“Easy if you know how!” said Billy skeptically.
“Winona knew how,” asserted Helen’s voice behind them. She began to talk to Winona and Billy very earnestly about several things that didn’t seem to have much to do with life in general. They had to turn half round to face her, which was what she wanted, for it prevented Winona from seeing that all the members of the Camp Fire were clustered near her place. The first she knew of it was Mrs. Bryan’s voice saying:
“All together, girls—a cheer for Ray of Light, who saved the refreshments!”
The girls’ voices rang out in the triple cheer for Winona, who blushed harder than ever.
“I didn’t do anything but suggest it!” she explained uselessly. Then she remembered her manners and sprang up.
“Thank you, Sisters of the Camp Fire—even if I don’t deserve it!” she said gayly.
Then the band started up and dancing went on.
The evening ended with a riotous Virginia reel (which, by the way, meant an honor bead for every girl, because the boys none of them knew much about reeling, and had to be shown) and a final ringing cheer for the Camp Fire Girls by the Scouts. Then the party broke up. Though broke up is hardly the word, for the girls marched out, as they had come, in a body, with a military file of Scouts on either side of them. Altogether it certainly was the most festive of parties, and everybody thought so even next morning, when the mournful things about a party are apt to occur to you.
The Scouts insisted, by the way, on replacing the various things that had been taken out of various pantries. The girls had intended to pay their families scrupulously back, but the Scouts extracted an exact account of the commandeered supplies from their sisters and cousins. Then they saw to it that everything, from the last loaf of bread to the last peanut, was redelivered by four next day. And so ended “the very best party,” as everybody agreed, “that we ever had.”