THE LAW OF THE FIRE
Mollie O'Neill walked slowly toward the Ashton house one afternoon not
long afterwards at about four o'clock, looking unusually serious and
uncomfortable. She was wearing a long coat buttoned up to her chin and
coming down to the bottom of her dress, and was carrying a big book.
"Mollie, there isn't anything the matter? Neither Betty nor Polly is
worse again?" Billy Webster inquired, unexpectedly striding across from
the opposite side of the street and not stopping to offer his greeting
before beginning his questioning.
Mollie shook her head, although her face still retained so solemn an
expression that the young man was plainly alarmed. Ordinarily Mollie's
blue eyes were as untroubled as blue lakes and her forehead and mouth
as free from the lines of care or even annoyance.
Billy Webster put the book under his arm and continued walking along
beside her.
"If there is anything that troubles you, Mollie, and you believe that I
can help you, please don't ever fail to call on me," he suggested in
the gentle tones that he seemed ever to reserve for this girl alone.
"I know that Polly is dreadfully angry over my interference in New
York, but so long as you and your mother thought I did right and were
grateful to me, I don't care how Polly feels--at least, I don't care a
great deal. And I believe I should behave in exactly the same way if I
had it all to do over again."
Shyly and yet with an admiration that she did not attempt to conceal
Mollie glanced up at her companion. Billy was always so determined, so
sure of his own ideas of right and wrong, that once having made a
decision or taken a step, he never appeared to regret it afterwards.
And this attitude under the present circumstances was a consolation to
Mollie. For oftentimes since Polly's return and while enduring her
reproaches, she had experienced twinges of conscience for having
concerned an outsider in their family affairs, though somehow Billy did
not seem like an outsider. Polly had insisted that she had been most
unwise in asking him to look up Esther and herself immediately upon his
arrival in New York. How much better had she waited and let Polly make
her confession to their mother later, thus saving all of them
excitement and strain! However, since Billy was still convinced that
he would do the same thing over again in a similar position, Mollie
felt her own uncertainty vanish.
"No, there isn't anything you can help about this afternoon," she
replied. "I am only going to a monthly meeting of our Council Fire.
The girls told me that if I liked I need not come, yet it seems almost
cowardly to stay away. For you see Polly has insisted that we talk
over her conduct and decide whether or not we wish her to remain a
member of our club. Or at least whether some of her honor beads should
be taken from her and her rank reduced. There is a good deal of
difference of opinion. For some of the girls are convinced that once
our honor beads are lawfully won, nothing and no one has the right to
take them from us; while others feel that breaking the law of the Camp
Fire should render one unworthy of a high position in the Council and
that even though one is not asked to resign, at least one should be
relegated to the ranks again. But of course all this is a secret and
must never be spoken of except in our club."
"Like an officer stripped of his epaulettes," Billy murmured. And
afterwards: "See here, Mollie, if this is a club secret then you ought
not to have told me and I ought not to have listened. For it is pretty
rough on Polly. But I promise not to mention it and will try to
forget. We must not make her any more down upon me than she is
already."
The young man and girl had now come to the Ashton front gate, and as
they stopped, Billy gave the book to Mollie and could not forbear
patting her encouragingly upon the coat sleeve. She looked so gentle
and worried. Polly always seemed to be getting her into hot water
without really intending that Mollie should be made to suffer.
"It will turn out all right, I am sure," he insisted in a convincing
tone. "Your sister will always have too many friends to let things go
much against her in this world."
Mollie found that the other girls had already assembled in the Ashton
drawing room and, as she was late, the camp fire had been laid and
lighted, following the same ceremony as if it had taken place outdoors.
The members were all present excepting Polly, who had declined coming
down to make her own defense, and Esther, who was still at work in New
York. The two Field girls, Juliet and Beatrice, completed the original
number, as they were both in Woodford for the winter attending the High
School. Rose Dyer, with Faith's hand tight in hers, appeared uneasy
and distressed. In her rôle of Camp Fire Guardian she was not assured
of the wisdom of their proceedings and could find no precedent for it
among other Camp Fire clubs. However, Miss McMurtry had consented to
join their meeting and, as she had been the original and was now the
head Guardian of all the clubs in Woodford, the responsibility might
honestly be shared with her.
For the first time since her accident Betty Ashton was able to attend a
gathering of the Council Fire; and although she was the center of the
greater part of the attention and affection in the room, Betty appeared
as nervous and worried as Mollie O'Neill.
To both of the girls this open discussion of one of their club member's
misdeeds was abhorrent. And that the accused should be their adored
but often misguided Polly made the situation the more tragic and
distasteful.
Although she was not yet in a position to be positive, Betty felt
reasonably convinced that Edith Norton was at the bottom of this formal
judgment of Polly. So skilfully and quietly had the older girl gone to
work that both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were under the impression
that the original suggestion had come from the culprit herself.
Yet the truth was that Edith Norton had a smaller nature than any other
member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire Club and she and Polly had never
been real friends since the night long ago of the Indian "Maiden's
Feast," when Edith thinking to fix the guilt of a theft upon Nan
Graham, had wakened Polly to a sudden sense of her own responsibility.
And it was following a visit of condolence to Polly's sick room by
Edith that swift as a flash Polly had announced herself as willing and
ready to have her conduct considered by the club council. For it
afterwards appeared that Edith had casually mentioned that the other
girls had been talking among themselves of this question of Polly's
fitness or unfitness to continue a "Torch Bearer" in the club. So with
her usual recklessness and impulsiveness she had insisted that her
offense be openly considered and that she receive whatever punishment
might be considered just. Never had she planned denying her misdeed
nor taking refuge behind her friends' affection.
Therefore both Betty and Mollie had been entreated, even ordered, to
listen quietly to whatever might be said of her behavior and without
protest. And Mollie had agreed. Betty had reserved the right to use
her own discretion and had no intention of not making herself felt when
the moment arrived.
After the regular business of the meeting had been concluded a marked
silence followed, the girls hardly daring even to glance toward one
another.
Rose Dyer coughed nervously, yet as she had been chosen to set Polly's
case plainly before the other girls and to ask for their frank opinions
of what action, if any, the Sunrise Hill Club desired to take, her
responsibility must not be evaded. Of course all of the girls had
previously heard the entire story, but perhaps in a more or less highly
colored fashion. And particularly Polly O'Neill insisted that Esther
Crippen's part in her action be explained. For Esther must not be held
in any way accountable, as both Betty and Mollie had been inclined to
feel.
When Rose had finished a simple statement of the facts of the case and
had asked to hear from the other club members, no one answered. Betty
kept her eyes severely fastened upon Edith Norton's face. Surely Edith
must be aware of her knowledge of certain facts that were as much to
her discredit as Polly's disobedience. Of course nothing could induce
her to make capital of this knowledge, since Betty Ashton's
interpretation of Camp Fire loyalty was of a different kind from Edith
Norton's, as the older girl was one day to find out. Nevertheless
there was nothing to prevent Betty from using her influence with the
hope that Edith might be discouraged from making any suggestion that
would start the tide of feeling rolling against the culprit.
This Council Meeting might be a greater test of the entire Camp Fire
organization than any one of the girls realized. Possibly it had been
a mistake to allow the fitness or unfitness of a fellow member to be
openly discussed; especially when the girl was Polly O'Neill, for Polly
was a powerful influence always and the club might easily split upon a
criticism of her. Whatever should happen, however, Betty Ashton
intended using every effort to keep the Sunrise Hill Camp together,
saving Polly also if she could.
In spite of her friend's restraining glance, Edith apparently failed to
regard her, for instead she glanced insinuatingly toward Eleanor Meade
and Meg Everett. Both these girls had expressed themselves as deeply
shocked and grieved over Polly's behavior, though neither of them
appeared to be ready to make any statement of their views on this
occasion. It was one thing to express an informal opinion of another
girl's action, but quite another to make a formal accusation against
her in the club where they had lived and worked and grown together in
bonds almost closer than family ones.
Next Edith studied Sylvia Wharton's expression. Day and night had
Sylvia nursed Polly with infinite patience, and yet she had made no
effort to conceal her disapproval of her stepsister's conduct and
Sylvia might always be relied upon for an honest and straightforward
statement of her opinion. Yet Sylvia's face at the present moment was
as empty as though she had never had an idea in her life.
Just why this continuing silence should make the original Sunrise Hill
Camp Fire guardian smile, no one understood. However, the Lady of the
Hill knew very well why and was feeling strangely relieved. For had
she not permitted a dangerous test of the Camp Fire spirit to be tried
and were the girls not responding just as she had hoped and believed
they would? Surely during these past two years they had been
developing a real understanding of comradeship, the ability to stick
together, to keep step. And girls and women had for so many centuries
been accused of the inability to do this.
"I think that no one of us holds Esther Crippen in any way responsible
for Polly O'Neill's action or for continuing to keep her family in
ignorance of what she was doing," Edith finally began in a rather weak
voice, seeing that no one else showed any sign of speaking. "It is one
of the things that I think she is most to be blamed for, since it is
hardly fair to bring another club member into a difficulty on account
of her feeling of personal loyalty."
Betty frowned. There was so much of truth in Edith's speech that it
could hardly fail to carry a certain amount of conviction.
But before any one could reply, Sylvia Wharton got up from the floor,
where she had been sitting in Camp Fire fashion, and crossing the room,
stood before the flames, facing the circle of girls with her hands
clasped in front of her and her lips shut tight together. Her usually
sallow skin was a good deal flushed.
"I am going to make a motion to this club," she announced, "but before
I do I want to say something, and everybody knows how hard it is for me
to talk. I can do things sometimes, but I can't say them. Just now
Edith Norton used the word, 'loyalty.' I am glad she did, because it
is just what I want to speak of--because it seems to me that loyalty is
the very foundation stone of all our Camp Fires. Of course Polly has
broken a part of our law. She has failed to be trustworthy, but I am
not going into that, since each one of you can have your own opinion of
her behavior and would have it anyway no matter what I said. But the
whole point is, won't every single girl in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
Club possibly break some of the rules some day? As we are only human,
I think we are pretty sure to. So I move that we say nothing more
about Polly. Perhaps others of us have done things nearly as bad or
will do them. But more important and what I would so much like to
persuade you to feel about as I feel is this:"--and Sylvia's plain face
worked with the strength of an emotion which few people had ever seen
her display before--"I want us to promise ourselves and one another
that no matter what any fellow member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
Club ever does, or what mistake she may make, or even what sin she may
commit, that no one of us will ever turn her back upon her or fail to
do anything and everything in our power to help her and to make things
happy and comfortable again. I wish I could talk like Betty and Polly,
but you do understand what I mean," Sylvia concluded with tears
compounded of embarrassment and earnestness standing in her light blue
eyes.
"Hear, hear!" whispered Miss McMurtry a little uncertainly.
Rose Dyer clapped her hands softly together. The sound gave the
necessary suggestion to the other girls, and poor Sylvia crept back to
her place in the circle in a storm of applause. It was the simplest
method by which the girls could reveal their deeper emotions. A few
moments afterward Sylvia's proposal was put into the form of a regular
motion and carried without a dissenting voice.