“Who’s trying to burn my barn down?”
The girls crowded together fearfully, and Frances stood ready to face the angry owner; for, to their dismay, Miss Phillips was still out of sight.
“Please sir,” Frances began, as soon as an old man appeared around the side of the barn, “we are being very careful. You see we made our fire away from the wind——”
“Oh, you did, eh? Well, suppose you put it right out again!”
Something in the old man’s manner, gruff though it was, reminded Doris of her father, and hardly realizing what she was doing she put her hand on his sleeves, and looked beseechingly into his eyes.
“Please don’t put us out!” she pleaded. “We’re Girl Scouts, and we give you our word of honor——”
At her words and her tone, the old man’s anger subsided; she seemed so like a child, asking him for shelter and protection. No one could resist Doris Sands for any length of time.
“But my dear child—” he began.
A voice behind him interrupted his sentence. The captain had returned to the scene of action.
“Please accept my apologies,” she said; and before he could reply, she told him the whole story.