CHAPTER I_The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows

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THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AMID THE SNOWS

MARGARET VANDERCOOK

Author of "The Ranch Girls" Series, "The Red Cross Girls" Series, etc.

Illustrated

Philadelphia

The John C. Winston Co.

Publishers

The John C. Winston Company

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Winter Manitou 7

II. "Sunrise Cabin" 22

III. "A Rose of the World" 38

IV. "The Reason o' It" 50

V. Mollie's Suggestion 61

VI. A Black Sheep 69

VII. Turning the Tables 81

VIII. Possibilities 98

IX. Christmas Eve at the Cabin 110

X. Esther's Old Home 123

XI. Gifts 129

XII. The Camp Fire Play 137

XIII. An Indian Love Song 149

XIV. Mollie's Confidant 156

XV. A Boomerang 168

XVI. The Apology 183

XVII. General News 190

XVIII. Donna and Her Don 202

XIX. Memories 212

XX. The Explanation 223

XXI. Misfortune 234

XXII. Saying Farewell to the Cabin 242

XXIII. Future Plans 253

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Ach Gnädiges Fräuleins, It Ist Not Possible" _Frontispiece_

PAGE

"Turn That Box Over to Me" 85

The Song Had a Plaintive Cadence 152

"Do As I Tell You, Princess, Please" 218

The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows

CHAPTER I

The Winter Manitou

The snow was falling in heavy slashing sheets, and a December snowstorm

in the New Hampshire hills means something more serious than a storm in

city streets or even an equal downfall upon more level meadows and

plains.

Yet on this winter afternoon, about an hour before twilight and along the

base of a hill where a rough road wandered between tall cedar and pine

trees and low bushes and shrubs, there sounded continually above the

snow's silencing two voices, sometimes laughing, occasionally singing a

brief line or so, but more often talking. Accompanying them always was a

steady jingling of bells.

"We simply can't get there to-night, Princess," one of the voices

protested, still with a questioning note as though hardly believing in

its own assertion.

"We simply can't do anything else, my child" the other answered

teasingly. "Have you ever thought how much harder it is to travel

backward in this world than forward, otherwise I suppose we should have

had eyes placed in the back of our heads and our feet would have turned

around the other way? Don't be frightened, there really isn't the least

danger."

Then there was a sudden swish of a whip cutting the cold air and with a

fresh tinkling of bells the shaggy pony plunged ahead. Five minutes

afterwards with an instinctive stiffening of his forelegs he started

sliding slowly down a steep embankment, where the road apparently ended,

dragging his load behind him and only stopping on finally reaching the

low ground and finding his sleigh had overturned.

For a while the unusual stillness was oppressive. But a little later

there followed a movement and then an unsteady voice calling, "Steady,

Fire Star," as a tall girl in a gray hood and coat covered all over with

snow came crawling forth from the uppermost side of the sleigh and

immediately began pulling at it with trembling hands.

"Princess, Princess, please speak or move! Oh, it is all my fault. I

should never have let you attempt it; I am the older and even----"

A little smothered sound and a slight disturbance under an immense fur

rug interrupted her: "I can't speak, Esther, until I get some of this

snow out of my mouth and I can't move until this grocery store is lifted

off me. I'm--I'm the under side of things; there are ten pounds of sugar

and a sack of flour and all the week's camping supplies between me and

the gay world." A break in the cheerful tones ended these words and there

was no further stirring, but Esther Clark failed to notice this, as she

first lifted the rug which had almost covered up Betty Ashton and then

helped her to sit upright, looking more of a Snow Princess than even the

weather justified. For all about her there were small mounds of sugar and

flour white as the snow itself and dissolving like dew. While Betty's

seal cap and coat were encrusted in ice and the snow hung from her brows

and lashes, indeed her face, usually so brilliantly colored, was now

almost as pale.

Esther was again tugging at the overturned sleigh trying to set it

upright, the pony waiting motionless except for turning his head as if

with the suggestion that matters be hurried along.

"I could manage a great deal better, Betty, if you would help me," Esther

protested a little indignantly. "I know the girls at Sunrise cabin are

getting dreadfully worried over our being so late in arriving at home."

Betty shivered. "I am getting a bit worried myself," she agreed, "and I

might as well confess to you, Esther, that I haven't the faintest idea

where we are, nor how far from the village or our camp. This snow has

completely mixed me up; and I haven't sprained my ankle, of course, or

broken it or done anything _quite_ so silly, but my foot does hurt most

awfully and I know I never can stand up on it again and--and--if I wasn't

a Camp Fire girl about to be made a Torch Bearer I'd like to weep and

weep until I melted away into a beautiful iceberg." And then in spite of

her brave fooling Betty did blink and choke, but only for an instant, for

the sight of her companion's face made her smile again.

"The runner of our sleigh has snapped in two," Esther next announced in

accents of despair after having partially dragged the sleigh upright,

although one runner still remained imbedded several inches deeper than

the other in the drift of snow which had caused their disaster.

Betty held up both hands. "I believe it never rains but it pours," she

said a little mockingly; "but what about the snow? I am sorry I was so

obstinate, dear. It is nice to be sorry when the deed is done, isn't it?

I suppose I should never have attempted driving back to Sunrise Hill on

such an evening, but then we did need our groceries so terribly in camp

and I was afraid nobody would bring them to-morrow. And, well, as I have

gotten you into this scrape I must get you out of it."

So by clinging with both hands to Esther, Betty Ashton, by sheer force of

will, did manage to rise on the one sound foot and then putting the

injured one on the ground she stood wavering for a second. "I'm thinking,

Esther, so please don't interrupt me for a moment," she gasped as soon as

she found breath. "I can't but feel that this is our first real emergency

since we started our camp fire in the woods this winter. If we only are

able to get out of it successfully, why--why, won't Polly be envious?"

Betty Ashton was so plainly talking at the present instant to gain time

that the older girl did not pay the slightest attention to her; instead,

she was thinking herself. Of course she or Betty could mount their pony

and ride off somewhere to look for help, but then Esther had no fancy for

being left alone in a snow-storm in a part of the country which she did

not know in its present aspect and certainly under the circumstances she

had no intention of leaving Betty to the same fate.

Imagination, however, was never one of Esther Clark's strong points,

although fortunately for them both now and in later years it was always a

gift of the other girl's.

"Better let me sit down again," Betty suggested, letting go of her clasp

on her friend; "and will you unhitch Fire Star and lead her here to me.

Somehow I think it best for us to manage to get back on the road and find

some sort of shelter up there under the trees until the worst of this

storm is past."

With Betty to think and Esther to accomplish, things usually moved

swiftly. So five minutes later, half leading and half being led by the

pony, Esther climbed the embankment on foot with Betty riding and

clinging with both arms about Fire Star's neck. Under a pine tree partly

protected from the wind and snow by scrub pines growing only a few feet

away, the girls found a temporary refuge. There they remained sheltered

by the fur rug which Esther brought back on her second trip. The pony

safely covered over with his own blanket stood hitched under another tree

a short distance away.

Nevertheless, half an hour of waiting found the two girls shivering

uncomfortably under their rug and losing courage with every passing

moment, for the storm had not abated in the least and Betty was really

suffering agonies with her foot, although she had removed her shoe,

bathed her ankle in snow and bound it up in her own and Esther's pocket

handkerchiefs.

"Esther," she said rather irritably, after a fresh paroxysm of pain had

left her almost exhausted, "don't you think that, as we have been Camp

Fire girls living in the woods for the past six months, even though

conditions do seem trying, we ought to _do_ something and not just sit

here in this limp fashion and be snowed under?"

Esther nodded, but made no sort of suggestion. She was so cold and

worried about Betty that she hadn't an idea in her mind save the haunting

fear that if they continued long in their present situation they might

actually be turned into icebergs.

However, Betty promptly gave her a pinch that was realistic enough to be

felt in spite of all her frozenness. "Wake up, Esther, dear, and if you

are really so cold, child, just warm yourself by your nose, it certainly

is red enough. Now as you girls have always said I dearly loved to boss,

please, won't you let me be general of this expedition and you do what I

say since I am too lame to help?"

Again Esther nodded. She generally had done whatever Betty Ashton had

asked of her since the day of her coming to the great Ashton homestead in

Woodford a little more than half a year before. But as Betty outlined her

plan Esther grew interested and in half a moment jumping up began

stamping her feet and swinging her arms to get the warmth and vigor back

into her body.

"Why, Betty Ashton, of course we can manage even to stay here in the

woods all night and not have such a horrid time! It won't be so

difficult, I'll have things fixed in the least little while."

A short time afterwards and Esther had brought up from their broken

sleigh a portion of the precious grocery supplies which she and Betty had

driven into Woodford early that afternoon to obtain--a can of coffee,

crackers, a side of bacon and, most welcome of all, a bundle of kindling

tied as neatly together as toothpicks. For several weeks of having to

gather wood out of doors, oftentimes in the snow and rain, and then

drying it under cover, had made an occasional supply of kindling from the

shops in town extremely grateful to the camp fire makers. Fortunately,

Betty had filled the last remaining space in their sleigh with kindling

wood before starting back to camp.

And in Esther's several absences she had been diligently preparing a

place for a fire, first by scooping away the snow with her hands and then

by scraping it with a three-pronged stick which she had found nearby.

However, a fire in the snow was not easy to start even by a Camp Fire

girl, so that fifteen minutes must have passed and an entire box of

matches been consumed before the paper collected from about their

packages had persuaded even the kindling to light. And then by infinite

patience and coaxing, wet pine twigs and cones were added to the fire

until finally the larger logs, discovered under the surrounding trees,

also blazed into heat and light.

And while Betty was cherishing the fire, Esther managed to make a partial

canopy over their heads with brushwood.

There are but few things in this world though that do not take a longer

time to accomplish than we at first expect and require a longer patience.

So that when the two girls had finally arranged their temporary winter

shelter, the twilight had come down and both of them were extremely

weary. Nevertheless, the most wonderful coffee was made with melted snow

in the tin can, bacon sliced and fried with the knife no Camp Fire girl

fails to carry and the crackers toasted into a smoky but delicious brown.

And then when supper was over Betty crept close to Esther under their rug

resting her head on her shoulder.

"No one knows where we are to-night, Esther, so no one will worry. The

girls will think we stayed in town on account of the storm and our

friends in the village that we are now safe back in Sunrise cabin. So do

let us make the best of things," she whispered. "To-night, at least, we

are real Camp Fire girls from necessity and not choice, and I believe I

can better understand why our ancestors once used to worship the fire as

the symbol of home. Then, too, I am glad we chose the pine trees for our

refuge. I wonder if you know this legend? When Mary was in flight to

Egypt to save our Lord from Herod, she stopped beneath a pine tree and

rested there safe from her enemies in a green chamber filled with its

balsamy fragrance, the tree proving its love for the Christ Child by

lowering its limbs when Herod's soldiers passed by. And then when the

Baby raised its hand to bless the tree, it so marked it that when the

pine cone is cut lengthwise it shows the form of a hand--the hand of

Christ."

With the telling of her story Betty's voice was sinking lower and lower,

and as her cheeks were now so flushed with her nearness to the fire and

with fever from the pain in her foot, Esther hoped she might soon fall

asleep. So she made no reply, but instead began singing the "Good-Night

Song" of the Camp Fire girls which has been set to the beautiful old

melody "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes." And though she began very

softly, meaning her song to reach only Betty's ears, by and by forgetting

herself in the pleasure her music always brought her, she let her voice

increase in power, until the final notes could have been heard some

distance through the woods and even a little way up the hill which stood

like a solid white wall before them. The snow had stopped falling and the

wind had died down, but the coldness and the stillness were therefore the

more profound.

"The sun is sinking in the west,

The evening shadows fall;

Across the silence of the lake

We hear the loon's low call.

So let us, too, the silence keep,

And softly steal away,

To rest and sleep until the morn

Brings forth another day."

"Betty, Betty!" Instead of allowing her friend to sleep Esther began

shaking her nervously only a few moments after the closing of her song.

And Betty started suddenly, giving a little cry of pain and surprise, for

evidently she had been dreaming and found it hard to come back to so

strange a reality. Here she and Esther were alone in the winter woods not

many miles from shelter and yet unable to find it, while she had been

dreaming of herself as a poor half-frozen waif somewhere out in a city

street listening to strains of music, which were not of Esther's song but

of some instrument. The girl rubbed her eyes and laughed.

"Dear me, Esther, it's too cold to sleep, isn't it? Let us put some more

wood on our fire and stay awake and talk. I think the Winter Manitou,

Peboan, must have been visiting me with the wind playing the strings of

his harp, for I have just dreamed I was listening to music."

"You didn't dream it; I wasn't asleep and I heard it also. There,

listen!"

The two girls caught hold of one another's hands and silently they stared

ahead of them through the opening in their curious, Esquimaux-like tent.

Could anything be more improbable and yet without doubt the notes of a

violin could be heard approaching nearer and nearer.

Transfixed with surprise and pleasure Esther kept still but Betty, who in

spite of her whims was a really practical person, shook her head in a

somewhat annoyed fashion. "It is perfectly absurd you know, Esther, for

any human being to be strolling through the New Hampshire woods on a

winter's night playing the violin. We are not in Germany or the Alps or

in a story book. But if it really is a person and not the Spirit of

Winter, as I still believe, why he might as well help us out of our

difficulty. I don't feel so romantic as I did an hour or so ago."

At this instant a dim figure did appear around a turn in the road where

the girls had previously met disaster and putting her cold fingers to her

lips Betty cried "Halloo, Halloo," in as loud a voice as possible and at

the same time seizing one of their burning logs she waved it as a signal

of distress.