ONE WAY TO FIND OUT
Nevertheless within a few days the story had been circulated about the
camp. Not a word, however, had been spoken concerning it by Betty,
Esther or Miss McMurtry, but poor Nan Graham had betrayed herself. For
in her effort to gain sympathizers, unfortunately a wider suspicion was
aroused.
Sore and unhappy over what she insisted was a totally unjust
supposition, it was but natural that she should turn to another girl for
consolation. Not to Polly, however; Nan said not a word to her, for
Polly had given no evidence of having heard of her ill-timed visit to
Betty's trunk, having been on her way to the village at the time the
offence was committed, and above everything Nan desired to remain fixed
in Polly's good graces. No, she confided the account of her interview
first to Beatrice Field, making so tragic a tale of it that Bee, who was
quite young and only a mischievous tomboy in her disposition and never
having heard anything of Nan's past mistakes, was deeply indignant.
"A Camp Fire girl accused of stealing, well not exactly accused but
suspected!" Honestly Bee had never conceived of anything so dreadful,
and so straightway put the whole case before her sister, Juliet. Then
to her surprise Juliet, who was a far more worldly wise person, did not
accept the story from the same point of view, indeed Juliet became
immediately indignant for Betty's sake, declaring that she was being a
martyr in not spreading the news of her loss abroad and at least
endeavoring to recover her lost property.
Something of Juliet's impression must have crept into Bee, for in her
next conversation with Nan there was a certain cooling off in sympathy
that made Nan feel the need of another partisan. This time she was more
unwise in selecting Edith Norton, for Edith had always particularly
disliked Nan's presence in the Sunrise Camp and, even while hearing her
side of the story, had unhesitatingly revealed not only a want of pity
for her but a plain lack of faith.
Nan had forgotten to require at the beginning of their conversation that
Edith keep her confidence a secret and so the older girl made no
pretence of doing so. In her bitterness Nan had not hesitated to say
hard things of Betty, Esther and even of their guardian in speaking of
the injustice of their attitude toward her, and these remarks Edith felt
free to add to her own account. Not that she really meant to be cruel
or unfair, but honestly feeling it best that Nan stay no longer in their
camp she started a campaign toward that end. Perhaps because Edith was
poor and self-supporting herself, unconsciously she resented the
presence of another girl whose poverty was of so much less honorable a
kind, for it is more difficult to be fair to persons almost in our own
state of life than to those in far different ones.
Not long did Edith remain alone in her conviction, for the layer of real
faith and affection for poor little Nan in camp was so thin that the
first effort broke through it. In point of fact no one had actually
wanted her at Sunrise Camp and had only been persuaded into it by Polly
and Betty and by Miss McMurtry's approval, and really these three
persons were still the only three who continued her champions.
Betty would not hear for an instant of Nan's being sent away, threatened
to leave herself rather than be responsible for such an act of
injustice. Miss McMurtry was equally firm, although she added that Nan
was not to be condemned until further proof was secured against her.
Meanwhile Polly O'Neill was really unaware for some time of the actual
circumstances of the case. In the first place Betty had begged that the
story be kept from Polly as Nan was her especial protegee, and seeing
what a storm had been aroused in camp she herself felt more than sorry
ever to have mentioned her loss. Of course Polly heard vaguely that
Betty had lost something or other about camp, but she did not know
exactly what, but then Betty had so many possessions that she was always
losing something. Also she began to suspect, dimly at first, that the
girls were in some kind of quandary, but as no one mentioned the cause
to her, she felt rather too proud to inquire, besides having a problem
of her own on her mind which taxed most of her waking hours, although
she too kept her own counsel.
But now a sufficient time had gone by, until the date of the meeting of
the August Council Fire had arrived when the original number of Camp
Fire members were to be promoted to the rank of Fire-Makers and Esther
was to be first of the Sunrise Hill girls to be given the highest Camp
Fire title--Torch Bearer.
One of Miss McMurtry's plans for her camp was to leave to three girls
each month the arrangements for the original features of their Council
Fire and in August, the month of the Red or Green Corn Moon, it so
happened that Mollie, Eleanor and Edith Norton formed the special
committee. Just what their plans were no one knew until the morning
before their meeting, not even the camp guardian, or Miss McMurtry might
possibly have interfered, although I hardly believe it.
Shortly after breakfast, even before the other girls had a chance to
disperse for their morning's work, Eleanor, Mollie and Edith Norton
disappeared inside their tents.
Edith had been chosen to help at this meeting rather than any other
because she was now having her two weeks' August vacation. Ten minutes
later the girls came out again into the open air, arrayed in their
ceremonial costumes and carrying three Indian baskets which were
solemnly passed about from one girl to the other. And these baskets
contained invitations to the evening Council Fire painted on bits of
birch bark in crimson lettering by Eleanor Meade.
At the top of the scroll were the three words "The Maidens' Feast."
Then below, the invitation read: "Sinopa the Little Sister, Apoi-a-kimi,
the Light Hair, and Eleanor, the Painter of Sunrises, invite all the
maidens of all the tribes to come and partake of their feast this
evening at the close of the regular Council Fire ceremonies. It will be
in the Sunrise Camp before the moon reaches the middle sky. All pure
maidens are invited."