A Campfire Girls First Council Fire | Page 5

us. It was Jake Hoover who did it, and he'll
be punished for it some time, I guess, whether his maw ever finds it out
or not."
They waited a few minutes longer for the rain to stop, and then, as it

grew lighter, they began to move on. They could see a heavy cloud of
smoke from the direction of the farmhouse, but no more flames, and
now, as the thunder grew more and more distant, they could hear
shouting more plainly. Evidently help had come--Paw Hoover,
probably, seeing the fire, and rushing up from the fields with his hired
men and the neighbors to put it out.
"Zara," said Bessie, suddenly, "suppose Jake was telling the truth?
Suppose they have taken your father away? You know they have said
things about him, and lots of people believe he is a bad man. I never
did. But suppose they really have taken him, what will you do?"
"I don't know. Stay there, I suppose. But, Bessie, it can't be true!"
"Maybe they wouldn't let you stay. When Mary Morton's mother died
last year and left her alone, they took her to the poorhouse. Maybe
they'd make you go there, too."
"They shan't!" cried Zara, her eyes flashing through her tears. "I--I'll
run away--I'll do anything--"
"I'm going to run away, myself," said Bessie, quietly. She had been
doing a lot of thinking. "No one could make me work harder than Maw
Hoover, and they'd pay me for doing it. I'm going to get as far away as I
can and get a real job."
Zara looked at Bessie, usually so quiet and meek, in surprise. There
was a determined note in Bessie's voice that she had never heard there
before.
"We'll stick together, you and I, Zara," said Bessie. "I'm afraid
something has happened to your father. And if that's so, we'd better not
go right up to your house. We'd better wait until it's dark, and go there
quietly, so that we can listen, and see if there's anyone around looking
for you."
"But we won't get any supper!" said poor Zara. "And I'm hungry
already!"

"We'll find berries and nuts, and we can easily find a spring where we
can drink all we want," said Bessie. "I guess we've got to look out for
ourselves now, Zara. There's no one else to do it for us."
And Bessie, the meek, the quiet, the subdued, from that moment took
command. Always before Zara had seemed the plucky one of the two.
She had often urged Bessie to rebel against Maw Hoover's harshness,
and it had been always Bessie who had hung back and refused to do
anything that might make trouble. But now, when the time for real
action had come, and Bessie recognized it, it was she who made the
plans and decided what was to be done.
Bessie knew the woods well, far better than Zara. Unerringly she led
the way to a spot she knew, where a farm had been allowed to drift
back to wild country, and pointed out some cherry trees.
"Some berries aren't good to eat, but I know those cherries," said Bessie.
"They used to be the best trees in the whole county years ago--Paw
Hoover's told me that. Some believe that they're no good now, because
no one has looked after the trees, but I know they're fine. I ate some
only the other day, and they're ripe and delicious. So we'll have supper
off these trees."
Zara, as active as a little cat, climbed the tree at once, and in a moment
she was throwing down the luscious fruit to Bessie, who gathered it in
her apron and called to Zara when she had picked enough of the big,
round cherries.
"Aren't they good, Zara? Eat as many as you want. They're not like a
real supper of meat and potatoes and things like that, you know, but
they'll keep us from feeling hungry."
"They certainly will, Bessie. I'd never have known about them. But
then I haven't lived long enough in the country to know it the way you
do. I've been in cities all my life."
"Yes, and if we get to the city, Zara, you'll know lots of things and be
able to tell me all about them. It must be wonderful."

"I suppose it is, Bessie, but I never thought of it that way. It must have
been because I was used to everything of that sort. When you see things
every day you get so that you don't think anything about them. I used to
laugh at people from the country when I'd see them staring up at the
high buildings, and jumping when an automobile horn tooted anywhere
near them."
"I suppose it must have seemed