A DISCUSSION
"The land that is always afternoon," Joan Peters quoted dreamily.
Twelve girls were seated in a circle in a clearing in Beechwood
Forest. Save for the fact that fallen logs formed their resting place
here was a modern American "Agora of Mycanae," the well polished
circle of stones, where the earliest of civilized peoples sat for
council and judgment.
The afternoon sunlight slanted through the deep polished green of the
trees.
A few moments before, the other girls had been earnestly talking, then
had ensued a thoughtful silence and Jean's irrelevant speech.
"I never have understood exactly what that expression means, but it
always has had a fascination for me," she continued. "Please don't
think I am forgetting what we have been discussing this last hour. To
my mind there can be no two ways of looking at it. The only problem we
have is Kara. And, thank goodness, we do not have to decide what is
wisest and best for her."
Seated beside Joan, Tory Drew remained oddly still. Quiet either of
body or mind was an unusual phase with her. Life and movement were her
natural characteristics, more marked than with most girls.
"I wish I could think as Joan does, that the decision does not rest
with us and we _must_ be content," she added finally. "I feel as if I
_knew_ it was the only thing for Kara to come back to us and as if no
one and nothing could induce me to think otherwise."
"Not a very sensible point of view, Victoria," a voice answered.
In the tone there was a different enunciation. In the voice there was
a different emphasis from the other Girl Scouts. Besides, no one of
them ever spoke to Tory without using her abbreviated title.
The girl who had made the remark was different in manner, appearance
and costume from the rest of the group, although not conspicuously so.
Martha Greaves was an English girl who had crossed the ocean early in
the summer with Tory Drew's father and step-mother to spend the summer
in Westhaven. She was singularly tall with light brown hair and
gray-blue eyes.
After she had spoken she appeared a little embarrassed as if she
regretted having called the attention of the other girls to her
presence.
At the beginning of their acquaintance Martha and Tory had felt drawn
toward each other. The differences in their temperaments appeared not
as a barrier, but an interest.
But with the opening of the camp in Beechwood Forest, Tory had
neglected her responsibilities. Her affection for Katherine Moore had
made her less mindful than she should have been of a stranger in a new
environment.
Fortunately Martha Greaves was an English Girl Guide. She was wearing
the uniform of the Guides at this moment. Shy she might appear upon
suddenly expressing her opinion, yet assuredly she had made a number
of friends among the Girl Scouts. Moreover, she was too vitally
interested in the differences between the two organizations, the Girl
Guides of England and the Girl Scouts of the United States, to be
especially self conscious.
She understood and liked Tory's impulsive nature with its capacity for
romantic affection, so unlike her own. She considered herself to be a
matter-of-fact person with only a few enthusiasms.
At Martha's sensible statement Tory had the sensation of being
suddenly plunged into cold water.
A moment she was nonplussed and slightly angry. Then she had the good
sense to realize that Martha had not intended to be unkind. What she
had said was undoubtedly true.
If she were rarely sensible at any time, Tory appreciated that she had
become less so since her last talk with Kara.
Not an hour since had the problem of Kara been out of her mind.
Indeed, since the news of the result of what had first seemed a simple
accident had reached the camp of the Girl Scouts in Beechwood Forest,
the entire summer to which they had looked forward so joyously seemed
to offer only disappointment.
They were only fourteen in number and Kara was individually dear to
each one of them. Seven of the group were in Kara's own Patrol, the
others, members of her Troop of the Eagle's Wing.
If they suffered some disadvantages over the larger summer camps for
girls they had the advantage of a peculiar and intimate feeling for
one another. The fact that Martha Greaves was the one outsider added a
special interest. Rarely a half day passed that one of the Girl Scouts
did not make some inquiry of Martha concerning their respective
organizations.
She was glad enough to answer and they were learning from each other.
The Girl Scouts of the Eagle's Wing had worked at their scouting
during the past winter with pleasure and faith, but occasional
meetings could not bring the results these past few magical weeks at
camp had accomplished.
All day long they were outdoors, at night the tent flaps were
oftentimes left open for a better view of the sky and the feel of the
wind.
All their own work had they undertaken and life had never appeared
more practical, simple and delightful.
Then like a cloud darkening the serenity of their summer had come the
news of Katherine Moore's accident with its unexpected, tragic result.
Tory Drew sighed.
"You are probably right, Martha. I have been told often enough by Aunt
Victoria and sometimes by Kara herself that I have too great an
opinion of my own judgment, when in reality my judgment isn't very
good.
"Yet this time I simply can't feel that I am mistaken. Kara will be
happier here at camp with us than at the Gray House or in a sanitarium.
We all understand her and will do anything in the world to make her
happier. Dr. McClain says that Kara's state of mind worries him a great
deal. Yet how can it be different? Surely we can make her physically
comfortable in the evergreen house and all of us will wish to wait on
her. I--"
Tory hesitated and could not go on.
"I agree with you entirely, Tory," Margaret Hale answered
sympathetically. Tory's Patrol leader, a dignified girl of gentle
breeding, she was not the most gifted member of the Patrol, yet
possessed the greatest personal influence. One could always trust to
Margaret's sense of justice. She was never prejudiced and never
unfair.
"I feel as Tory does. If there is nothing the doctors can do for Kara
at present, save to watch her carefully, she had far better be here
with us. I know they will do everything that is possible at the Gray
House; I know too that Mr. Fenton has offered to pay Kara's expenses
should the doctors decide she had best go to a sanitarium. Yet will
either of these places alter Kara's state of mind?
"Since Tory told us of her talk with Kara I have scarcely been able to
think of anything else. Kara, with her optimism and humor vanished;
Kara, hard and bitter and wretched! It seems so incredible! Why, she
has always faced her difficult existence with such courage. When one
thinks of Kara it is to recall the humorous expression of her eyes,
the laughter that always was waiting its chance. No one ever had so
gay a laugh as Kara!"
Unconscious of what she was doing, at this instant Tory jumped up.
Leaving her seat she stood alone in the center of the circle looking
toward the other girls.
The first rays of the sunset slanted through the trees, turning the
green to gold. One ray fell directly upon Tory Drew, her bright,
red-gold hair, her thin, eager face and graceful figure.
About her the other girls were more in darkness.
There was almost a mystic quality in the late afternoon atmosphere,
here in the heart of an ancient woods, with no one near save the
circle of Girl Scouts.
"Margaret has suggested just what I want to make clear to all of you.
The old Kara for the time being seems to have disappeared. And perhaps
for the reasons Margaret has mentioned.
"Kara has had too much to bear. She has always made the best of the
fact that she had no parents, no family! Cleverer and sweeter than
anyone, she was found in a deserted house with no explanation as to
why she had been left there.
"Kara found happiness in the life at the Gray House because everybody
cared for her at the asylum and in the village. But she was always
thinking that the day was coming when she would be able to earn her
own living at some congenial work.
"Now, Kara told me the other day that this hope has been taken from
her and she sees nothing left. I am frightened about her. The doctors
tell her she may walk again some day, but not for a long time. She
insists this is only to encourage her. If we, her own Troop of Girl
Scouts, can do nothing for her, I don't see who can."
Louise Miller, seated beside her most intimate friend, Dorothy
McClain, uttered an unexpected exclamation.
Under ordinary circumstances she talked less than any one of her
companions. Usually it was conceded that Louise alone among all of
them thought of what she was going to say before making a remark.
She was not good looking. Her features were heavy and she had grown
too rapidly. She had peculiar light gray eyes under thick dark brows
which held a kind of fascination. Yet Louise's only real claim to
beauty was a mass of coppery, red-brown hair.
She was not happy or congenial with her own family. They were poor and
her mother, a pretty woman, resented Louise's lack of beauty as well
as their poverty. On Louise's part there was no effort to conceal the
fact that she had been happier these past weeks at their Girl Scout
camp in Beechwood Forest than at any time since she could remember.
"There is something to be considered in this situation beside Kara,"
she began, with a kind of awkward earnestness. The statement had not a
happy sound, but the other girls waited, knowing that Louise had an
odd fashion of expressing herself. One could not at first be
altogether sure of her meaning.
"We must remember that it is not for Kara's sake only that we are to
keep her here, if Dr. McClain agrees it will be wise, but for our own
sakes as well. While Tory has been talking I have been wondering if we
were equal, as Girl Scouts, to the test.
"You look surprised, Tory, as if there could be no question save the
joy of having Kara to take care of and her pleasure in being with us.
There will be other sides to it. Some one of us will always have to
stay with Kara day and night. She must never be left alone for any
length of time, when we may be wanting to go off together on a hike or
a swimming party. It may be hard now and then to be left out. We must
not expect Kara always to be cheerful and patient."
Louise had been looking toward Tory Drew. She now turned her head and
her glance traveled from one face to the other.
The group of girls, except for a few additional ones, was the same
that had gathered in the old Fenton home in Westhaven on a momentous
evening the winter before.
On that evening they had formed the first Patrol of the Girl Scouts of
the Eagle's Wing Troop. Margaret Hale remained the Patrol Leader and
Dorothy McClain her Corporal. The other girls were Victoria Drew, Joan
Peters, Louise Miller, Teresa Peterson and Katherine Moore. Edith
Linder had been asked later to become the eighth member and so
complete the favored number.
To-day, amid the outdoor council in the woods, there were four girls
from a second Patrol in the same Girl Scout Troop.
"Honor, loyalty, duty, a sister to every other Girl Scout, courtesy,
cheerfulness. These are some of our Scout principles. I wonder if
bringing Katherine Moore here as an invalid to be cared for by us
would not put our Scout principles into a crucible?" one of the four
remarked unexpectedly.
Tory Drew frowned upon her, and then realizing the truth of what she
had said, her expression changed and she nodded agreement.
Why should she expect that all the other girls must appreciate as she
did the degree of Kara's misfortune and the necessity to do something
to make her lot easier without delay.
The girl she was looking down upon always had amused Kara and herself.
She was so unlike any of them. Her light hair was almost as short as a
boy's and was boyish in appearance, save that it curled in an almost
babyish fashion. Her eyes were wide open and a light china blue. Here
her doll-like attributes ended. She had a short, determined nose, a
square chin, and a large mouth filled with small, even teeth.
She had an odd, boyish name as well, Evan Phillips. No one knew a
great deal about her. She had come with her mother to live in
Westhaven the winter before in order to go to school. She had spoken
of living in California before that time. A member of a Girl Scout
Patrol in the west, she had asked to be admitted into the Eagle's Wing
Troop in Westhaven.
The three other members of the second Patrol were Julia and Frances
Murray and Ann Fletcher.
"What is a crucible, Evan?" Tory inquired. "I don't care in the least
how many of our Scout principles are cast into it, if only Kara is
here at camp with us. I know what Louise means, but no one need be
troubled. If Kara will permit it, I shall wish to be with her always."
"You will not be allowed, Tory. Remember, Kara is our friend as well
as yours, and we have known her longer," Dorothy McClain and the other
girls protested, almost in the same words and at the same instant.
"Suppose you do not argue any more for the present," a quiet voice
interrupted, the same voice that so often gave Tory the sensation that
she had been quietly and politely restrained from too great intensity.
"I am sure I hear some one coming, three people in fact."
It was slightly annoying to the American Girl Scouts that in many ways
their English guest had a better outdoor training than any one of
them. However, this was not her first camping experience.
A moment or so later Dr. McClain appeared at an opening between two of
the trees in the encircling grove. He was accompanied by Sheila Mason
and Miss Frean. The two women remained outside. Alone Dr. McClain
entered the charmed circle. At once a dozen girls were crowding about
him.
A quarter of an hour after Tory Drew and Dorothy McClain were walking
with him toward the road that led back into Westhaven.
"We will have the little evergreen house made comfortable for Kara.
Miss Mason and all of us have decided she will be safer and easier to
care for there than in one of the tents. You are sure it will be best
for her? She must become stronger and in better spirits being with
us," Dorothy McClain insisted, clinging to her father's arm as if she
were unwilling to let him go. "I declare it is wonderful to have a
Girl Scout doctor--father!"
Dr. McClain made a sound half pleasure, half displeasure.
"So this is what I have come to after more than a quarter of a century
of hard work, a Girl Scout Doctor! Hope you girls may have no further
need for me. Hard luck about little Kara. Things may turn out better
for her later on. By the way, you and Tory do not know, and perhaps
had best not mention it, but the very log cabin where you are planning
to install Kara is the house where the child was found deserted years
ago."
"But gracious, Dr. McClain!" Tory argued, "I have always been told
that Kara was found in a deserted _farmhouse_. Our evergreen cabin was
never a farmhouse. Mr. Hammond once spoke of finding Kara when I was
with them, and he was not aware that Kara was the child he had
discovered.
"Then Jeremy Hammond does not know a farmhouse when he sees one. The
house was a deserted hut in those days where no one had lived for a
great many years. That is why the mystery was the greater. A bridle
path then led past the door and joined a road that was a short cut
into Westhaven. The path is now overgrown with grass.
"I remember very well, because I came out myself next day to see if
Hammond, who was a young fellow, may have overlooked any method by
which we might trace Kara's history. Save for the piece of paper
pinned to the child's dress and bearing her name no other information
was ever forthcoming. Good-by, here is my car waiting. I'll bring Kara
out myself in a few days. Remember, this is only to be an experiment.
If she is not happier and does not improve we must try something else.
Much depends upon you. 'Be Prepared'."