Then, seeing Olga’s frown, Sadie added hastily, “But ’Lizabeth can learn to do some of them, I guess, too.”
“Elizabeth can learn if she has half a chance,” Olga said. “She works so hard at home that she is too tired to learn other things quickly.”
Sadie shot an angry glance at the other girl’s face, but she managed with an effort to hold back the sharp words she plainly longed to fling out. She was silent a moment, then she asked, “You said ‘things that I wouldn’t like.’ What are they?”
“Sadie—did you know that you can be extremely disagreeable without half trying?” Olga asked very quietly.
“I d’know what you mean.” Sadie’s face darkened, and her voice was sulky and defiant.
“I wonder if you really don’t,” Olga said, looking at her thoughtfully. “But it’s true, Sadie. You have hateful little ways of speaking and doing things. They’re only habits—you can break yourself of them, and quick and bright as you are, you’ll find that the girls—our Camp Fire Girls—will like you and take you right in as soon as you do drop those ugly nagging ways. You know, Sadie, you can’t ever be really happy yourself until you try to make other people happy——”
Suddenly realising what she was saying, Olga stopped short. Sadie’s eyes saw the change in her face, and Sadie’s sharp voice demanded instantly, “What’s the matter?”
Olga answered with a frankness that surprised herself, no less than the younger girl, “Sadie, it just came to me that you and I are in the same box. I’ve not been trying to make others happy any more than you have——”
“No,” Sadie broke in, “I was going to tell you that soon as I got a chance.”
Olga’s lips twisted in a wry smile as she went on, “—so you see you and I both have something to do in ourselves. Maybe we can help each other? What do you say? Shall we watch and help each other? I’ll remind you when you snap and snarl, and you——”