“What is your desire?” asked Eleanor.
“I desire to become a Camp Fire Girl and to obey the law of the Camp Fire,” said Gladys, in a mechanical, sing-song voice, entirely different from the serious tones of those who had preceded her.
“She’s laughing to herself,” said Marcia, indignantly. “Just listen! She’s repeating the Desire as if it were a bit of doggerel.”
They heard her saying:
“Seek beauty, Give service, Pursue knowledge, Hold on to health, Glorify work, Be happy. This law of the Camp Fire I will strive to follow.”
“Give service,” repeated Eleanor slowly. “You have heard what I said to the other girls, Gladys. I want you to understand this point of the law. It is the most important of all, perhaps. It means that you must be friendly to your sisters of the Camp Fire; that you must love them, and put them above yourself.”
“I must do all that for my chums–the girls in our Camp Fire, you mean, I suppose?” said Gladys. “I don’t care anything about these other girls. And, Miss Mercer, all that you’re going to say in a minute–‘So cleave to these others, your sisters’–that doesn’t mean the girls in any old Camp Fire, does it?”
Startled, Eleanor was silent for a moment. Mary Turner looked at Gladys indignantly.
“It means every girl in every Camp Fire,” said Eleanor, finally. “And more than that, you must serve others, in or out of the Camp Fire.”
“Oh, that’s nonsense!” said Gladys. “I couldn’t do that.”