willing to let me stay at least
until I can find some other place. I am too old to go back to the
asylum."
"Asylum!" Betty stepped back in such genuine that her companion laughed,
showing her white, even teeth and the softer curve to her mouth that
relieved her face of some of its former plainness.
"Oh, I only meant the orphan asylum, so please don't be frightened," she
explained. "I have lived there, it is just at the edge of town, ever
since I was a little girl, because when my mother and father died, there
was nothing else to do with me. But you need not feel specially sorry,
because I have never been ill-treated in the fashion you read about in
books. Most of the people in charge have been very kind and I have been
going to school for years. Only when your mother came last week and
said she wanted me to come here to live, why it did seem kind of
wonderful to find out what a beautiful home was like, and then most of
all I wanted to know you. You will think it strange of me, but I have
been seeing you with your mother or nurse ever since you were a little
girl of three or four and I a little older, and I have always been
interested in you."
Betty smiled, showing a dimple which sometimes appeared after an
exhibition of temper of which she felt ashamed. "Oh, you will be sorry
enough to know what I am really like," she answered, "and will probably
think I am dreadfully spoiled. But do please stay for a while if you
wish, at least until we find how we get on together."
Since Betty's first speech at the door had startled her, Esther had
never for a moment taken her eyes from her face. Never in all her life,
even when she had seen and learned far more of the ways of the world,
could this girl learn not to speak the truth. So now she slowly shook
her head. "Your mother did say you were spoiled; it was one reason why
she wished me to come here to live," she replied. "You see, she said
that you had been too much alone and had too much done for you and that
your brother was so much older that he only helped to spoil you. But,"
Esther was hardly conscious of her listener and seemed only to be
thinking aloud, "I shall not mind if you are spoiled, for how can you
help being when you are so pretty and fortunate and have all the things
that other girls have just to dream of possessing."
It was odd, perhaps, but the new girl's speech was made so simply and
sincerely that Betty Ashton instead of feeling angry or complimented was
instead a little ashamed. Had fortune been kinder to her than to other
girls, kinder than to the awkward girl in front of her in her plain gray
linen dress?
Betty now backed toward the door which she had so lately opened. "I am
sorry to have disturbed you, but usually this room isn't occupied and I
was curious to know who could be in here. I should have knocked. Some
day you must sing that lovely song to me, again, for I think I would
like very much to know just what my soul's desire is. The worst of life
is not knowing just what you want."
Esther had followed Betty toward the hall. "How funny that sounds to
me," she returned shyly, "because I think the hard part of life is not
having what you want. I know very well. But can't I do something for
you now? Your mother said you were not well and perhaps would not wish
to see me this afternoon, but I could read to you or--"
Betty's irritability returned. "Thank you very much," she returned
coldly, "but I can think of nothing in the world that would amuse me at
present. I simply wish not to freeze, and to save my life I can't get
one of our tiresome maids to answer my bell."
Betty's grand manner had returned, but in spite of her haughtiness the
newcomer persisted. "Do let me make the fire for you. I am only a
wood-gatherer at present, but pretty soon I shall be a real fire-maker,
for I have already been working for two months."
"A wood-gatherer and fire-maker; what extraordinary things a girl was
forced to become at an orphan asylum!" Betty's sympathies were
immediately aroused and her cheeks burned with resentment at the sudden
vision of this girl at her side trudging through the woods, her back
bent under heavy burdens. No wonder her shoulders stooped and her hands
were coarse. Betty slipped her arm through the stranger's.
"No, I won't trouble you to make my fire, but do come into my room and
let us just talk. None of my friends have been in to see me this
afternoon, not even the faithless Polly! They are too busy getting
ready for the end of school to think about poor, ill me." And Betty
laughed gayly at the untruthfulness of this picture of herself.
Once inside the blue room, without asking permission, Esther knelt
straightway down before the brass andirons and with deft fingers placed
a roll of twisted paper under a lattice-like pile of kindling, arranging
three small pine logs in a triangle above it. But before setting a
match to the paper she turned toward the other girl hovering about her
like a butterfly.
"I wonder if you would like me to recite the fire-maker's song?" she
asked. "I haven't the right to say it yet, but it is so lovely that I
would like you to hear it."
Betty stared and laughed. "Do fire-makers have songs?" she demanded.
"How queer that sounds! Perhaps the Indians used to have fire songs
long ago when a fire really meant so much. But I can't imagine a maid's
chanting a song before one's fire in the morning and I don't think I
should like being wakened up by it."
"You would like this one," the other girl persisted.
Little yellow spurts of flame were now creeping forth from between the
sticks, some leaping away into nothingness, others curling and enfolding
them. The paper in the grate crackled noisily as the cold May wind
swept down the chimney with a defiant roar and both girls silently
watched the newly kindled fire with the fascination that is eternal.
Betty had also dropped down on her knees. "What is your song?" she
asked curiously an instant later, raising her hands before her face to
let the firelight shine through.
Esther's head was bent so that her face could not be seen, but the
beauty of her speech was reflected in the other girl's changing
expression.
"As fuel is brought to the fire, So I purpose to bring My strength, my
ambition, My heart's desire, My joy And my sorrow To the fire Of
humankind."
Purposely Esther's voice dropped with these last words, and she did not
continue until a hand was placed gently on her shoulder and a voice
urged: "Please go on; what is the 'fire of humankind'?"
"For I will tend As my fathers have tended And my fathers' fathers Since
time began, The fire that is called The love of man for man, The love of
man for God."
At the end, Esther glancing around at the girl beside her was surprised
to see a kind of mist over her gray eyes.
But Betty laughed as she got up to her feet and going over to her table
stooped to pick up the book she had thrown on the floor half an hour
before.
"I might have made my own fire if I had known that song," she said,
switching on the electric light under the rose-colored shade. For the
clouds outside had broken at last, the rain was pouring and the blue
room save for the firelight would have been in darkness.
Betty sat down, putting her feet under her and resting her chin on her
hands. "I wonder what it feels like to be useful?" she asked, evidently
questioning herself, for afterwards she turned toward her companion.
"You must have learned a great many things by being brought up at an
orphan asylum, how to care for, other people and all that, but I never
would have dreamed that poetry would have played any part in your
education."
Esther had turned and was about to leave the room, but now at Betty's
words, she looked at her strangely.
Her face had reddened again and because of the intensity of her feelings
her big hands were once more pressed nervously together.
"Why, no, I never learned anything at the asylum but work," she answered
slowly, "just dull, hateful, routine work; doing the same things over
again every day in the same way, cooking and washing dishes and
scrubbing. I suppose I was being useful, but there isn't much fun in
being useful when nobody cares or seems to be helped by what you do. I
know I am ugly and not clever, but I love beautiful people and,
beautiful things."
Unconsciously her glance traveled from her listener's face to the small
piano in the corner of the room. "And it never seemed to me that
things, were divided quite fairly in this world, but now that I know
about the Camp Fire Girls I am ever so much happier."
"Camp Fire Girls?" Betty queried. "Do sit down, child, I don't wish you
to leave me, and please don't say horrid things about yourself, for it
isn't polite and you never can tell how things are going to turn out.
But who are the Camp Fire Girls; what are the Camp Fire Girls; are they
Indians or Esquimaux or the fire-maidens in 'The Nibelungen'? Perhaps,
after all, something new has been invented for girls, and a little while
ago I felt as discouraged as King Solomon and believed there was nothing
new and nothing worth while under the sun."
Betty's eyes were dancing with fun and anticipation, her bored look had
entirely disappeared, but the other girl evidently took her question
seriously. She had seated herself in a small desk chair and kept her
eyes fixed on the fire. "It seems very queer to me that you don't know
about the 'Camp Fire Girls'," she answered slowly, "and it may take me a
long time to tell you even the little bit I know, but I think it the
most splendid thing that has ever happened."