The letter was destroyed and Nita saw the Guide throw the tiny pieces in the fire when supper was started.
That night the camp sat about the fire telling stories and recalling funny things of school-life. It was an atmosphere of unity, and Miss Miller felt for the first time since they started the Camp that she would be fully repaid by the improvement of the members, and the womanhood they would eventually reach after striving for ideals, one just a bit higher than the other, year after year, until the goal appeared.
Finally, Zan exclaimed, "Oh, we forgot the Thermos bottle with the indigestion in it!"
Every one laughed, and Miss Miller hurried to her tent to get the bottle. It was brought over to the fire and the Guide lit a candle to enable the girls to see with ease the thing she was about to show and explain to them.
The two tubes were taken from the warm water in which Miss Miller plunged a thermometer to assure the girls that the temperature was the same as the evening before.
"This is the tube in which we put a little whiskey—see the effect the alcohol has had on the egg? It is shrivelled and even harder than when it was first placed in the tube, although it has had the same advantage of digestive fluids and acids that the other tube and our stomachs have.
"Now look at this other tube in which nothing but digestive juices were left. This uniform pasty mass at the bottom of the tube is the digested egg. This ought to prove infallibly what a drink of any alcoholic liquid will do to your digestion, and after a time, to your whole physical system."
The girls stared with amazement at the result of the test on the contents of the two tubes, and then looked up at the Guide with an expression that plainly said, "No alcoholic drink for us, no matter how alluring or in what company it is presented."