The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit | Page 7

the man
across the way, and why did she turn sharply around and look out of
the window?
Then a curious thing happened. The sunlight, which was so bright it
was making the others squint and draw the curtains, suddenly seemed
to Sahwah to be darkened, while a nameless fear stole into her heart
and oppressed her with a sense of lurking danger, of hovering calamity.
Only for a minute it lasted, and then she was herself again and the
sunshine struck into her eyes with intolerable splendor.
She shook herself slightly and turned her attention to Hinpoha, who
was speaking.

"Wouldn't it be dreadful if Veronica were to be interned?" Hinpoha was
saying.
"Veronica won't be interned," said Sahwah with an air of authority. "It's
only the Germans who are being watched so carefully, and have to
register with the police, and all that. Veronica isn't a German citizen,
she's a Hungarian. She will be perfectly safe. Her uncle is an American
citizen and is very patriotic; he was on the last Liberty Loan
committee."
"I wonder how she feels about things?" said Gladys musingly. "Her
father was in the Austrian army, you remember, and died fighting, and
her mother died when their town was taken by the Russians, and
Veronica just barely escaped with her own life. Their home was burned
and they lost everything they had. Veronica would be very wealthy if it
hadn't been for the war. It would be only natural for her to feel bitter
toward the side that had brought suffering to her family."
"But that was in the early days of the war, before so many things had
happened," said Sahwah, "and before Veronica had ever seen America.
She's crazy about America. She certainly wouldn't feel bitter toward the
Americans because the Russians burned their town and killed her father,
would she?"
"Poor Veronica," said Gladys softly. "She's in a hard position and I
don't envy her. I love her dearly, even if her country is our enemy."
"Shucks!" exclaimed Sahwah. "Veronica isn't to blame because her
country is at war. She isn't our enemy. Anyway," she added, "I don't
believe that the Hungarians are as bad as the Germans. They aren't
spies like the Germans are. Why, lots of Hungarians are fighting right
in our own army! Probably if Veronica's father had come to America
years ago he would be doing the same thing now. Anyway, Veronica's
here now, and she's glad she is here, and I don't think it's right to treat
her coldly just because she's an 'alien enemy.'"
"Maybe she's still loyal to her own country, though," said Hinpoha,
"and if the chance ever came to help Hungary's cause she'd feel in duty,

bound to do it. She has such intense feelings about things, you know.
She'd be quite willing to die for any cause she believed in."
"Shucks!" said Sahwah again. "Your romantic notions make me tired
sometimes, Hinpoha. Veronica's not going to die for Hungary's cause,
and she isn't likely to die for any other cause either, any more than we
are."
"But we'd be willing to die for America's cause, wouldn't we?"
demanded Hinpoha, with rising excitement.
"We certainly would!" replied Sahwah, with a fine flash from her
brown eyes.
"Well, if we'd be perfectly willing to die for our country's cause, why
wouldn't Veronica be willing to die for hers?" demanded Hinpoha
triumphantly.
"What I meant mostly," said Sahwah, skillfully diverting a discussion
that was becoming decidedly heated, "was that none of us are likely to
get a chance to die for our country, and neither is Veronica going to get
a chance to die for hers, or do anything else for it, even if she were
willing to. She's just a schoolgirl like ourselves and nobody would
think of asking her to do anything."
"That's the trouble," sighed Hinpoha discontentedly. "We're just girls,
and the only thing we'll ever get to do is just knit, knit, knit, and there's
no glory in that. That's the only 'bit' we'll ever be able to do."
The other three echoed her sigh and reflected sadly upon their
circumscribed sphere, and Sahwah's dream of being another Joan of
Arc flickered out into darkness. Then she brightened again as her
thoughts took a new turn.
"Well, there's one thing we have to be thankful for," she said feelingly.
"If we can't help to make history, we won't have to learn it, either.
We're past the history part of school. But just think what the pupils will
have to learn in the years to come--and the names of all those battles

that are being fought every day now, and the unpronounceable names
of all those cities in Europe, and all the different generals. It was hard
enough to keep the Civil War