There was a little murmur of applause as Peggy Webster ended her extemporaneous talk.
The next instant Alice Ashton interposed, in a slightly offended tone:
“I think your suggestion for our Camp Fire work in France for the next few months admirable, Peggy. But I don’t in the least agree with your statement that living here at Versailles during the dawn of peace, no one, except Bettina, is to be interested in the details of the Peace Conference. Neither do I see why Bettina’s suggestion, that we try in some humble fashion to help toward peace, need be altogether scorned. Each human being can contribute a tiny quota. In the future women are to be allowed the vote, which means a voice in just such questions as may decide war or peace. Our own group of Camp Fire girls is growing up so that in a few more years we shall perhaps be too old to think of ourselves as Camp Fire girls and must begin the work of guardians. If we believe in peace, if we preach and practice it among ourselves and in our Camp Fire organization, and if the Camp Fire becomes international, as it seems to be doing, why then just so many girls will be trained to lend the weight of their influence toward the future peace of the world!”
“Bravo, Alice! You have just said what I wished to say, only you have said it more convincingly. I did not wish to interrupt you and you girls were too interested to notice my entrance!” Mrs. Burton exclaimed.
She then sat down in a low chair which had been kept ready for her in the center of the group of girls.
“Suppose we try to follow Bettina’s, Peggy’s and Alice’s suggestions, as they seem to me not to oppose each other,” she continued.
“For my part I will undertake to find some interesting women in Paris who will agree to aid us with our French Camp Fire and take charge of it after we leave France. We must interest poorer French girls as well as rich ones, we must introduce them by letter to Camp Fire girls in the United States so they may exchange ideas and plans and learn from each other. I hate to confess the fact that you girls are growing older and must soon look forward to undertaking the duties of Camp Fire guardians, nevertheless it is true. Your efforts here in France will be a great help later on.
“In regard to Bettina’s and Alice’s points of view. Naturally we cannot see at present how any one of us can help toward the future peace of society. And yet Alice is right when she insists that every tiny quota does make some difference. Every life that both preaches and practices peace is an influence for peace.
“But there is a suggestion I wish to make, which may strike you girls as more impracticable than any one else’s. You girls must have read and heard, as I have recently, that a surprising amount of ill feeling has been developing between the French and American soldiers since the close of the war. Strange, isn’t it, when they were such loyal comrades in arms! But I suppose it is harder to keep up the morale during the slow approach of peace than under the greater excitement of war. Senator Duval told me the other night that there is also a secret German propaganda which is trying to create ill feeling between the soldiers of the Allied armies. Well, it may be possible that you girls will meet a number of these men in the next few weeks. Perhaps, more than you realize, you may be an influence for peace and good feeling between them! If the chance comes to any of you, do your best.”
At the farthest end of the circle away from Mrs. Burton, at this moment Sally Ashton’s expression changed from one of previous indifference to amusement, mingled with a faint sarcasm.