The Girl Scout Pioneers; Or, Winning the First B. C.

Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
The Girl Scout Pioneers
Winning the First B. C.
By Lillian C. Garis
Author of The Girl Scouts at Bellair, The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest, etc.
Illustrated
It was much like a scene in a movie play. The shabby dark room lighted by a single oil lamp if any light could make its way through the badly smoked glass that served as a chimney, the broken chair, and the table piled high with what appeared to be rags, but which might have been intended for wearing apparel, the torn window curtain hanging so disconsolately from the broken cord it had one time proudly swung from, and the indescribable bed!
Like some sentinel watching the calamitous surroundings, a girl stood in the midst of this squalor, her bright golden hair and her pretty fair face, with its azure blue eyes, marking a pathetic contrast to all the sordid, dark detail of the ill-kept room. She took from the side pocket of her plaid skirt a bit of crumpled paper, and placing it directly under the lamp, followed its written lines. Having finished the reading, she carefully folded the worn slip again, and returned it to her pocket. Then she threw back her pretty head, and any frequenter of the screen world would have known instantly that the girl had decided—and further, that her decision required courage, and perhaps defiance.
With determination marking every move, she crossed to the tumbled bed, and stooping, dragged from beneath it a bag, the sort called telescope, and used rarely now, even by the traveling salesman, who at one time found the sliding trunk so useful. It would telescope, and being thus adjustable, lent its proportions to any sized burden imposed upon it. Into this the girl tossed a few articles selected from the rummage on the table, a pair of shoes gathered from more debris in a corner, and on top a sweater and skirt, taken from a peg on the door. All together this composed rather a pretentious assortment for the telescope.