THE CALL OF THE FIRE
"Wo-he-lo!"
How they did thrill at the sound of the watchword of the Camp Fire! How
clearly, now, they understood the meaning of the three syllables, that
had seemed to them so mysterious, so utterly without meaning, when they
had first heard them on the shores of the lake, as, surprised, they
peeped out and saw the merry band of girls who had awakened them after
their flight from Hedgeville.
For a moment, so overjoyed were they, they couldn't move at all. But
then the spell was broken, as the call sounded again, loud and clear,
rising above the noises of the engine that was puffing and snorting on
the other side of the station. Farmer Weeks, a black look in his eyes as
he shot them a parting glance full of malice, was forgotten as he slunk
off.
"Thank you, oh, thank you!" cried Bessie to the astonished policeman,
who looked as if he were about to begin asking them questions. "Come on,
Zara!"
And, hand in hand, they raced around to the other side of the station
again, but blithely, happily this time, and not in terror of their
enemy, as they had come. And there, looking about her in all directions,
was Eleanor Mercer, and behind her all the girls of the Manasquan Camp
Fire.
"Oh, I'm so glad! I was afraid something had happened to you!" cried
Eleanor. "But now it's all right! We're all here, and safe. In this
state no one can hurt you--either of you!"
Laughing and full of questions, the other girls crowded around Zara and
Bessie, so happily restored to them.
"We feel as if you were real Camp Fire Girls already!" said Eleanor
Mercer, half crying with happiness. "The girls were wild with anxiety
when they found you had gone away, too, Bessie, even though we hadn't
told them everything. But they were delighted when I got back and told
them you were safe."
"We were, indeed," said Minnehaha. "But it was awful, Bessie, not to
know what had become of you, or how to help you! We'd have done anything
we could, but we didn't know a single thing to do. So we had just to
wait, and that's the hardest thing there is, when someone you love is in
trouble."
Bessie almost broke down at that. Until this wonderful meeting with the
Camp Fire Girls no one but Zara had loved her, and the idea that these
girls really did love her as they said--and had so nobly proved--was
almost too much for her. She tried to say so.
"Of course we love one another," said Eleanor. "That's one of the laws
of the Fire, and it's one of the words we use to make up Wo-he-lo, too.
So you see that it's just as important as it can be, Bessie."
"Yes, indeed, I do see that. I'd be awfully stupid if I didn't, after
the splendid way you've helped us, Miss Eleanor. What are we going to
do now?"
"We're going to join the big camp not far from here. Three or four Camp
Fires are there together, and Mrs. Chester, who is Chief Guardian in the
city, wants us to join them. I talked to her about you two over the
long-distance telephone before we got on the train, and she's so anxious
to see you, and help me to decide what is best for you to do. You'll
love her, Bessie; you're sure to. She's so good and sweet to everyone.
All the girls just worship her."
"If she's half as nice as you, we're sure to love her," said Zara.
Eleanor laughed.
"I'm not half as wonderful as you think I am, Zara. But I'm nicer than I
used to be, I think."
"Oh!"
"Yes, indeed! I used to be selfish and thoughtless, caring only about
having a good time myself, and never thinking about other people at all.
But Mrs. Chester talked to me."
"I'll bet she never had a chance to scold you."
"I'm afraid she did, Zara; but she didn't want to. That's not her way.
She never scolds people. She just talks to them in that wonderful, quiet
way of hers, and makes them see that they haven't been doing right."
"But I don't believe you ever did anything that wasn't right."
"Maybe I didn't mean to, and maybe it wasn't what I did that was wrong.
It was more what I didn't do."
"I don't see what you mean."
"Well, I was careless and thoughtless, just as I said. I used to dance,
and play games, and go to parties all the time."
"I think that must be fine! Didn't you have to work at home, though?"
"No; and that was just the trouble, you see. My people had plenty of
money, and they just wanted me to have a good time. And I did--but I've
had a better one since I started doing things for other people."
"I bet you always did, really--"
"I'm not an angel now, Zara, and I certainly never used to be, nor a bit
like one. Just because I've happened to be able to help you two a
little, you think altogether too much of me."
"Oh, no; we couldn't--"
"Well, as I was saying, Mrs. Chester saw how things were going, and she
started to talk to me. I was horrid to her at first, and wouldn't pay
any attention to her at all."
"I'm going to ask her about that. I don't believe you ever were horrid
to anyone."
"Probably Mrs. Chester won't admit it, but it's true, just the same,
Bessie. But she talked to me, and kept on talking, and she made me think
about all the poorer girls who had to work so hard and couldn't go to
parties. And I began to feel sorry, and wonder what I could do to make
them happier."
"You see, that's just what we said! You weren't selfish at all!"
"I tried to stop as soon as I found out that I had been, Zara; that's
all. And I think anyone would do that. It's because people don't think
of the unhappiness and misery of others that there's so much suffering,
not because they really want other people to be unhappy."
"I guess that's so. I suppose even Farmer Weeks wouldn't be mean if he
really thought about it."
"I'm sure he wouldn't--and we'll have to try to reform him, too, before
we're done with him. You see, if there were more people like Mrs.
Chester, things would be ever so much nicer. She heard about the Camp
Fire Girls, and she saw right away that it meant a chance to make things
better, right in our home town."
"Is that how it all started?"
"Yes, with us. And it was the same way all over the country, because,
really, there are lots and lots of noble, unselfish women like Mrs.
Chester, who want everyone to be happy."
"Is she as pretty as you, Miss Eleanor?"
"Much prettier, Zara; but you won't think about that after you've
talked to her. She got hold of me and some of the other girls like me,
who had lots of time and money, and she made us see that we'd be twice
as happy if we spent some of our time doing things for other people,
instead of thinking about ourselves the whole time. And she's been
perfectly right."
"I knew you enjoyed doing things like that--"
"Yes; so you see it isn't altogether unselfish, after all. But Mrs.
Chester says that we ought all try to be happy ourselves, because that's
the best way to make other people happy, after all, as long as we never
forget that there are others, and that we ought to think of serving
them."
"That's like in the Bible where it says, 'It is more blessed to give
than to receive,' isn't it?"
"That's the very idea, Bessie! I'm glad you thought of that yourself.
That's just the lesson we've all got to learn."
"But we haven't been able to help anyone yet, Miss Eleanor. Everyone's
helping us--"
"Don't you worry about that, Bessie. You'll have lots of chances to
help others--ever so many! Just you wait until you get to the city.
There are lots of girls there who are more wretched than you--girls who
don't get enough to eat, and have to work so hard that they never have
any fun at all, because when they get through with their work they're so
tired they have to go right to sleep."
"Bessie was like that, Miss Eleanor."
"I'm afraid she was, Zara. But we're going to change all that. Mrs.
Chester has promised to help, and that means that everything will be all
right."
"Do you think I could ever do anything to help anyone else, Miss
Eleanor?"
"I'm sure you have already, Zara. You've been a good friend to Bessie,
and I know you've cheered her up and helped her to get through days when
she was feeling pretty bad."
"Indeed she has, Miss Eleanor! Many and many a time! Since I've known
her I've often wondered how I ever got along at all before she came to
Hedgeville!"
"You see, Zara, doing things for others doesn't mean always that you're
spending money or actually doing something. Sometimes the very best help
you can give is by just being cheerful and friendly."
"I hadn't thought of that. But I'm going to try always to be like that.
Miss Eleanor, when can we be real Camp Fire Girls?"
"I talked to Mrs. Chester about that to-day, and I think it will be
to-night, Bessie."
"Oh, that will be splendid!"
"Yes, won't it? You see, it's the night for our Council Fire--that's
when we take in new members, and award honors and report what we've
done. We hold one every moon. That's the Indian name for month. You see,
month just means moon, really. This is the Thunder Moon of the Indians,
the great copper red moon. It's our month of July."
"And will we learn to sing the songs like the other girls?"
"Yes, indeed. You'll find them very easy. They're very beautiful songs
and I think we're very lucky to have them."
"Who wrote them? Girls that belong?"
"Some of them, but not all, or nearly all. We have found many beautiful
songs about fire and the things we love that were written by other poets
who never heard of the Camp Fire Girls at all. And yet they seem to be
just the right songs for us."
"That's funny, isn't it, Miss Eleanor?"
"Not a bit, Zara. Because the Camp Fire isn't a new thing, really. Not
the big idea that's back of it, that you'll learn as you stay with us,
and get to know more about us. All we hope to do is to make our girls
fine, strong women when they get older, like all the great brave women
that we read about in history. They've all been women who loved the
home, and all it means--and the fire is the great symbol of the home. It
was fire that made it possible for people to have real homes."
"I've read lots and lots of things about fire," said Bessie.
"Longfellow, and Tennyson, and other poets."
But then her face darkened suddenly.
"It was fire that got me into trouble, though," she said. "The fire that
Jake Hoover used to set the woodshed afire."
"That was because he was misusing the fire, Bessie. Fire is a great
servant. It's the most wonderful thing man ever did--learning to make a
fire, and tend it, and control it. Have you heard what it says in the
Fire-Maker's Desire? But, of course, you haven't. You haven't been at a
Council Fire yet. Listen:
"For I will tend,
As my fathers have tended
And my father's fathers
Since Time began
The Fire that is called
The love of man for man--
The love of man for God."
"That's a great promise, you see, Bessie. It's a great honor to be a
Fire-Maker."
"I see, Miss Eleanor. Yes, it must be. How does one get to be a
Fire-Maker? One begins by being a Wood-Gatherer, doesn't one?"
"Yes, and all one has to do to be a Wood-Gatherer is to want to obey the
law of the Fire--the seven points of the law. I'll teach you that Desire
before the Council Fire to-night. To be a Fire-Maker you have to serve
faithfully as a Wood-Gatherer, and you have to do a lot of things that
aren't very easy--though they're not very hard, either."
"And you talked about awarding honors. What are they?"
"Have you seen the necklaces the girls wear?"
"Oh, yes! They're beautiful. They look like the ones I've seen in
pictures of Indians. But I never thought they were so pretty before,
because I've only seen pictures, and they didn't show the different
colors of the beads."
"That's just it, Bessie. Those beads are given for honors, and when a
girl has enough of them they make the necklaces. They're awarded for
all sorts of things--for knowing them, and for doing them, too. And
you'll learn to tell by the colors of the beads just what sort of honors
they are--why the girl who wears them got them, and what she did to earn
them."
"I'm going to work awfully hard to get honors," said Zara, impulsively.
"Then, when I can wear the beads, everyone will know about it, and about
how I worked to get them. Won't they, Miss Eleanor?"
"Yes, but you mustn't think about it just that way, Zara. You won't,
either, when you've earned them. You'll know then that the pleasure of
working for the honors is much greater than being able to wear the
beads."
"I know why--because it means something!"
"That's just it, Bessie. I can see that you're going to be just the sort
of girl I want in my Camp Fire. Anyone who had the money--and they don't
cost much--could buy the beads and string them together. But it's only a
Camp Fire Girl, who's worked for honors herself, who knows what it
really means, and sees that the beads are just the symbol of something
much better."
"Aren't there Torch-Bearers, too, Miss Eleanor?"
"Yes. That's the highest rank of all. We haven't any Torch-Bearer in our
Camp Fire yet, but we will have soon, because when you girls join us
there'll be nineteen girls, and there ought to be a Torch-Bearer."
"She'd help you, wouldn't she, Miss Eleanor?"
"Yes, she'd act as Guardian if I were away, and she'd be my assistant.
This is her desire, you know, 'That light which has been given to me, I
desire to pass undimmed to others.'"
"I'm going to try to be a Torch-Bearer whenever I can," said Zara.
"There's no reason why you shouldn't be, Zara. That ought to be the
ambition of every Camp Fire Girl--to be able, sometime, to help others
to get as much good from the Camp Fire as she has herself."
While they talked it had been growing darker. And now Miss Mercer called
to the girls.
"We're going to be driven over to the big camp, girls," she said. "I
think we've had quite enough tramping for one day. I don't want you to
be so tired that you won't enjoy the Council Fire to-night."
There was a chorus of laughter at that, as if the idea that they could
ever be too tired to enjoy a Council Fire was a great joke--as, indeed,
it was.
But, just the same, the idea of a ride wasn't a bit unwelcome. The
troubles of Bessie and Zara had caused a sudden change in the plans of
the Camp Fire, as Miss Mercer had made them originally, and they had had
a long and strenuous day. So they greeted the big farm wagons that
presently rolled up with a chorus of laughs and cheers, and the drivers
blinked with astonishment as they heard the Wohelo cheer ring out.
There were two of the wagons, so that there was room for all of them
without crowding. Bessie and Zara rode in the first one, close to
Wanaka, who had, of course, taken them under her wing.
"You stay close by me," she said to them. "I want you to meet Mrs.
Chester as soon as we get to the camp."
"Where is it?"
"That's the surprise I told the girls I had for them this morning. A
friend of Mrs. Chester, who has a beautiful place near here, has let us
use it for a camping ground. It's the most wonderful place you ever saw.
There are deer, quite tame, and all sorts of lovely things. But you'll
see more of that in the morning, of course. We've all got to be ever so
careful, though, not to frighten the deer or to hurt anything about the
place. It's very good of General Seeley to let us be there at all, and
we must show him that we are grateful. For the girls who couldn't get
far away from the city it's been particularly splendid, because they
couldn't possibly have such a good time anywhere else that's near by."
"Oh!" cried Bessie, a moment later, as the wagons turned from the road
into a lane that was flanked on both sides by great trees. "I never saw
a place so pretty!"
Wide lawns stretched all around them. But in the distance a pink glow,
among a grove of trees, marked the real home of the Camp Fire.