“Good!” cried half a dozen of the girls together.
Soon all the rubbish was collected, and a fire had been built. And, while Margery Burton applied a light to it, the girls formed a circle about it, and danced around, singing the while the most popular of Camp Fire songs, Wo-he-lo.
“That’s like turning all the unpleasant things that have happened to us, isn’t it?” said Eleanor. “We just toss them into the flames, and they’re gone! What’s left is clean and good and useful, and we will make all the better use of it for having lost what is burning now.”
“Isn’t it strange, Miss Eleanor,” said Bessie King, “that this should have happened to us so soon after the fire that burned up the Pratt’s farm?”
“Yes, it is,” replied Eleanor. “And there’s a lesson in it for us, just as there was for them in their fire. We didn’t expect to find them in such trouble when we started to walk there, but we were able to help them, and to show them that there was a way of rising from the ruin of their home, and being happier and more prosperous than they had been before.”
“We’re going to do that, too,” said Dolly, with spirit. “I felt terrible when I first saw the place in the light, after the fire was all out, but it looks different already.”
“Mr. Salters will be here soon,” said Eleanor. “And now there’s nothing more to do until he comes. We’ll have a fine meal–and if you’re half as hungry as I am you’ll be glad of that–and we’ll spend the afternoon in getting the place to rights. But just now the best thing for all of us to do is to rest.”
“I’ll be glad to do that,” said Dolly Ransom, as she linked her arm with Bessie’s and drew her away. “I am pretty tired.”
“I should think you would be, Dolly. I haven’t had a chance to thank you yet for what you did for me.”
“Oh, nonsense, Bessie!” said Dolly, flushing. “You’d have done it for me, wouldn’t you? I’m only just as glad as I can be that I was able to do anything to get you away from Mr. Holmes–you and Zara.”