Ethel Hollisters Second Summer as a Campfire Girl | Page 3

risk of meeting girls of humble origin. So after
some sharp rebukes administered to her by the old lady on the sin of
worldliness and the fact that she was not doing a mother's duty by her
daughter, she consented, mentally declaring that she would see that
Ethel should forget all about it on her return.
While visiting Aunt Susan and living in Camp in a truthful atmosphere
Ethel Hollister began to change. She saw how the old lady was beloved.
She heard on every side of the good she had done, and when one day

Aunt Susan told her that she had been a wife and mother, and what she
had suffered at the hands of a brutal husband, she was spellbound. For
years she had been deserted, but when one day he was supposed to be
dying she was sent for that he might beg her forgiveness. She went and
found that for four years he had been stone blind and that he had sunk
so low that she shrank from the squalid house in which he was living.
She took him away and stayed with him until his death, making the last
days of his life more bearable.
As the girl listened and thought of the old lady's goodness and how she
was visiting her and making over her old gowns, hats, etc., into
fashionable ones to ingratiate herself for an object she saw herself as
she was--a hypocrite--and she fell on her knees to Aunt Susan
confessing everything and begging her forgiveness, whereupon the old
lady took her in her arms and told her that she knew everything--that
Grandmother and she had made up their minds that Ethel might lose
her worldliness under different environments. Then she told her of the
loss of her fortune and the girl was glad, saying as she kissed her, "Now
you know that I love you for yourself, Aunt Susan."
Ethel liked Tom Harper. He was a fine young man. He supported Aunt
Susan and gave her a liberal allowance but she banked nearly all of it,
as she told Ethel "to have something at her death to leave to those
whom she loved."
After visiting her Uncle John's family, whom she liked at once, Kate,
Ethel, and the eight girls started for Camp. It was situated in a stretch of
woods on the banks of the Muskingum river. One of the girls--Patty
Sands--became Ethel's chum. She was motherless and the only child of
Judge Sands, ex-congressman of Ohio, and greatly respected. The rest
of the girls were also congenial save two--one a Mattie Hastings, whom
Ethel avoided saying that her eyes were too close together. Mattie's
parents were poor people but she was one of Kate's Sunday School
class and has asked to be allowed to join the "Ohios." The other girl
was a large, raw-boned Irish girl, or rather of Irish parentage. Her voice
was shrill and unpleasant, while her hair was black and her eyes dark
blue and lovely, her face was covered with freckles and she dressed

loudly and in bad taste. Pat Casey--her father---was one of the
wealthiest men in town. He was a contractor and an honest, respectable
man, but his wife was a pusher, trying to bluff her way into society.
She was ignorant and disagreeable. People refused to receive her. Nora
had been only half educated at a convent. Mrs. Casey, hearing of the
Camp Fire Girls, bethought herself that it would be an opening for
Honora, so she boldly called upon Miss Kate and asked--yes,
begged--that Nora might belong; and Kate, who was kind-hearted,
received the girl to the great joy of Mrs. Pat. Having been born in the
old country, both parents spoke with a brogue. Occasionally, from
association, Nora would use it; then she would stop suddenly, turn red,
and speak perfect English. Ethel disliked her even more than she did
Mattie.
One day as she was helping wash dishes she lost a valuable diamond
ring. It had been her Grandmother's engagement ring and she was
heart-broken. Although they searched everywhere no trace of it could
they find, but as they were walking up the hill a week or so afterwards
they thought they saw Mattie Hastings through the trees. They called as
a jest, "We've seen you and you're discovered--come out!" Whereupon
someone shrieked, and proceeding to the spot they found Mattie lying
upon the ground. She had walked in the sun and had started to run and
had fallen over some stumps. Instantly they saw that she had been
prostrated by the heat, and having recently studied "First aid to the
injured" they proceeded to remove her blouse and open her corset,
when lo! there upon a silver chain around her neck was not only Ethel
Hollister's ring but