XIII
A CAMP FIRE CHRISTMAS
For over a year Olga had been working in the evening classes of the Arts and Crafts school, and she was now doing excellent work in silver. Her designs were so bold and original and her execution so good, that she received from patrons of the school many orders for Christmas gifts—so many that she gave up her other work in order to devote all her time to this. She had now two rooms, a small bedroom and a larger room which served as kitchen, living-room, and workroom. None of the girls had ever been invited to these rooms, nor even Miss Laura. Elizabeth, Olga would have welcomed there; but it was quite useless to ask her before Sadie joined the Camp Fire. Then Olga saw her opportunity, but it was an opportunity hampered by a very unpleasant condition, and the condition was Sadie. Could she admit Sadie even for the sake of having Elizabeth? Olga pondered long over that while she was teaching the girl to work with the beads and the raffia. Sadie was an apt pupil. Those bony little fingers of hers were deft and quick. Within a month she had made her Camp Fire dress and her headband, and was eagerly at work over the requirements for a Fire Maker. But, as Mary Hastings said to Rose Anderson one day,
“She’s sharp as nails—that Sadie! I believe she can learn anything she sets her mind on; but she’s such a selfish little pig! I can’t endure her.”
“I wish I had her memory,” Rose answered. “How she did reel off the Fire Ode and the Fire Maker’s desire the other night! I haven’t learned that Ode yet so that I can say it without stumbling.”
“O, Sadie can reel it off without a mistake, but she’s as blind to the meaning of it as this sidewalk. There’s no heart to Sadie Page. She can thank Elizabeth that we ever voted her in.”
“Elizabeth—and Olga,” Rose amended.
“O, Olga—well, that was for Elizabeth too. Olga did it just for her—got Sadie in, I mean.”
“She’s—different—lately, don’t you think, Molly?”