Just then the girls whose turn it had been to prepare breakfast came to the door of the Living Camp, which contained the dining-room and the kitchen, and a blast on a horn announced that breakfast was ready.
“Come on! We’ll eat our next meal sitting around a camp fire in the woods, if that forest fire has left any woods where we’re going,” announced Eleanor. “So we want to make this meal a good one. No telling what sort of places we’ll find on our tramp.”
“I bet it will be good fun, no matter what they’re like,” said Margery Burton, one of the other members of the Camp Fire. She was a Fire-Maker, the second rank of the Camp Fire. First are the Wood-Gatherers, to which Bessie and Dolly belonged; then the Fire-Makers, and finally, and next to the Guardian, whom they serve as assistants, the Torch-Bearers. Margery hoped soon to be made a Torch-Bearer, and had an ambition to become a Guardian herself as soon as Miss Eleanor and the local council of the National Camp Fire decided that she was qualified for the work.
“Oh, you’d like any old thing just because you had to stand for it, Margery, whether it was any good or not,” said Dolly.
“Well, isn’t that a good idea? Why, I even manage to get along with you, Dolly! Sometimes I like you quite well. And anyone who could stand for you!”
Dolly laughed as loudly as the rest. She had been pretty thoroughly spoiled, but her association with the other girls in the Camp Fire had taught her to take a joke when at was aimed at her, unlike most people who are fond of making jokes at the expense of others, and of teasing them. She recognized that she had fairly invited Margery’s sharp reply.
“We’ll have to hurry and get ready when breakfast is over,” said Eleanor as they were finishing the meal. “You girls whose turn it is to wash up had better get through as quickly as you can. Then we’ll all get the packs ready. We have to take the boat that leaves at half past nine for the other end of Lake Dean.”
“Why, there’s someone coming! It’s those girls from the other camp!” announced Dolly, suddenly. She had left the table, and was looking out of the window.
And, sure enough, when the Camp Fire Girls went out on the porch in a minute, they saw advancing the private school girls, whose snobbishness had nearly ruined their stay at Camp Sunset. Marcia Bates, who had been rescued with her friend, Gladys Cooper, acted as spokesman for them.
“We’ve come to tell you that we’ve all decided we were nasty and acted like horrid snobs,” she said. “We have found out that you’re nice girls—nicer than we are. And we’re very grateful—of course I am, especially—for you helping us. And so we want you to accept these little presents we’ve brought for you.”