"But--" began Weeks.
"Not a word more--or I"ll do as I say," said the policeman. He was energetic, if he was fat, and he had put a protective arm about Zara.
Weeks looked at him and then he slunk off.
And, as he went, the girls heard a merry chorus, "Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo,"
just as another train puffed in.
CHAPTER XI
THE CALL OF THE FIRE
"Wo-he-lo!"
How they did thrill at the sound of the watchword of the Camp Fire! How clearly, now, they understood the meaning of the three syllables, that had seemed to them so mysterious, so utterly without meaning, when they had first heard them on the sh.o.r.es of the lake, as, surprised, they peeped out and saw the merry band of girls who had awakened them after their flight from Hedgeville.
For a moment, so overjoyed were they, they couldn"t move at all. But then the spell was broken, as the call sounded again, loud and clear, rising above the noises of the engine that was puffing and snorting on the other side of the station. Farmer Weeks, a black look in his eyes as he shot them a parting glance full of malice, was forgotten as he slunk off.
"Thank you, oh, thank you!" cried Bessie to the astonished policeman, who looked as if he were about to begin asking them questions. "Come on, Zara!"
And, hand in hand, they raced around to the other side of the station again, but blithely, happily this time, and not in terror of their enemy, as they had come. And there, looking about her in all directions, was Eleanor Mercer, and behind her all the girls of the Manasquan Camp Fire.
"Oh, I"m so glad! I was afraid something had happened to you!" cried Eleanor. "But now it"s all right! We"re all here, and safe. In this state no one can hurt you--either of you!"
Laughing and full of questions, the other girls crowded around Zara and Bessie, so happily restored to them.
"We feel as if you were real Camp Fire Girls already!" said Eleanor Mercer, half crying with happiness. "The girls were wild with anxiety when they found you had gone away, too, Bessie, even though we hadn"t told them everything. But they were delighted when I got back and told them you were safe."
"We were, indeed," said Minnehaha. "But it was awful, Bessie, not to know what had become of you, or how to help you! We"d have done anything we could, but we didn"t know a single thing to do. So we had just to wait, and that"s the hardest thing there is, when someone you love is in trouble."
Bessie almost broke down at that. Until this wonderful meeting with the Camp Fire Girls no one but Zara had loved her, and the idea that these girls really did love her as they said--and had so n.o.bly proved--was almost too much for her. She tried to say so.
"Of course we love one another," said Eleanor. "That"s one of the laws of the Fire, and it"s one of the words we use to make up Wo-he-lo, too.
So you see that it"s just as important as it can be, Bessie."
"Yes, indeed, I do see that. I"d be awfully stupid if I didn"t, after the splendid way you"ve helped us, Miss Eleanor. What are we going to do now?"
"We"re going to join the big camp not far from here. Three or four Camp Fires are there together, and Mrs. Chester, who is Chief Guardian in the city, wants us to join them. I talked to her about you two over the long-distance telephone before we got on the train, and she"s so anxious to see you, and help me to decide what is best for you to do. You"ll love her, Bessie; you"re sure to. She"s so good and sweet to everyone.
All the girls just worship her."
"If she"s half as nice as you, we"re sure to love her," said Zara.
Eleanor laughed.
"I"m not half as wonderful as you think I am, Zara. But I"m nicer than I used to be, I think."
"Oh!"
"Yes, indeed! I used to be selfish and thoughtless, caring only about having a good time myself, and never thinking about other people at all.
But Mrs. Chester talked to me."
"I"ll bet she never had a chance to scold you."
"I"m afraid she did, Zara; but she didn"t want to. That"s not her way.
She never scolds people. She just talks to them in that wonderful, quiet way of hers, and makes them see that they haven"t been doing right."
"But I don"t believe you ever did anything that wasn"t right."
"Maybe I didn"t mean to, and maybe it wasn"t what I did that was wrong.
It was more what I didn"t do."
"I don"t see what you mean."
"Well, I was careless and thoughtless, just as I said. I used to dance, and play games, and go to parties all the time."
"I think that must be fine! Didn"t you have to work at home, though?"
"No; and that was just the trouble, you see. My people had plenty of money, and they just wanted me to have a good time. And I did--but I"ve had a better one since I started doing things for other people."
"I bet you always did, really--"
"I"m not an angel now, Zara, and I certainly never used to be, nor a bit like one. Just because I"ve happened to be able to help you two a little, you think altogether too much of me."
"Oh, no; we couldn"t--"
"Well, as I was saying, Mrs. Chester saw how things were going, and she started to talk to me. I was horrid to her at first, and wouldn"t pay any attention to her at all."
"I"m going to ask her about that. I don"t believe you ever were horrid to anyone."
"Probably Mrs. Chester won"t admit it, but it"s true, just the same, Bessie. But she talked to me, and kept on talking, and she made me think about all the poorer girls who had to work so hard and couldn"t go to parties. And I began to feel sorry, and wonder what I could do to make them happier."
"You see, that"s just what we said! You weren"t selfish at all!"
"I tried to stop as soon as I found out that I had been, Zara; that"s all. And I think anyone would do that. It"s because people don"t think of the unhappiness and misery of others that there"s so much suffering, not because they really want other people to be unhappy."
"I guess that"s so. I suppose even Farmer Weeks wouldn"t be mean if he really thought about it."
"I"m sure he wouldn"t--and we"ll have to try to reform him, too, before we"re done with him. You see, if there were more people like Mrs.
Chester, things would be ever so much nicer. She heard about the Camp Fire Girls, and she saw right away that it meant a chance to make things better, right in our home town."
"Is that how it all started?"
"Yes, with us. And it was the same way all over the country, because, really, there are lots and lots of n.o.ble, unselfish women like Mrs.
Chester, who want everyone to be happy."
"Is she as pretty as you, Miss Eleanor?"