The Camp Fire Girls in the Woods | Page 7

said Paw Hoover.
"Got troubles enough of my own, what with the woodshed settin' fire to
the house!"
"Oh!" whispered Bessie. "Did you hear that, Zara? It was worse than
we thought."
"Huh!" said Weeks, a rough, hard man, who found it hard to get men to
work when he needed them for the harvest every summer, on account

of his reputation for treating his men badly.
"I allus told you you'd have trouble with that baggage afore you got rid
of her, Paw! Lucky that she didn't burn you out when you was all
asleep -- I say," said Jake.
Bessie listened, every nerve and muscle in her body tense. They blamed
her for the fire, then! Her instinct when she had run away had been
right.
"I swan, I dunno what all possessed her," said Paw Hoover. "We give
her a good home -- but Jake here seen her do it, though he was too late
to stop her -- hey, Jake?"
"That's right, Pop," said Jake. "She didn't know I was aroun' anywhere.
Say, you ought to have her pinched for doin' it, too."
"I dunno -- she's only a youngster," said Paw. "I guess they wouldn't
hold her responsible somehow. But say, Brother Weeks, I hate to think
of that little Zara runnin' roun' the woods to-night. She ain't done
nothin' wrong, even if her paw's a crook. An' now they took him off,
who's a-goin' to look out for her?"
"I'll drive her over to the poor-farm when she turns up," said Weeks.
"Then they'll take her, an' apprentice her to someone as wants a girl to
work aroun' his place, like. Bind her over till she's twenty-one, and let
her work for her keep. I might take her myself -- guess 'twouldn't cost
such a lot to feed her. She's thin -- reckon she ain't ever had much to eat
here."
Bessie, feeling the tremor in Zara's rigid body at this confirmation of
her worst fears, put her hand quickly over he friend's mouth, just in
time to check a cry that was rising to her lips.
"Come, Zara," she whispered, gently. "We'll have to look out for
ourselves. Come, we'll get away. We mustn't stay around here."
And, holding Zara's arm, she led her away. For a long time, until Bessie

judged that it was safe to return to the road, they kept on through the
woods. And, when they came out on the road, the moon was up.
"The world's a beautiful place after all, Zara," said Bessie. "It can't be
so bad when everything's so lovely. Come on, we'll walk a little further,
and then we'll come to a place I know where we can sleep to-night -- a
place where woodcutters used to stay. No one's there now, and we'll be
dry and safe."
"I'm not afraid if I'm with you, Bessie," said Zara.

CHAPTER III
WO-HE-LO
Two or three miles further along the road, Bessie spied the landmark
she had been looking for.
"We'll turn off here," she said. "Cheer up, Zara. It won't be long now
before we can go to sleep."
The full moon made it easy to pick their way along the wood path that
Bessie followed, and before long they came to a small lake. On its far
side, among the trees near the shore, a fire was burning, flickering up
from time to time, and sending dancing shadows on the beach.
"There's someone over there, Bessie," said Zara, frightened at the sign
of human habitation.
"They won't hurt us, Zara," said Bessie, stoutly. "Probably they won't
even know that we're around, if we don't make any noise, or any fire of
our own. Here we are -- here's the hut! See? Isn't it nice and
comfortable? Hurry now and help me to pick up some of these
branches of pine trees. They'll make a comfortable bed for us, and we'll
sleep just as well as if we were at home -- or a lot better, because
there'll be no one to be cross and make trouble for us in the morning."

Bessie arranged the branches, and in a few moments they were asleep,
lying close together. Pine branches make an ideal bed, but, even had
their couch been uncomfortable, the two girls would have slept well
that night; they were too tired to do anything else. It was long after
midnight, and both had been through enough to exhaust them. The
sense of peace and safety that they found in this refuge in the woods
more than made up for the strangeness of their surroundings, and when
they awoke the sun was high. It was the sound of singing in the sweet,
fresh voices of girls that aroused them in the end. And Bessie, the first