The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake

Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake,
by Jane L. Stewart

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Title: The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake Bessie King in Summer Camp
Author: Jane L. Stewart
Release Date: April 20, 2004 [EBook #12091]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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FIRE GIRLS AT LONG LAKE ***

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[Illustration: Dolly was bound to a tree, a handkerchief over her
mouth.]
CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES, VOLUME III

The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake
or
Bessie King in Summer Camp
by
JANE L. STEWART
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Chicago AKRON, OHIO New York
MADE IN U.S.A.
1914
The Saalfield Publishing Co.

The Camp Fire Girls at Long Lake
CHAPTER I
A GROUNDLESS JEALOUSY
"I told you we were going to be happy here, didn't I, Zara?"
The speaker was Dolly Ransom, a black-haired, mischievous Wood
Gatherer of the Camp Fire Girls, a member of the Manasquan Camp
Fire, the Guardian of which was Miss Eleanor Mercer, or Wanaka, as
she was known in the ceremonial camp fires that were held each month.
The girls were staying with her at her father's farm, and only a few days
before Zara, who had enemies determined to keep her from her friends
of the Camp Fire, had been restored to them, through the shrewd
suspicions that a faithless friend had aroused in Bessie King, Zara's best
chum.

Zara and Dolly were on top of a big wagon, half filled with new-mown
hay, the sweet smell of which delighted Dolly, although Zara, who had
lived in the country, knew it too well to become wildly enthusiastic
over anything that was so commonplace to her. Below them, on the
ground, two other Camp Fire Girls in the regular working costume of
the Camp Fire--middy blouses and wide blue bloomers--were tossing
up the hay, under the amused direction of Walter Stubbs, one of the
boys who worked on the farm.
"I'm awfully glad to be here with the girls again, Dolly," said Zara. "No,
that's not the way! Here, use your rake like this. The way you're doing
it the wagon won't hold half as much hay as it should."
"Is Bessie acting as if she was your teacher, Margery?" Dolly called
down laughingly to Margery Burton, who, because she was always
laughing, was called Minnehaha by the Camp Fire Girls. "Zara acts just
as if we were in school, and she's as superior and tiresome as she can
be."
"She's a regular farm girl, that Zara," said Walt, with a grin. "Knows as
much about packin' hay as I do--'most. Bessie, thought you'd lived on a
farm all yer life. Zara there can beat yer all hollow at this. You're only
gettin' half a pickful every time you toss the hay up. Here--let me show
you!"
"I'd be a pretty good teacher if I tried to show Margery, Dolly," laughed
Bessie King. "You hear how Walter is scolding me!"
"He's quite right, too," said Dolly, with a little pout. "You know too
much, Bessie--I'm glad to find there's something you don't do right.
You must she stupid about some things, just like the rest of us, if you
lived on a farm and don't know how to pitch hay properly after all these
years!"
Bessie laughed. Dolly's smile was ample proof that there was nothing
ill-natured about her little gibe.
"Girls on farms in this country don't work in the fields--the men

wouldn't let them," said Bessie. "They'd rather have them stay in a hot
kitchen all day, cooking and washing dishes. And when they want a
change, the men let them chop wood, and fetch water, and run around
to collect the eggs, and milk the cows, and churn butter and fix the
garden truck! Oh, it's easy for girls and women on a farm--all they have
to do is a few little things like that. The men do all the hard work. You
wouldn't let your wife do more than that, would you, Walter?"
The boy flushed.
"When I get married, I'm aimin' to have a hired gal to do all them
chores," he said. "They's some farmers seem to think when they marry
they're just gettin' an extra lot of hired help they don't have to pay fer,
but we don't figger that way in these parts. No, ma'am."
He looked shyly at Dolly as he spoke, and Dolly,