Plans for the Future
In a large hotel sitting-room a number of girls were grouped in various
attitudes, discussing a question which evidently interested them.
"Does any one know _why_ we are _not_ to start east tomorrow as we
planned?" Marta Clark inquired, glancing up from a city map which she
had been studying.
"Why, no, not exactly," Bettina Graham answered her. "Tante did not tell
us definitely. She merely said that something had occurred which made
her feel it would be wiser for her to remain in California a few days
longer, unless we were compelled to leave for home at once. Personally I
cannot imagine what is keeping her here, as I know she is anxious to go
home, now that our Camp Fire summer is over and Peggy and Aunt Mollie
and Dan Webster have gone. I think it was wonderfully good of her to
continue with our camping party after Billy's death, when she must have
wished to leave with the others."
"I think _I_ know why she seemed to change her mind so unexpectedly
yesterday and canceled all our reservations for berths," Sally Ashton
announced in the mysterious manner which Sally often assumed to the
annoyance of the other girls. Since her arrival in the city, Sally
temporarily had forsworn her war and Camp Fire abstinence and was at
this moment engaged in eating chocolates which had just arrived by
parcel post from Merton Anderson.
"How absurd you are, Sally! You know no more than the rest of us!" Alice
Ashton argued with sisterly frankness.
Instead of replying, sanctimoniously tightening her lips, Sally added
nothing to her original statement.
"Nevertheless, won't you _please_ tell us what you think, Sally?" Vera
Lagerloff requested, and because it was Vera who made the request Sally
agreed.
Since Billy's death the Camp Fire girls had been as unobtrusively kind
to Vera as they knew how to be. In a measure they appreciated what his
loss must mean to her, although it was out of the question that they
could fully understand the extent of Vera's loneliness, the feeling of
emptiness which the future now seemed to offer her.
Vera's long and devoted friendship with Billy had separated her from the
usual intimacy with other girls, nevertheless she was a general
favorite. For a good many years Billy had required whatever time and
thought she could spare from her ordinary duties and affections.
"I think, Vera, that Tante recently has heard some unexpected news of
Gerry," Sally finally announced with the proper degree of solemnity and
with a due sense of dramatic values.
At least she was a dramatic success to the extent of surprising her
audience.
"What authority have you for such a statement, Sally?" Alice Ashton
demanded in the superior voice and manner which Alice now and then
affected.
Sally shrugged her shoulders. "I haven't any authority, I have a
'hunch'," she returned, appreciating how painfully her slang would annoy
her intellectual sister.
"But how is it possible that Gerry could have written? Don't you think
she and Felipe are still hiding in Mexico? We know that much from what
Mr. Morris has told us! If Gerry should write to Mrs. Burton she might
betray her own and Felipe's secret and she would not do that," Marta
Clark protested.
"I did not say Gerry had written, I only said that I believed Tante had
received some information concerning her," Sally answered, undisturbed
by criticism.
In response to this speech the expressions on the faces of the four
other girls became curiously alike.
"I don't believe if I were Mrs. Burton I should ever take an interest in
Gerry again," Marta Clark announced. "Perhaps I am more in a position to
say this than any of the rest of you, because all of you have some past
association with Mrs. Burton; she was an intimate friend of your
mothers. She simply chose to be kind to me and to invite me to spend
this summer with her Camp Fire group without any especial reason, just
as she has been good to Gerry. If I should repay her kindness as Gerry
has done, I should never dare make the effort to see her again, or to
ask her forgiveness, no matter how greatly I might desire it."
"I feel just as you do, Marta," Bettina Graham agreed.
But Sally gave a little protesting cough, holding a chocolate drop
suspended in the air for an instant.
"Judge not, lest ye be judged," she declared sententiously, and then
with a somewhat less self-righteous expression, "Was that quotation from
the Bible or Shakespeare and did I quote correctly? The truth is I wish
that all of you would not be so hard upon Gerry. I know you think it
silly and impossible for a girl not yet eighteen to be _really_ in love,
but just the same Gerry is in love with Felipe. As she is in love with
him and he has been a coward and is now a fugitive from his own country,
I don't suppose Gerry is so happy that all of you need be disagreeable
about her. Personally I am perfectly sure that if Gerry wishes Tante's
sympathy and help again, Tante would be sure to do whatever she could to
help her."
"Hats off to Sally!" Bettina Graham remarked and no one disputed the
suggestion. "Still of course, Sally dear, it is impossible that any news
could have been received from Gerry, since she and Felipe must remain
out of the country until the war is over and the whole circumstance of
Felipe is forgotten," Bettina continued. "But suppose when Tante returns
we inquire why we are to wait over in Los Angeles a few days more? I
presume she would not object to explaining. I believe no one asked her
the direct question."
"Yes, but she would have volunteered to tell had she wished us to know,"
Alice Ashton argued.
Vera Lagerloff, who had been sitting by an open window looking out
toward a circle of hills which were like giant amethysts in the
afternoon light, turned toward the other girls.
"Suppose if we have no other plans we spend tomorrow on Mount Lowe and
give Mrs. Burton the opportunity to be alone," she suggested. "We have
been at the seashore so long I am anxious for a day among the hills."
Then she addressed Marta Clark.
"You are mistaken, Marta, if you think all of us here, aside from you,
have some past association with Mrs. Burton. I have none except that
Billy and I always have been friends and he asked his aunt to take an
interest in me. Now Mrs. Burton is going to do something for me which
seems more wonderful than anything she has ever done for any one else,
although I know she has been a fairy godmother to a good many people.
But she is to pay my expenses and allow me to go to France to work in
the devastated country which has lately been cleared of the Germans.
'The Field of Honor' is the name for this part of France which I like
best. I hope to work among the homeless children. But in any case I have
been brought up on a farm and can do farming work, which I have heard is
especially needed. I am to study in New York City before I sail. Courses
of study are being given there under the auspices of the French Huguenot
societies."
An unusual silence followed Vera's long speech and then it was Sally
Ashton who spoke first.
"For your sake, Vera, I am so glad, for I know the new life and the new
work will mean a great deal to you just now. I only wish I were going
with you."
"But you, Sally, what on earth could you do that would be useful in
France?" Alice remonstrated, not because she wished to be disagreeable
but to relieve the little tension which Vera's confidence had wrought.
"At least I can cook, which is a more useful accomplishment than any you
can offer, Alice," Sally returned with such ridiculous spitefulness that
the other girls laughed.
"I believe I am also envious of you, Vera," Bettina remarked. "All
summer I have been feeling that we were not doing enough to help with
the war merely by economizing and sewing and knitting, all the hundred
and one small things we have tried to do. If we were boys we would be
going through at least a little military training and in a few years
would be able to volunteer. It is simply amazing what the girls and
women are doing in England. So far we have not nearly approached their
efforts. Do you know there is a 'Woman's Army Auxiliary Corps' already
in France working directly behind the lines. I believe the Tommies call
them 'The Tommy-waacs.' We have been talking about being behind the
lines this summer, but I wish we could be more directly there."
"But what is the exact work the English girls are doing?" Alice
demanded, as if she were seriously weighing a problem in her mind. "I am
sure we can do the same things if they become necessary."
"I don't know all the varieties of war work of course, Alice," Bettina
returned. "In Great Britain women and girls have taken the places of the
men in more departments of labor than we can imagine. Of course we know
they are working in munition shops and aeroplane factories and in ship
building, and are telephone and telegraph operators. Now they are also
working among the blind, being specially trained for the work, of
course, and are actually driving ambulances and motor trucks near the
fighting line. But I will bore you if I go on enumerating even the
little I know. Personally I agree with, Vera, I should prefer to work
among the children. Madame Montessori, the great Italian teacher, has
been in the United States this summer trying to establish what she calls
the order of the 'White Cross.' The members of the White Cross are to
devote themselves to the care of the children who have suffered from the
war. She says there is no hope of their growing into healthy and normal
men and women unless they receive special care."
"Is there an organization anything like our own Camp Fire girls in
France?" Sally Ashton demanded unexpectedly. "I know there is in England
where they call themselves the 'Girl Scouts.' But I should think that
young girls living and working together in France as we have been trying
to do, might help each other and be useful to other people as well."
"I quite agree with you, Sally," Bettina returned. "Odd, that no one of
us can answer your question! But as soon as we return East I mean to
make it my business to find out if there is a French Camp Fire. At least
we could write to the French Camp Fire girls if they exist."
At this instant the girls' conversation was interrupted by the sudden
opening of a door and Mrs. Burton's entrance.
She was not in mourning but was wearing a black dress and hat which were
unbecoming and made her look older.
"Why is everybody so serious?" she instantly demanded.
Before any one else could reply Sally Ashton answered:
"We are serious because we are thinking that some day we may ask you to
take us to France to form Camp Fire clubs over there and to do whatever
we can to help. Oh, of course I know we must learn more of what will be
required of us and be prepared to make all kinds of sacrifices."
Flinging her hat on the bed with as great carelessness as if she were a
girl and also as if she were pleased to be rid of it, Mrs. Burton
replied:
"You are an amazing child, Sally. Even if I had the courage for such an
undertaking, which I have not, do you suppose I would have sufficient
influence with the parents of any one of you to persuade them to allow
you to stir one foot away from your own land at a time like this? But I
understand you have been hearing Vera's news. The circumstances with
Vera are exceptional. Wait here another moment, there is something I
have to tell you."
Then Mrs. Burton disappeared into her bedroom which adjoined their hotel
sitting-room. Their hotel was not in the center of the city but in a
suburb a few miles out.
A few moments later she returned wearing a lavender crepe dressing gown
and looking younger and more attractive.
For some reason she sat down next to Sally and put her arm about Sally's
shoulders.
"I hope my information may interest you," she began with a slight
suggestion of appeal in her voice, glancing from one of the girls to the
other.
"Two days ago I received a letter from Mr. Morris telling me that Felipe
had been arrested by the United States authorities. He had crossed over
into California for the day in order to attend to some private business.
I believe he wished to get some money from his father. He trusted, of
course, in not being discovered, but was arrested within an hour."
"I suppose I ought to say I am sorry, if that is what you wish, Tante?
But really I cannot. It seems to me exactly the fate that Felipe Morris
deserves," Bettina Graham answered coldly.
"What will be done to Felipe as a punishment for having tried to escape
the draft?" asked Alice Ashton. "I believe the punishment is very
severe, is it not?"
"His father is afraid he will receive three years' imprisonment," Mrs.
Burton replied without comment.
Then she heard a little horrified exclamation from the girl nearest her
and Sally's face had whitened and her expression changed.
"But Gerry! What is to become of Gerry?" she demanded. "I know that she
behaved very badly and that she ought to have persuaded Felipe to do his
duty, instead of helping him to run away from it. But Gerry was
dreadfully under Felipe's influence, and, anyhow, I don't care, I _am_
terribly sorry for her," Sally ended incoherently, hiding her brown eyes
behind her hand.
"I also am very sorry, Sally," Mrs. Burton added. "The fact of having
done a wrong has never yet made any human being's punishment easier to
bear. But I can tell you one thing about Gerry, Sally dear, since you
alone seem interested. She is in California and is coming to see me
tomorrow. She returned to California as soon as she received word of
Felipe's arrest. She has been with Mr. Morris, and they of course will
do whatever is in their power to have Felipe's sentence made as light as
possible. I am afraid they cannot do very much. In all probability an
example will be made of him."