"Won't you come out and talk to us?" asked the leader of the crowd.
She came forward alone toward the door of the cabin, looking at Bessie with interest.
"My name is Wanaka—that is, my Camp Fire name," said the stranger. "We are Manasquan Camp Fire Girls, you know, and we've been camping out by this lake. Do you live here?"
"No—not exactly, ma'am," said Bessie, still a little shy.
"Then you must be camping out, too? It's fun, isn't it? But you're not alone, are you? Didn't I see another head peeping out?"
"That's Zara. She's my friend, and she's with me," said Bessie. "And my name's Bessie King."
She looked curiously at Wanaka. Bessie had never heard of the Camp Fire Girls, and the great movement they had begun, meant to do for American girls what the Boy Scout movement had begun so well for their brothers.
"Well, won't you and Zara spend the day with us, if you are by yourselves?" asked Wanaka. "We'll take you over to camp in the canoes, and you can have dinner with us. We're going back now to cook it. The other girls have begun to prepare it already."
"Oh, we'd like to!" cried Bessie. "I'm awfully hungry—and I'm sure Zara is, too."
Bessie hadn't meant to say that. But the thought of a real meal had been too much for her.