you go out camping by yourselves.”

“Oh, we manage somehow,” boasted Charlie Jamieson.

“That’s just about what you do do! You manage–somehow! And, yet, when this Camp Fire movement started, all the men I knew sat around and jeered, and said that girls were just jealous of the good times the Boy Scouts had, and predicted that unless we took men along to look after us, we’d be in all sorts of trouble the first time we ever undertook to spend a night in camp!”

Charlie shook his head at Trenwith in mock alarm.

“Getting pretty independent, aren’t they?” he said to his friend. “You mark my words, Billy, the old-fashioned women don’t exist any more!”

“And it’s a good thing if they don’t!” Eleanor flashed back at him. “They do, though, only you men don’t know the real thing when you see it. You have an idea that a woman ought to be helpless and clinging. Maybe that was all right in the old days, when there were always plenty of men to look after a woman. But how about the way things are now? Women have to go into shops and offices and factories to earn a living, don’t they, just the way men do?”

“They do–more’s the pity!” said Trenwith.

Eleanor looked at him as if she understood just what he meant.

“Maybe it isn’t so much of a pity, though,” she said. “I tell you one thing–a girl isn’t going to make any the worse wife for being self-reliant, and knowing how to take care of herself a little bit. And that’s what we want to make of our Camp Fire Girls–girls who can help themselves if there’s need for it, and who don’t need to have a man wasting a lot of time doing things for them that he ought to be spending in serious work–things that she can do just as well for herself.”

She stood before them as she spoke, a splendid figure of youth, and health and strength. And, as she spoke, she plunged her hand into a capacious pocket in her skirt.

“There!” she said, “that’s one of the things that has kept women helpless. It wasn’t fashionable to have pockets, so men got one great advantage just in their clothes. Camp Fire Girls have pockets!”

“You say that as if it was some sort of a motto,” said Charlie, laughing, but impressed.

“It is!” she replied. “Camp Fire Girls have pockets! That’s one of the things you’ll see in any Camp Fire book you read–any of the books that the National Council issues, I mean.”

“I surrender! I’m converted–absolutely!” said Jamieson, with a laugh. “I’ll admit right now that no lot of men or boys I know could have put this camp up in this shape in such a time. Why, hullo–what’s that? Looks as if you were going to have neighbors, Nell.”

His exclamation drew all eyes to the other end of the cove, and the surprise was general when a string of wagons was seen coming down a road that led to the beach from the bluff at that point.

“Looks like a camping party, all right,” said Trenwith. “Wonder who they can be?”

Eleanor looked annoyed. She remembered only too well and too vividly the disturbance that had followed the coming of the yacht, and she wondered if this new invasion of the peace of Plum Beach might not likewise be the forerunner of something unpleasant.

“They’ve got tents,” she said, peering curiously at the wagons. “See–they’re stopping there, and beginning to unload.”

“They’re doing themselves very well, whoever they are,” said Trenwith. “That’s a pretty luxurious looking camp outfit. And they’re having their work done for them by men who know the business, too.”

“Yes, and they’re not making a much better job of it than these girls did,” said Charlie. “Great Scott! Look at those cases of canned goods! They’ve got enough stuff there to feed a regiment.”

“Oh, I’m sorry they’re coming!” said Eleanor, “whoever they are! I don’t want to seem nasty, but we were ever so happy last summer when we were here quite alone.”

“These people won’t bother you, Nell,” said Jamieson.

“You don’t suppose this could be another trick of Mr. Holmes’s, do you, Charlie!”

“Hardly–so soon,” he said, frowning.

“He didn’t leave us in peace very long after we got here, you know. We only arrived yesterday–and see what happened to us last night!”

“Well, we might stroll over and have a look,” suggested Trenwith. “I guess there aren’t any private property rights on this beach. We’ll just look them over.”

“All right,” said Eleanor. “Want to come, Dolly and Bessie? I see you’ve finished your share of the work before the others.”

So the five of them walked over.

“Who’s going to camp here?” Trenwith asked one of the workmen.

“I don’t know, sir. We just got orders to set up the tents. That’s all we know about it.”

The three girls exchanged glances. That sounded as if it might indeed be Mr. Holmes who was coming. But before any more questions could be asked, there was a sudden peal of girlish laughter from above and a wild rush down from the bluff.

“Dolly Ransom! Isn’t this a surprise? And didn’t we tell you we had a surprise for you?”

“Why, Marcia Bates!” cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath, as the newcomer reached them. “I didn’t know you were going to leave Lake Dean so soon.”

“Well, we did! And we’re all here–Gladys Cooper, and all the Halsted Camp Girls!”

CHAPTER IV
ONE FRIEND LESS

In a moment the rest of the Halsted girls had reached the beach and were gathered about Bessie and Dolly. There was a lot of laughter and excitement, but it was plain that the girls who had once so utterly despised the members of the Camp Fire were now heartily and enthusiastically glad to see them. And suddenly Eleanor gave a glad cry.

“Why, Mary Turner!” she said. “Whatever are you doing here? I thought you were going to Europe!”

“I was, until this cousin of mine”–she playfully tapped Marcia on the shoulder–“made me change my plans. I’ll have you to understand that you’re not the only girl who can be a Camp Fire Guardian, Eleanor Mercer!”

“Well,” gasped Eleanor, “of all things! Do you mean that you’ve organized a new Camp Fire?”

“We certainly have–the Halsted Camp Fire, if you please! We’re not really all in yet, but we’ve got permission now from the National Council, and the girls are to get their rings to-night at our first ceremonial camp fire. Won’t you girls come over and help us?”

“I should say we would!” said Eleanor. “Why, this is fine, Mary! Tell me how it happened, won’t you?”

“It’s all your fault–you must know that. The girls have told me all about the horrid way they acted at Lake Dean, but really, you can’t blame them so much, can you, Nell? It’s the way they’re brought up–and, well, you went to the school, too, just as I did!”

“I know what you mean,” said Eleanor. “It’s a fine school, but–”

“That’s it exactly–that but. The school has got into bad ways, and these girls were in a fair way to be snobs. Well, Marcia and some of the others got to thinking things over, and they decided that if the Camp Fire had done so much for Dolly Ransom and a lot of your girls, it would be a good thing for them, too.”

“They’re perfectly right, Mary. Oh, I’m ever so glad!”