The Camp Fire Girls at Sunrise Hill | Page 9

go on the stage as I sometimes
threaten, so soon as her back was turned. Oh, Mavourneen darling of
the world, the very name of Lake Killarney, where our cousins live,
would make you well."
But again Polly stopped talking because Betty had seized her by both

shoulders, giving her a decided shake. "Say it again to me quickly. Is it
just because Mary does not know what to do with you and Mollie that
she won't go away?"
And both sisters nodded silently.
With a cry of what sounded like delight, Betty rose hurriedly to her feet,
letting the blue cloak slip away from her for the second time.
Then dancing across the kitchen she seized the two tall candlesticks
from the mantelpiece and setting them down in the center of the floor
afterwards added the third, with which Polly had lighted their way
through the hall. Above them she made a mystic sign by flattening the
fingers of her right hand against those of her left, while slowly she
revolved about them chanting: "Wohelo, Wohelo, Wohelo, in you lies
the answer to all our difficulties," to the entire amazement of her small
audience.
CHAPTER III
"WORK, HEALTH AND LOVE"
"Much learning hath made her mad," sighed Polly mournfully, Betty
being a notoriously poor student.
Mollie was staring thoughtfully at their visitor. "That is an Indian folk
dance; perhaps Betty is pretending to be Pocahontas," she suggested,
with such an evident attempt to explain away her friend's eccentricities
that Betty stopped in her dance to laugh, and Polly and Mrs. O'Neill
followed suit.
"I am not mad and I am not playing at being Pocahontas, but as usual
Mollie is nearer right than her sister Polly because there is a good deal
about the Indians in what I want to tell you." Betty sat down before the
three shining candles and taking a little stick from the pile of wood near
by she pointed it at her third candle. "You are to guess what my strange
word, 'Wohelo' means. No, it is not an Indian, word, although it sounds
like it. Mary, you begin by taking the last syllable first. What is the

greatest thing in the world?"
Mrs. O'Neill, some minutes before, had risen half way up from her
lounge and was leaning her head on her arm, while she watched Betty's
curious proceedings. "The greatest thing in the world?" she repeated
softly. "Far wiser persons than I found the answer to that question
many years ago. The greatest thing in the world is love."
Betty nodded. "Now, Polly, you may have the next guess, though you
are sure to say the wrong thing. What is the next greatest thing to
love?"
Polly shrugged her thin shoulders, her face still moody in spite of her
recently awakened interest. "Oh, I told you the answer to that question
when you first came into this room, Betty Ashton, though none of you
chose to believe me. It is plain as a pipe-stem to me that wealth is the
next best thing to love and sometimes it is better when you happen to
love the wrong thing--or person."
"It rhymes with wealth but begins with the letter 'h'," the questioner
returned hastily, too much in earnest to waste further time in argument.
"Now, Mollie, you have the third turn, remember you are to decide
what the first syllable stands for, 'Wo'."
For a few seconds the third girl hesitated, her cheeks flushing
uncomfortably. Not so quick or clever with her tongue as Polly and
Betty she was far more gifted with her fingers. "I am sure I don't know
what you mean," she replied. "'Wo' is the beginning of the word
'woman', but you can't mean woman. I know you and Polly think books
of plays and novels the greatest things in the world, but I don't and
besides I can't find the right word for them. You know what I really
like best is just cooking and cleaning up and putting flowers on the
table, stupid household things that can't have anything to do with your
wonderful word." And Mollie looked so apologetic for her own
domestic tastes that her mother took both her hands and held them
tight.
"For goodness' sake, Mollie dear, even in these days of the advanced

female it is still something to be proud of, to have real womanly tastes.
Because some women go out into the world is no reason why they
should lose their womanly instincts. What we are all working for, both
men and women, is really just the making of a home, a big or a little
one. I don't know myself what word Betty is searching for, but I do
believe these very things that you like best come very close to my