“I don’t know why not—those who live in the same town, anyhow. Marcia Bates and Gladys Cooper—the two who were lost on the mountain last night, you know—live very close to me at home.”
“You were always good friends with Gladys until you met her up here, weren’t you?”
“Oh, yes, good friends enough. I don’t think we either of us cared particularly about the other. Each of us had a lot of friends we liked better, but we got along well enough.”
“Well, don’t you think she just made a mistake, and then was afraid to admit it, and try to make up for it? I think lots of people are like that. They do something wrong, and then, just because it frightens them a little and they think it would be hard to set matters right, they make a bad thing much worse.”
“Oh, you can’t make me feel charitable about them, and there’s no use trying, Bessie! Let’s try not to talk about them, for it makes me angry every time I think of the way they behaved. They were just plain snobs, that’s all!”
“I thought Gladys Cooper was pretty mean, after all the trouble we had taken last night to help her and her chum, but I do think the rest were sorry, and felt that they’d been all wrong. They really said so, if you remember.”
“Well, they ought to have been, certainly! What a lot of lazy girls they must be! Do look, Bessie. There isn’t a sign of life over at their camp. I bet not one of them is up yet!”
“You’re a fine one to criticise anyone else for being lazy, Dolly Ransom! How long did it take me to wake you up this morning? And how many times have you nearly missed breakfast by going back to bed after you’d pretended to get up?”
“Oh, well,” said Dolly, defiantly, “it’s just because I’m lazy myself and know what a fault it is that I’m the proper one to call other people down for it. It’s always the one who knows all about some sin who can preach the best sermon against it, you know.”
“Turning preacher, Dolly?” asked Eleanor Mercer. Both the girls spun around and rushed toward her as soon as they heard her voice, and realized that she had stepped noiselessly out on the porch. They embraced her happily. She was Guardian of the Camp Fire, and no more popular Guardian could have been found in the whole State.