Ethel Hollisters Second Summer as a Campfire Girl

Ethel Hollister's Second Summer
as a
by Irene Elliott Benson

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Title: Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire Girl
Author: Irene Elliott Benson
Release Date: November 26, 2004 [EBook #14169]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire Girl

By IRENE ELLIOTT BENSON
1912

CONTENTS
SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING BOOK
I--ETHEL'S PLANS
II--ETHEL ENTERS COLLEGE
III--ETHEL AND HARVEY BECOME FIRM FRIENDS
IV--ETHEL'S SECOND TRIP
V--CAMP AGAIN
VI--UNCLE JOHN'S
VII--MRS. HOLLISTER'S VISIT TO CAMP
VIII--THE SCOUTS ARRIVE
IX--NORA GIVES SERVICE
X--A HEROINE
XI--BREAKING UP OF CAMP AND A SURPRISE
XII--MATTIE MAKES GOOD
XIII--JUDGE SANDS AND KATE MARRY
XIV--A BIRTHDAY PRESENT
XV--MRS. HOLLISTER ENTERTAINS

XVI--CHRISTMAS EVE
XVII--CHRISTMAS DAY
XVIII--ANOTHER SURPRISE
XIX--MR. CASEY BUYS A HOUSE
XX--ARCHIBALD'S CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING BOOK
Ethel would have never become a Camp Fire Girl excepting for her
great-aunt Susan.
Susan Carpenter was her Grandmother Hollister's only sister, living in
Akron, Ohio. Her family consisted of Mr. Thomas Harper and herself.
Tom's parents had been her friends, and when they were taken Aunt
Susan legally adopted him and his little brother Fred, but the younger
one died before graduating, while Tom went through college and was
now a rising young lawyer.
Aunt Susan Carpenter was a philanthropist. At the time of her adopting
the boys she was reputed to be a millionaire. She gave her beautiful
home to the city for an Asylum for partially insane people and endowed
it with fifty thousand dollars, after which the leading men in town
raised fifty thousand more, thereby making it self-supporting. She was
also on the board of managers of many other charities, and was adored
by her townspeople.
Four years previous to her visit to New York, she had lost every penny
of her immense fortune,--lost it through the rascality of a large and well
advertised concern calling itself the "Great Western Cereal Company."
The whole thing was a rotten affair from the first and was floated by
ten unscrupulous men who after obtaining all the money they could
fled from the country before the exposure came; that is, save three, one
of whom was arrested while the other two committed suicide. Aunt

Susan wrote nothing of it to her sister lest it should worry her, and as
she had never met her nephew's family in New York, and they knowing
no one in Akron, they were in ignorance of the change in Aunt Susan's
affairs and still thought her a wealthy woman.
Mrs. Archibald Hollister--Ethel's mother--was worldly and ambitious;
not so much for herself as for her daughter. Grand-mother Hollister,
whose husband had belonged to one of New York's oldest families,
owned the house in which they lived, free and clear. It was an
old-fashioned brown-stone affair near Riverside Drive. Archibald, her
son, paid the taxes in lieu of rent, but as his salary was only three
thousand a year it was extremely difficult to make both ends meet, and
Grandmother had no money save what was in the house. But Mrs.
Archie was clever. She could make a dollar do the work of five. With
her own hands she would fashion for Ethel the most dainty and
up-to-date gowns, wraps, hats, etc., imaginable.
The Hollisters kept but one maid. She always appeared trim and tidy,
yet she did the entire housework. Upon the days that Mrs. Archie gave
bridge parties or afternoon teas for Ethel's young friends, she hired two
extra girls who had been so perfectly trained that the guests never once
doubted but that they were part of the household--allowing to Mrs.
Archie's clever management.
Ethel attended a fashionable school costing her father more money than
he could afford, but she met there the very best class of girls and really
formed for herself the most desirable acquaintances. Her mother
scrimped and saved in every way possible, while the guests who came
to the old-fashioned house with its handsome antique furniture and
portraits were wont to declare that "the Hollisters were certainty
aristocratic and of blue blood, as their house showed it--so severe and
yet elegant." So Mrs. Archie felt that the Hollister name alone should
procure for Ethel a monied husband, and she held it constantly before
the girl. She must associate only with those in the "upper circle," and
marry