Ethel Hollisters Second Summer as a Campfire Girl

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

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Campfire Girl, by Irene Elliott Benson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
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 a man who could give her a "fine establishment."
Among Ethel's school friends was a girl--Nannie Bigelow by name--of whom she was very fond. Nannie had a brother in Yale whom she (Ethel) disliked. He was a member of the ultra fashionable set and was