“Welcome,” she spoke clearly, rising as the girls came to a halt around her. “Have you come desiring to make a Camp Fire and tend it?”
“Yes,” answered all the girls. It was then that they dropped into their places, in a semi-circle around the fire and their Guardian.
Then each of the girls, in turn, rose and repeated her wish to become a Camp Fire Girl, and follow the Law of the Fire. When they had all finished Mrs. Bryan leaned back in her corner, and talked to them about the Law—what each of the seven parts of it meant.
“Why—it covers everything!” said Winnie.
“It certainly does!” seconded Louise. “All I have to do, it seems to me, is to go on living, and I’ll acquire unnumbered honor beads.”
“You may think so,” Helen warned her, “but you’ll find there’s plenty to learn about it. I’ve been studying it out.”
“Oh, that’s all right!” said Louise airily. She caught up the manual as she spoke, and ran her eye down the list of honors by the firelight. “Wash and iron a shirtwaist—I love to wash things. Make a bed for two months—I’d be hung with beads if I had one for every two months I’ve made my bed. Abstain from gum, candy, ice-cream—oh, good gracious!”
“That counts as much as the rest,” said Winnie mischievously, “and think how good it will be for you!”
“I’ll get thin,” Louise remarked thoughtfully. “What are you going to start with, Winnie?”
“Health-craft, I think.” Winona had taken the book in her turn, and was looking through the pages. “I’ve always wanted to learn horseback riding, and I think perhaps father’ll let me, now it’s in a book as something you ought to do.” Then she remembered what her brother had said about the flapjacks, and she shook her head as she passed on the book. “No,” she corrected herself, “I don’t believe that will be the first thing I’ll do. I think I need home-craft quite as much as I do learning to ride.”