and get ready when breakfast is over,” said Eleanor as they were finishing the meal. “You girls whose turn it is to wash up had better get through as quickly as you can. Then we’ll all get the packs ready. We have to take the boat that leaves at half past nine for the other end of Lake Dean.”

“Why, there’s someone coming! It’s those girls from the other camp!” announced Dolly, suddenly. She had left the table, and was looking out of the window.

And, sure enough, when the Camp Fire Girls went out on the porch in a minute, they saw advancing the private school girls, whose snobbishness had nearly ruined their stay at Camp Sunset. Marcia Bates, who had been rescued with her friend, Gladys Cooper, acted as spokesman for them.

“We’ve come to tell you that we’ve all decided we were nasty and acted like horrid snobs,” she said. “We have found out that you’re nice girls—nicer than we are. And we’re very grateful—of course I am, especially—for you helping us. And so we want you to accept these little presents we’ve brought for you.”

CHAPTER II
TROUBLE SMOOTHED AWAY

Probably none of the Camp Fire Girls had ever been so surprised in their lives as when they heard the object of this utterly unexpected visit. Marcia’s eyes were rather blurred while she was speaking, and anyone could see that it was a hard task she had assumed.

It is never easy to confess that one has been in the wrong, and it was particularly hard for these girls, whose whole campaign against the Camp Fire party had been based on pride and a false sense of their own superiority, which, of course, had existed only in their imaginations.

For a moment no one seemed to know what to do or say. Strangely enough, it was Dolly, who had resented the previous attitude of the rich girls more than any of her companions, who found by instinct the true solution.

She didn’t say a word; she simply ran forward impulsively and threw her arms about Marcia’s neck. Then, and not till then, as she kissed the friend with whom she had quarreled, did she find words.

“You’re an old dear, Marcia!” she cried. “I knew you wouldn’t keep on hating us when you knew us better—and you’ll forgive me, won’t you, for playing that horrid trick with the mice?”

Dolly had broken the ice, and in a moment the stiffness of the two groups of girls was gone, and they mingled, talking and laughing naturally.

“I don’t know what the presents you brought are—you haven’t shown them to us yet,” said Dolly, with a laugh. “But I’m sure they must be lovely, and as for accepting them, why, you just bet we will!”

“You know,” said Marcia a little apologetically, “there aren’t any real stores up here, and we couldn’t get what we would really have liked, but we just did the best we could. Girls, get those things out!”

And then a dozen blankets were unrolled, beautifully woven Indian blankets, such as girls love to use for their dens, as couch covers and for hangings on the walls. Dolly exclaimed with delight as she saw hers.

“Heavens! And you act as if they weren’t perfectly lovely!” she cried. “Why, Marcia, how can you talk as if they weren’t the prettiest things! If that’s what you call just doing the best you can, I’m afraid to think of what you’d have got for us if you’d been able to pick out whatever you wanted. It would have been something so fine that we’d have been afraid to take it, I’m sure.”

“Well, we thought perhaps you’d find them useful if you’re going on this tramp of yours,” said Marcia, blushing with pleasure. “And I’m ever so glad you like them, if you really do, because I helped to pick them out. There’s one for each of you, and then we’ve got a big Mackinaw jacket for Miss Mercer, so that she’d have something different.”

“I can’t tell you how happy this makes me!” said Eleanor, swallowing a little hard, for she was evidently deeply touched. “I don’t mean the presents, Marcia, though they’re lovely, but the spirit in which you all bring them.”

“We—we wanted to show you we were sorry, and that we understood how mean we’d been,” said Marcia.

“Oh, my dear, do let’s forget all that!” said Eleanor, heartily. “We don’t want to remember anything unpleasant. Let’s bury all that, and just have the memory that we’re all good friends now, and that we’d never have been anything else if we’d only understood one another in the beginning as well as we do now.

“That’s the reason for most of the quarrels in this world; people don’t understand one another, that’s all. And when they do, it’s just as it is with us—they wonder how they ever could have hated one another!”

“Why, where’s Gladys Cooper?” asked Dolly, suddenly. She had been looking around for the girl who had been chiefly responsible for all the trouble, and who had been, before this meeting, one of Dolly’s friends in the city from which she and Marcia, as well as the Camp Fire Girls, came. And Gladys was missing.

“She—why—she—she isn’t feeling very well,” stammered Marcia unhappily. But a look at Dolly’s face convinced her that she might as well tell the truth. “I’m awfully sorry,” she went on shamefacedly, “but Gladys was awfully silly.”

“You mean she hasn’t forgiven us?” said Eleanor gently.

“She’s just stupid,” flashed Marcia. “What has she got to forgive? She ought to be here, thanking Dolly and Bessie King for finding us, just as I am. And she’s sulking in her room, instead!”

“She’ll change her mind, Marcia,” said Eleanor, “just as the rest of you have done. I’m dreadfully sorry that she feels that way, because it must make her unhappy. But please don’t be angry with her if you really want to please us. We’re just as ready and just as anxious to be friends with her as with all the rest of you, and some time we will be, too. I’m sure of that.”

“We’ll make her see what a fool she is!” said Marcia, hotly. “If she’d only come with us, she’d have seen it for herself. She said all the girls here would crow over us, and act as if we were backing down, and had done this because someone made us.”

Eleanor laughed heartily.

“Well, that is a silly idea!” she said. “Just explain to her that we were just as pleased and as surprised to see you as we could be, Marcia. You didn’t need to come here this way at all, and we know it perfectly well. You did it just because you are nice girls and wanted to be friendly, and we appreciate the way you’ve come a good deal more than we do the lovely presents, even.”

“Well, I hope we’ll see you again,” said Marcia. “If you’re going on that half past nine boat we’ll go back now, and let you pack, unless we can help you?”

“No, you can’t help us. We’ve really got very little to do. But don’t go. Stay around, if you will, and we’ll all talk and visit with you while we do what there is to be done.”

“I’m awfully sorry Gladys is cutting up so. It makes me feel ashamed, Dolly,” said Marcia, when she and Dolly were alone. “But you know how she is. I think she’s really just as sorry as the rest of us, but—”

“But she’s awfully proud, and she won’t show it, Marcia. I know, for I’m that way myself, though I really do think I’ve been behaving myself a little better