The in the Mountains Part 9 (1/2)
”I don't suppose you did,” Eleanor went on. ”I don't think you mean to be wicked, any of you. But just try to think of how you would have felt if that house had caught fire in the night, and some of us had been burned to death because we couldn't get out.”
”I didn't--we never thought of that,” said Gladys. ”Did we, girls?”
”Well, I don't suppose you did. But that doesn't excuse the trick you played at all. I'm not going to say anything more now, but I think that if you stop to consider yourselves, you'll find out how mean you were, and what a contemptible thing you've done.”
With heads hanging, and tears in the eyes of some of them, completely crushed by Miss Eleanor's quiet anger as they would not have been had she heaped reproaches upon them, the raiders started to return to their own camp. Eleanor stood aside to let them pa.s.s; then, with Bessie, she went back to the camp.
”I hardly think we'll have any more trouble with them,” she said.
”I don't see why they dislike us so much,” said Bessie. ”We haven't done anything to them.”
”I don't know how to explain it, Bessie. It isn't American; that's the worst thing about it. But you know that in Europe they have lords and dukes and an aristocracy, don't you? People who think that because they're born in certain families they are better than anyone else?”
”Yes.”
”Well, there's a good deal of excuse for people to feel that way over there, because it's their system, and everyone keeps on admitting it, and so making the aristocrats believe it. They're the descendants of men who, hundreds of years ago, really did do great things, and earned certain honors that their children were allowed to inherit.”
”But it isn't the same over here at all, Miss Eleanor.”
”No, and that's just it. But these girls, you see, are all from rich homes. And in this country some people who have a lot of money are trying to make an aristocracy, and the only reason for being in it is having money. That's all wrong, because in this country the best men and women have always said and believed that the only thing that counted was what you were, not what you had.”
”Well, I'm not going to feel bad about them, Miss Eleanor. I guess that if they really were such wonderful people they wouldn't think they had to talk about it all the time, they'd be sure that people would find it out for themselves.”
”You're very sensible, Bessie, and I only hope the other girls will take it the same way. I really couldn't blame them if they tried to get even in some fas.h.i.+on, but I hope they won't, because I don't want to have any trouble. I'm afraid of Dolly, though.”
”I think Dolly's perfectly fine!” said Bessie, enthusiastically. ”They were willing to be nice to her, but she stuck to us, and said she wouldn't have anything to do with them.”
”That's what the Camp Fire has done for her, Bessie. I'm afraid that if Dolly hadn't joined us, she'd have been as bad as they are, simply because she wouldn't have stopped to think.”
Bessie considered that thoughtfully for a moment before she answered.
”Well, then, Miss Eleanor,” she said, finally, ”don't you suppose that if that's so, some of those girls would be just as nice as Dolly, if they belonged to the Camp Fire and really understood it?”
”I'm sure of it, Bessie--just as sure as I can be! And I do wish there was some way of making them understand us. I'd rather get girls like that, who have started wrong, than those who have always been nice.”
Contrary to Bessie's expectations, when they reached the Living Camp, Eleanor made no appeal to the girls to refrain from trying to get even with the raiders. Eleanor knew that if she gave positive orders that no such attempt was to be made she would be obeyed, but she felt that this was an occasion when it would be better to let the girls have free rein. She knew enough about them to understand that a smouldering fire of dislike, were it allowed to burn, would do more harm than an outbreak, and she could only hope that they would not take the matter too seriously.
”We're all going in bathing this afternoon after lunch,” said Dolly to Bessie, after breakfast. ”I asked Miss Eleanor, and she said it would be all right. The water's cold here, but not too cold, and with this smoke all over everything, I think it will be better in the water than it would be anywhere else.”
”The wind hasn't s.h.i.+fted much yet, has it?” said Zara.
”It's s.h.i.+fted, but not altogether the right way,” said Bessie. ”I think the houses along the lake are all right now, but the wind is blowing the fire in a line parallel with them, you see, and it will burn over a lot more of the woods before they can get it under control.”
”Miss Eleanor says we'll have to stay here a couple of days, at least,” said Margery. ”Girls, what do you think about those cats in the next camp?”
Dolly's teeth snapped viciously.
”I think we ought to get even with them,” she said. ”Are we going to let them think they can play a trick like that on us and not hear anything at all about it?”
”Oh, what's the use?” said Margery. ”I think it would be better if we didn't pay any attention to them at all--just let them think we don't care.”
”You were mad enough last night and this morning, Margery,” said Dolly. ”You didn't act then as if you didn't care!”
”No, I suppose I didn't. I was as mad as a wet hen, and there's no mistake about that. But, after all, what's the use? I suppose we could put up some sort of game on them, but I'm pretty sure Miss Eleanor wouldn't like it.”
”I think you're right,” said Bessie. ”If we let them alone they'll get tired of trying to do anything nasty to us. You ought to have seen the way they sneaked off when Miss Eleanor spoke to them this morning. They acted just the way I've seen a dog do after it's been whipped.”
”Oh, that's all right, too, Bessie,” said Dolly. ”But that won't last. They probably did feel pretty cheap at first, but when they've had a chance to talk things over, they'll decide that they had the best of us. And I know how Gladys Cooper and the rest of the girls from home will talk. They'll tell about it all over town.”
”Let them!” said Margery. ”I'm not going to do a thing. And you can't start a war all by yourself, Dolly. If you try it you'll only get into trouble, and be sorry.”
”Oh, will I?” said Dolly, defiantly. ”Well, I'm not saying a word. But if I see a good chance to get even with them, I'm going to do it--and I won't ask for any help, either! Just you wait!”
”Let's quit sc.r.a.pping among ourselves, Dolly. Wouldn't they just be tickled to death if they knew we were doing that! Nothing would please them any better.”
But even Margery's newly regained patience was to be sorely tried that afternoon, when, after an early lunch, the Camp Fire Girls donned their bathing dresses and went in swimming off the float in front of the Worcester camp.
”Come on, Dolly,” she cried. ”See that rock out there? I'll race you there and back!”
They went in together, diving so that their heads struck water at just the same moment, while the rest of the girls watched them from the float. On the outward journey they were close together, but they had not more than started back when there was a sudden outburst of laughter from the float where Gladys Cooper and her friends were watching, and the next moment a white streak shot through the water, making a terrific din, and kicking up a tremendous lot of spray.
”Whatever is that?” cried Zara.
”A motor boat,” said Mary King. ”Look at it go! Why, what are they trying to do?”
The answer to that question was made plain in a moment. For the motor boat, into which three or four of the girls from the next camp had leaped, kept das.h.i.+ng back and forth between the float and the rock. It raised great waves as it pa.s.sed, and made fast swimming, and for that matter, swimming of any sort, almost impossible. Moreover, it was plain from the laughter of those on board that their only purpose was to annoy the Camp Fire Girls and spoil their sport in the water.
Dolly and Margery, exhausted by their struggle with the waves from the motor boat, struggled to the float as best they could and came up, dripping and furious.
”See that!” cried Dolly. ”They can't be doing that for fun. All they want to do is to bother us. You'd think we had tried to do something mean to them the way they keep on nagging us.”
”They certainly seem to be looking for trouble,” said Margery, ”But let's try not to pay any attention to them, girls.”
Margery knew that Eleanor Mercer expected her, so far as she could, to help her on the rare occasions when it was necessary to keep the girls in order, and she realized that she was facing a test of her temper and of her ability to control others: She was anxious to become a Guardian herself, and she now sternly fought down her inclination to agree with Dolly that something should be done to take down the arrogant girls from the next camp, who were so determined to drive them away.
”I shall have to speak to whoever is in charge of those girls,” said Eleanor. ”I'm quite sure that no teacher would permit such behavior, but I can imagine that anyone who tried to control those girls would have her hands full, too.”
”You bet she would!” said Dolly. ”Miss Eleanor, isn't there some way we can get even?”
Eleanor ignored the question. All her sympathies were with Dolly, but she really wanted to avoid trouble, although it was easy to see that unless the other girls changed their tactics, trouble there was bound to be. So she tried to think of what to say to Dolly.
”Try to be patient, Dolly,” she said, finally. ”Did you ever hear the old saying that pride goes before a fall? I've never known people to act the way those girls are doing without being punished for it in some fas.h.i.+on. If we give them the chance, they'll do something sooner or later that will get them into trouble. And what we want to do, if we can, is to remember that two wrongs don't make a right, and that for us to let ourselves become revengeful won't help matters at all.”
But for once Dolly did not seem disposed to take Miss Eleanor's advice as she usually did. Stealing a look at her chum's face, Bessie knew that Dolly would not rest until she had worked some scheme of revenge, and she felt that she couldn't blame Dolly, either. She could never remember being as angry as these rich, sn.o.bbish girls had made her.
Time and again,--every time, in fact, that any of the Camp Fire Girls ventured into the water--the motor boat returned to the charge. Their afternoon's sport in the water, to which all the girls had looked forward so eagerly, was completely spoiled, and the tormentors did not refrain even when Miss Eleanor, who had intended to sit on the float without swimming at all, challenged two or three of the girls to a race. She did that in the hope that the other girls might respect her, but her hope was vain.