Next afternoon the whole Camp Fire had a business meeting at Mrs. Bryan’s. Besides the girls who had originally belonged, five others had joined. It was a very pleasant meeting, helped out with afternoon cocoa and sandwiches that the lunch-getters had prepared. They discussed ways and means till they could scarcely hear themselves think. Never was there such an unanimous meeting. For everybody wanted to go camping, and to go camping money is needed. So three committees were appointed, one to buy materials, another to borrow an eligible drug-store for Saturday, and a third to attend to advertising. The girls were to meet Friday, and each take home what materials she needed. Saturday morning the materials were to be returned to the drug-store in the shape of salable things to eat. It even occurred to one genius to allot to each girl a certain thing to make.
“It’s a good thing to do,” she said modestly—it was Dorothy. “Once our Sunday-school class gave a sale, and every single girl brought chocolate cake.”
“I remember that,” said Marie. “But it turned out all right.”
“Oh, yes,” said Dorothy laughing. “We hung a sign in the window, ‘Chocolate cake sale!’ and it all went. But it mightn’t have!”
So Marie made out a careful list of what each girl was to make.
“I don’t see how we’ll ever sell all those!” she said, looking worried.
But they did. People always will buy bread and cake and muffins. At the end of the first sale, on Saturday, Edith Hillis, who was on duty, put seventeen dollars in her hand-bag to take up to Helen.
“There are orders, too,” she reported. “We have eight dozen parkerhouse rolls and two dozen and a half biscuits promised for different lunches and suppers next week, beside jam orders. Here’s the list.”
“That ought to be five dollars more,” counted Helen.
Edith forgot for once to smooth her dress and pat her curls in the excitement of success.