Ethel Hollisters Second Summer as a Campfire Girl | Page 4

another belonging to Honora Casey. She had missed
it a few days after Ethel had lost hers, but she wisely refrained from
speaking of it to anyone but Patty Sands, adding, "Shure, it would only
be afther worryin' Miss Kate, and it might turn up. I'll bide me time."
Mattie, upon recovering consciousness and seeing that her secret had
been discovered handed the rings to Ethel saying that she should kill
herself. The girls, seeing that she was desperate, replied that as one of
their "seven laws" was to "render service," if she would confess why
she had taken the rings they would shield her. Overjoyed, the girl did
so. She told everything. She had done it for her young sister who had

dislocation of the spine, whereby she might be converting them into
money have the child placed in the Cripples Hospital and treated. A
physician had assured her that the case was not incurable, and for two
hundred dollars the child could be watched and nursed, and eventually
her spine might be straightened. She said that since the accident that
had made the child as she was, her mother had become a drug fiend.
One evening her cousin--a young man who was a chauffeur--invited
her mother to join a party and they took a joy ride. On their way home,
being under the influence of wine, they knocked down and ran over a
child near Mrs. Hasting's house. Letting her out, they sped quickly on
for fear of arrest. Upon discovering that it was her own child, and what
was worse, that from that night she was to be a hopeless cripple, the
mother nearly went insane. Still she kept her secret and no one
suspected that she had been one of the parties in the car. Her remorse
drove her to take the drug. Under its influence she told Mattie. At that
time the girl was earning six dollars a week, three of which she was
paying to her mother, supposing her to be buying food for the invalid.
When she discovered the truth she threatened her with exposure and
tried to buy little Mollie nourishing delicacies herself, but three dollars
would barely pay for the necessities of life, and she became
discouraged and desperate. In the store she saw a customer drop her
purse. She placed her foot upon it and when the lady had gone she
picked it up. The purse contained forty dollars and some cards, etc.
After depositing thirty-five dollars in the bank she took five and bought
the child fruit, books, and ice cream. It seemed to put new life into
Mollie. She took small articles from time to time, and pretending that
they had been given her she sold them. Her remorse was terrible. She
was unhappy. If only she could work harder and earn more. At that
time she heard of the Camp Fire Girls--of the useful and wonderful
things that they learned so that in time they became competent to
demand and receive large salaries. She loved Miss Kate and asked her
if she might join. Kate assented, and it was then that the girls first met
her. Gradually the desire to collect the two hundred dollars for Mollie
came back, and with it the temptation to steal. She took money from
every girl. She was even willing, after placing Mollie in the Hospital, to
go to prison, if only the child could be cured. She felt that some day she
would be caught with the goods. She adored Miss Kate and took

nothing from her. Finally she began taking jewelry to sell.
This morning she was on her way to find a hiding place for the two
rings and a diamond locket taken from another girl, when she heard
Ethel and Patty call. Then she was sure that they had discovered her
secret, and trying to run away she tripped and lost consciousness. "Now
that I have told you all," she added, "your father--Judge Sands--will
send me up," and she sobbed piteously. Her grief was sincere. She had
not stolen for herself. She had been desperate. Pity crept into the hearts
of the two girls and they constituted themselves her friends. They made
her replace the jewelry in Nora's and Edna's suit cases. They found the
lady's card from whom she had taken the purse and had Mattie return
the money and bag with a note withholding her name. They had her
draw out the money obtained from the sale of the purloined articles and
return it to the head of the Department Store saying that the things had
been taken and sold under great provocation for a sick child,
enumerating them and the prices, after which she felt happier, for she
knew that the girls would remain her friends.