The at the Seashore Part 3 (2/2)
One by one the girls of the Halsted Camp Fire stepped forward, and each repeated her Desire to be a Wood-Gatherer, and was received by Eleanor, who explained to each some new point of the Law of the Fire, so that all might learn. And to each, separately, as she slipped the silver ring of the Camp Fire on her finger, she repeated the beautiful exhortation: Firmly held by the sinews which bind them, As f.a.gots are brought from the forest So cleave to these others, your sisters, Whenever, wherever you find them.
Be strong as the f.a.gots are st.u.r.dy; Be pure in your deepest desire; Be true to the truth that is in you; And--follow the law of the Fire!
One by one as they received their rings, the newcomers slipped into seats about the fire, each one finding a place between two of the Manasquan girls. Marcia Bates, flushed with pleasure, took a seat between Bessie and Dolly.
”Oh, how beautiful it all is!” she said. ”I don't see how any of us could ever have laughed at the Camp Fire! But, of course, we didn't know about all this, or we never would have laughed as we did.”
”I love the part about 'So cleave to these others, your sisters,'” said Dolly. ”It's so fine to feel that wherever you go, you'll find friends wherever there's a Camp Fire--that you can show your ring, and be sure that there'll be someone who knows the same thing you know, and believes in the same sort of things!”
”Yes, that's lovely, Dolly. Of course, we've all read about this, but you have to do it to know how beautiful it is. I'm so glad you girls were here for this first Council Fire of ours. You know how everything should be done, and that seems to make it so much better.”
”It would have pleased you just as much, and been just as lovely if you'd done it all by yourselves, Marcia. It's the words, and the ceremony that are so beautiful--not the way we do it. Every Camp Fire has its own way of doing things. For instance, some Camp Fires sing the Ode to Fire all together, but we have Margery do it alone because she has such a lovely voice.”
”I think it was splendid. I never had any idea she could sing so well.”
”Her voice is lovely, but it sounds particularly soft and true out in the open air this way, and without a piano to accompany her. Mine doesn't--I'm all right to sing in a crowd, but when I try to sing by myself, it's just a sort of screech. There isn't any beauty to my tones at all, and I know it and don't try to sing alone.”
”Aren't they all in now?” asked Bessie.
There had been a break in the steady appearance of new candidates before Eleanor. But, even as she spoke, another figure glided into the light.
”No. There's Gladys Cooper,” said Marcia, with a little start.
”I wonder if she sees what there is to the Camp Fire now,” said Dolly, speculatively.
”What is your desire?” asked Eleanor.
”I desire to become a Camp Fire Girl and to obey the law of the Camp Fire,” said Gladys, in a mechanical, sing-song voice, entirely different from the serious tones of those who had preceded her.
”She's laughing to herself,” said Marcia, indignantly. ”Just listen! She's repeating the Desire as if it were a bit of doggerel.”
They heard her saying: ”Seek beauty, Give service, Pursue knowledge, Hold on to health, Glorify work, Be happy. This law of the Camp Fire I will strive to follow.”
”Give service,” repeated Eleanor slowly. ”You have heard what I said to the other girls, Gladys. I want you to understand this point of the law. It is the most important of all, perhaps. It means that you must be friendly to your sisters of the Camp Fire; that you must love them, and put them above yourself.”
”I must do all that for my chums--the girls in our Camp Fire, you mean, I suppose?” said Gladys. ”I don't care anything about these other girls. And, Miss Mercer, all that you're going to say in a minute--'So cleave to these others, your sisters'--that doesn't mean the girls in any old Camp Fire, does it?”
Startled, Eleanor was silent for a moment. Mary Turner looked at Gladys indignantly.
”It means every girl in every Camp Fire,” said Eleanor, finally. ”And more than that, you must serve others, in or out of the Camp Fire.”
”Oh, that's nonsense!” said Gladys. ”I couldn't do that.”
”Then you are not fit to receive your ring,” said Eleanor.
CHAPTER VI.
AN UNHAPPY ENDING.
There was a gasp of astonishment and dismay from the girls. Somehow all seemed to feel as if Eleanor's reproach were directed at them instead of at the pale and angry Gladys, who stood, scarcely able to believe her ears, looking at the Guardian. There had been no anger in Eleanor's voice, only sorrow and distress.
”Why, what do you mean, Miss Mercer?” Gladys gasped.
”Exactly what I say, Gladys,” said Eleanor, in the same level voice. ”You are not fit to be one of us unless you mean sincerely and earnestly to keep the Law of the Fire. We are a sisterhood; no girl who is not only willing, but eager, to become our sister, may join us.”
Slowly the meaning of her rejection seemed to sink into the mind of Gladys.
”Do you mean that you're not going to let me join?” she asked in a shrill, high pitched voice that showed she was on the verge of giving way to an outbreak of hysterical anger.
”For your own sake it is better that you should not join now, Gladys. Listen to me. I do not blame you greatly for this. I would rather have you act this way than be a hypocrite, pretending to believe in our law when you do not.”
”Oh, I hate you! I hate the Camp Fire! I wouldn't join for anything in the world, after this!”
”There will be time to settle that when we are ready to let you join, Gladys,” said Eleanor, a little sternness creeping into her voice, as if she was growing angry for the first time. ”To join the Camp Fire is a privilege. Remember this--no girl does the Camp Fire a favor by joining it. The Camp Fire does not need any one girl, no matter how clever, or how pretty, or how able she may be, as much as that girl needs the Camp Fire. The Camp Fire, as a whole, is a much greater, finer thing than any single member.”
Sobs of anger were choking Gladys when she tried to answer. She could not form intelligible words.
Eleanor glanced at Mary Turner, and the Guardian of the new Camp Fire, on the hint, put her arm about Gladys.
”I think you'd better go back to the camp now, dear,” she said, very gently. ”You and I will have a talk presently, when you feel better, and perhaps you will see that you are wrong.”
All the life and spirit seemed to have left the girls as Gladys, her head bowed, the sound of her sobs still plainly to be heard, left the circle of the firelight and made her lonely way over the beach toward the tents of her own camp. For a few moments silence reigned. Then Eleanor spoke, coolly and steadily, although Mary Turner, who was close to her, knew what an effort her seeming calm represented.
”We have had a hard thing to do to-night,” she said. ”I know that none of you will add to what Gladys has made herself suffer. She is in the wrong, but I think that very few of us will have any difficulty in remembering many times when we have been wrong, and have been sure that we were right. Gladys thinks now that we are all against her--that we wanted to humiliate her. We must make her understand that she is wrong. Remember, Wo-he-lo means love.”
She paused for a moment.
”Wo-he-lo means love,” she repeated. ”And not love for those whom we cannot help loving. The love that is worth while is that we give to those who repel us, who do not want our love. It is easy to love those who love us. But in time we can make Gladys love us by showing that we want to love her and do what we can to make her happy. And now, since I think none of us feel like staying here, we will sing our good-night song and disperse.”
And the soft voices rose like a benediction, mingling in the lovely strains of that most beautiful of all the Camp Fire songs.
Silently, and without the usual glad talk that followed the ending of a Council Fire, the circle broke up, and the girls, in twos and threes, spread over the beach.
”Walk over with me, won't you?” Marcia Bates begged Dolly and Bessie. ”Oh, I'm so ashamed! I never thought Gladys would act like that!”
”It isn't your fault, Marcia,” said Dolly. ”Don't be silly about it. And, do you know, I'm not angry a bit! Just at first I thought I was going to be furious. But--well, somehow I can't help admiring Gladys! I like her better than I ever did before, I really do believe!”
”Oh, I do!” said Bessie, her eyes glowing. ”Wasn't she splendid? Of course, she's all wrong, but she had to be plucky to stand up there like that, when she knew everyone was against her!”
”But she had no right to insult all you girls, Bessie.”
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