The Camp Fire Girls on the Farm

Camp Fire Girls on the Farm, by
Jane L. Stewart

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Title: The Camp Fire Girls on the Farm Or, Bessie King's New Chum
Author: Jane L. Stewart
Release Date: April 28, 2005 [EBook #15726]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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FIRE GIRLS ON THE FARM ***

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[Illustration: She turned--and looked up into the evil eyes of Farmer
Weeks.]

CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES, VOLUME II
The Camp Fire Girls On the Farm
or
Bessie King's New Chum
by
JANE L. STEWART
* * * * *
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY Chicago AKRON,
OHIO New York MADE IN U.S.A.
COPYRIGHT, MCMXIV BY THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO.
* * * * *
The Camp Fire Girls On the Farm
CHAPTER I
IN THE CITY
"I never dreamed of such a lovely room, Zara, did you?"
Bessie King, her eyes open with admiration and wonder, asked her
chum the question in a room in the home of Eleanor Mercer, Guardian
of the Manasquan Camp Fire, of the Camp Fire Girls. Both the girls
were new members of the organization, and Bessie, who had lived all
her life in the country, and had known nothing of the luxuries and
comforts that girls in the city, or the luckier ones of them, at least, take
almost as a matter of course, had found something new to astonish her
in almost every hour since they had come to the city.
"I've dreamed of it--yes," said Zara. "You see I've been in the city

before, Bessie; and I've seen houses like this, and I've guessed that the
rooms inside must be something like this, though I never lived in one.
It's beautiful."
"I almost wish we were going to stay here, Zara. But I suppose it will
be nice when we go to the farm."
Eleanor Mercer, who had been standing for a moment in the doorway,
came in then, laughing merrily. She had overheard the remark, and
Bessie was greatly distressed when she discovered it.
"Oh, Miss Eleanor!" she exclaimed. "Please, please don't think I'm
ungrateful. I want to do whatever you think is right--"
"I know that, Bessie, and I know just what you were thinking, too. Well,
you're going to have a surprise--I can promise you that. This farm isn't
a bit like the farm you know about. I guess you know too much about
one sort of farm to want ever to see another, don't you?"
"Maybe there are different sorts of farms," admitted Bessie. "I don't
like Paw Hoover's kind."
Eleanor laughed again. She was a fresh, bright-cheeked girl, not so
many years older than Bessie herself. One might guess, indeed, that she,
as Guardian of her Camp Fire, didn't much more than manage to fulfill
the requirement that Guardians, like Scoutmasters among the Boy
Scouts, must be over twenty-one years of age.
"Indeed there are different sorts of farms from that one, Bessie," she
said. "You'll see a farm where everything is done the way it should be,
and, while I think Paw Hoover's a mighty nice man, I've got an idea
that on his farm everything is done just about opposite to the proper
fashion."
"When are we going, Miss Eleanor?"
Zara asked that question. In the last few days a hunted look had left
Zara's eyes, for with relief from certain worries she had begun to be

happier, and she was always asking questions now.
"I don't know exactly, Zara, but not right away. We want all the girls to
go out together. We're going to have our next Council Fire at the farm.
And some of them can't get away just now. But it will be fairly soon, I
can promise you that. You like the country, don't you, Zara?"
"Indeed I do, Miss Eleanor! Until they took my father away I was ever
so happy there."
"And just think, you're going to see him tomorrow, Zara! He's well, and
as soon as he heard that you were here and safe, he stopped worrying.
That was his chief trouble--he seemed to think more about what would
happen to you than that he was in trouble himself."
"I knew he'd be thinking about me," said Zara, "He always did, even
when he had most to bother him."
"I was sure he was a good father, Zara, when I heard you talk about