CHAPTER XII
A NEW SUSPICION
"I think the fire is more beautiful than anything else, almost," saidthe Guardian, as she looked at it and pointed it out to Bessie and Zara."It means so much."
"It looks like a welcome, Wanaka."
"That's just what it is--a real, hearty welcome. It shows us that oursisters of the fire are there waiting for us, ready to make uscomfortable after the trouble of the day. Around the fire we can forgetall the bad things that have happened, and think only of the good."
"It's easy to do that now. I've been frightened since Jake locked Zaraup in the woodshed, awfully frightened. And I've been unhappy, too. ButI've been happier in these last two days than I ever was before."
"That's the right spirit, Bessie. Make your misfortunes work out sothat you think only of the good they bring. That's the way to be happy,always. You know, it's an old, old saying that every cloud has a silverlining, but it's just as true as it's old, too. People laugh at thoseold proverbs sometimes,--people who think they know more than anyoneelse ever did--but in the end they usually admit that they don't reallyknow much more about life and happiness than the people who discoveredthose great truths first, or spoke about them first, even if someoneelse had discovered them."
"I've been happy, too," said Zara, but there was a break in her voice."If I only knew that my father was all right, then I wouldn't be able tobe anything but happy, now that I know Farmer Weeks can't take me withhim."
"You must try not to worry about your father, Zara. I'm sure that allhis troubles will be mended soon, just like yours. Don't you feel thatsomeone has been looking after you in all your troubles?"
"Oh, yes! I never, never would have been able to get away from FarmerWeeks except for that--"
"Well, just try to think that He will look after your father, too, Zara.If he has done nothing wrong he can't be punished, you may be sure ofthat. This isn't Russia, or one of those old countries where people canbe sent to prison without having done anything to deserve it, justbecause other people with more money or more power don't like them. Welive in a free country. Be sure that all will turn out right in theend."
"I feel cramped, Miss Eleanor. May I get out and run along by the horsesfor a little while?"
"Yes, indeed, Zara."
And Wanaka stopped the wagon, so that she could get out.
"Do you want to go, too, Bessie?"
"I think I'd rather ride, Miss Eleanor. I'm awfully tired."
"You shall, then. I want you to do whatever you like to-night. You'vecertainly done enough to-day to earn the right to rest."
They rode along in silence for a few minutes, while the glow of thegreat welcoming fire grew brighter.
"Miss Eleanor?"
"Yes, Bessie?"
"Don't you think it's very strange that Farmer Weeks should take so muchtrouble to try to get hold of Zara?"
"I do, indeed, Bessie. I've been puzzling about that."
"I believe he knows something about her and her father that no one elseknows, something that even Zara doesn't know about, I mean. You know, heand Zara's father were very friendly at first--or, at least, they usedto see one another a good deal."
"Yes? Bessie, what sort of man is Zara's father? You have seen a gooddeal of him, haven't you?"
"I used to go to see Zara sometimes, when I was able to get away. Andunless he was away on one of his trips he was always around, but henever said much."
"He could speak English, couldn't he?"
"Yes, but not a bit well. And when I first went there he was awfullyfunny. He seemed to be quite angry because I was there, and as soon as Icame, he rushed into one of the rooms, and put a lot of things away, andcovered them so I couldn't see them. But Zara talked to him in their ownlanguage, and then he was very nice, and he gave me a penny. I didn'twant it, but he made me take it and Zara said I ought to have it, too."
"It looks as if he had had something to hide, Bessie. But then a manmight easily want to keep people from finding out all about his businesswithout there being anything wrong."
"If you'd seen him, Miss Eleanor, I'm sure you wouldn't think he'd doanything wrong. He had the nicest face, and his eyes were kind. Andafter that, sometimes, I'd go there when Zara was out, and he was alwaysjust as nice and kind as he could be. He used to get me to talk to him,too, so that he could learn to speak English."
"Well, there's something very strange and mysterious about it all. Youfound this Mr. Weeks there the night he was taken away, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"That looks as if he had something to do with it. I don't know--butwe'll find out the truth some time, Bessie."
"I hope it will be soon. And, Miss Eleanor, I've been waiting a longtime to find out about myself, too. Sometimes I think I'm worse off thanZara, because I don't know where my father and mother are, or even whatbecame of them."
The Guardian started.
"Poor Bessie!" she said. "But we'll have to try to find out for you.There are ways of doing that that the Hoovers would never think of. AndI'm sure there'll be some explanation. They'd never just go away andleave you, without trying to find out if you were well and look afteryou."
"Not if they could help it, Miss Eleanor." Bessie's eyes filled withtears. "But perhaps they couldn't. Perhaps they are--dead."
"We must try to be cheerful, Bessie. After all, you know, they say nonews is good news, and when you don't positively know that somethingdreadful has happened, you can always go on hoping."
"Oh, I do, Miss Eleanor! Sometimes I've felt so bad that if I hadn'tbeen able to hope, I don't know what I'd have done. And Jake Hoover, heused to laugh at me, and say that I'd never see them again. He said theywere just bad people, glad to get rid of me, but I never believed that."
"That's right, Bessie. You keep on hoping, and we'll do all we can tomake your hopes true. Hope is a wonderful thing for people who are introuble. They can always hope that things will be better, and if theyonly hope hard enough, they will come to believe it. And once youbelieve a thing, it's half true, especially when it's a question ofdoing something."
"How do you mean?"
"Why, I'll try to explain. When Mrs. Chester first wanted me to takecharge of a Camp Fire, I thought I was just a silly, stupid, uselessgirl. But she said she knew I wasn't, and that I could make myselfuseful."
"You certainly have."
"I'm trying, Bessie, all the time. Well, she told me to wish that Imight succeed. And I did. And then I began to hope for it and to want itso much that gradually I believed I could. And as soon as I believed itmyself, why, it began to come."
"You wanted to so much--that's why, I suppose."
"Yes. You see, when you believe you can do a thing, you don't getdiscouraged when you fail at first. It's when you're doubtful and thinkyou can't do a thing at all, that it's hardest. Then when anything goeswrong, it's just what you expected, and it makes you surer than everthat you're going to fail."
"Oh, I see that! I understand now, I think."
"Remember that, Bessie. It's done me more good, knowing that, thanalmost anything else I can think of. When you start to do a thing, nomatter how hard it is, be hopeful and confident. Then the set-backswon't bother you, because you'll know that it's just because you'vechosen the wrong way, and you go back and start again, looking for theright way."
"Oh, look!" said Bessie, suddenly. "Isn't it growing black? Do you seethat big cloud? And I'm sure I felt drops of rain just then."
"I believe it is going to rain. That's too bad. It will spoil the greatCouncil Fire."
"Won't they have it if it rains?"
"I'm not sure whether there's a big enough place inside or not. But,even if there is, it's much better fun to have it out of doors--a greatbig fire always seems more cheerful if it's under the trees, so that thegreat shadows can dance about. And the singing sounds so much better inthe open air, too. Oh, I do hope this won't be a real storm!"
But that hope was doomed to disappointment. The rain came do
wn slowly atfirst, and in great drops, but as the wagons neared the fire and gotunder the shelter of the trees, the wind rose, and soon the rain waspouring down in great sheets, with flashes of lightning now and then. Asthey climbed out by the fire it hissed and spluttered as the rain fellinto it. No girls were in sight.
"They must all have gone in to get out of the rain, or else they'd beout here to welcome us," said the Guardian. "Oh, there's Mrs. Chester! Iknew she wouldn't let the rain keep her!"
And Wanaka ran forward to greet a sweet-faced woman whose hair wasslightly tinged with grey, but whose face was as rosy and as smiling asthat of a young girl. Bessie and Zara followed Eleanor shyly, but Mrs.Chester put them at their ease in a moment.
"I've heard all about you," she said. "And I'm not going to start in bytelling you I'm sorry for you, either, because I'm not!"
Had it not been for the laugh that was in her eyes, and her smile, thewords might have seemed unkind.
"I don't believe in being sorry for what's past," the Chief Guardianexplained at once. "If people are brave and good, trouble only helpsthem. And it's the future we must think about, always. That is in yourown hands now, and I'm sure you're going to deserve to be happy--and ifyou do, you can't help finding happiness. That's what I mean."
The two girls liked her at once. There was something so motherly, sokind and wholesome about Mrs. Chester, that they felt as if they hadknown her a long time.
"I don't know about the Council Fire to-night, Eleanor," she said,looking doubtfully at the rain. "It's too damp, I'm afraid, to have itoutdoors, and you know that there are so many times when we have to holdthe ceremonial fires indoors, that I hate to do it when, by waiting aday, we can have it in this beautiful place."
"Yes, that's so," said Eleanor. "It's almost sure to be clear to-morrow.And in winter, when it gets cold, we can't even hope to be outdoors verymuch, except for skating and snowshoeing. Do you know, girls, that inwinter we sometimes use three candles instead of a real fire?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Chester. "Of course, after all, it's the meaning of thefire, and not just the fire itself that counts. But I think it's betterto have both when we can. So I'm afraid you'll have to wait untilto-morrow night for your first Council Fire, girls."
Eleanor looked at them. Then she laughed.
"Really, it's a good thing, after all," she said. "They're so tired thatthey can hardly keep their eyes open now, Mrs. Chester. I hope there'sgoing to be a good, hot supper."
"There certainly is, my dear! And your girls won't have to cook it,either. Just for to-night you're to be guests of honor. And the newCamp Fire--the Snug Harbor camp, you know--begged me so hard to beallowed to cook the meal and serve it, that I agreed. Julia Kent hasdone wonders with those girls. You'd think they'd been cooking andworking all their lives, instead of it having been just the other way'round. And they simply worship her. Well, there are your tents overthere. You'll hear the call to supper in a few minutes."
She turned and left them, and Eleanor led the way to the tents she hadpointed out.
"I'm so delighted to hear about the Snug Harbor girls," she told Bessieand Zara. "You know we've wondered how that was going to turn out. Thereare about a dozen of them, and they're all girls whose parents are rich.They go to Europe, and have motor cars, and lovely clothes, andservants--two or three of them have their own maids, and they've nevereven learned to keep their own rooms neat."
"But if they're going to cook our supper--"
"That's just it, Bessie. That's what the Camp Fire has done for them.It has taught them that instead of being proud of never having to doanything for themselves, they ought to be ashamed of not knowing how.And before the summer's over I believe they'll be the best of all theCamp Fires in the whole city."
Supper, in spite of the storm that raged outside, was a jolly, happymeal. The girls were tired, but they brightened as the meal was served,and the few mistakes of the amateur waitresses only made everyone laugh.
Taps, the signal for bedtime, sounded early. All the girls, from thedifferent Camp Fires, were together for a moment.
"We'll have the Council Fire to-morrow night," said Mrs. Chester. "Andthe longer you sleep to-night, the readier you'll be to-morrow for allthe things we have to do. Good-night!"
And then, after all the girls together had sung the beautiful "Lay me tosleep in sheltering flame," silence rested on the camp.
Bessie slept like a log. But in the morning she awoke while everyoneelse was still asleep. In the east the sky was just turning pink, withthe first signs of the coming day. The sky was a deep, beautiful blue,and in the west, where it was still dark, the last stars were stilltwinkling. Bessie sighed with the beauty of everything, and the sense ofcomfort and peace that she enjoyed. Then she tried to go to sleep again,but she could not. She had too many things to think about. Zara,disturbed by her movements, woke up too, and looked at her sleepily.
"You remember," said Bessie, "that Wanaka told us last night that in afield not far away there were loads and loads of wild strawberries thatwe could pick? I think I'll get dressed and see if I can't get enoughfor breakfast, as a surprise."
"Shall I come with you?" asked Zara.
"No," said Bessie, laughing. "You go to sleep again--you're only halfawake now!"
She had no trouble in finding the strawberries, although, just becauseit was so beautiful, she walked around the great estate for quite awhile first. It was a wonderful place. Parts of it were beautifullycared for, with smooth, well clipped lawns, and a few old trees; partswere left just as nature had meant them to be, and to Bessie they seemedeven more beautiful. And still other acres were turned into farm lands,where there were all sorts of growing crops.
A few gardeners were about, and they smiled at Bessie as they saw her.She saw some of the deer that Eleanor had spoken of, too, who were sotame that they let her come as close as she liked. But she spent littletime in looking at them, and when she found the field where the berriesgrew she had soon picked a great apronful of them. When she returnedeveryone was up, and she was greeted with cries of joy when the girlssaw her burden.
"They'll make our breakfast ever so much nicer," said Eleanor. "It wasgood of you to think of them."
Not until after breakfast did they see Mrs. Chester--not, indeed, untilall the dishes had been washed and put away. And then she approachedwith a grave face, and called the Guardian aside. They talked togetherearnestly for a few minutes, and Eleanor's face grew as serious as theChief Guardian's. Bessie saw that they looked at her more than once asthey spoke, and that Eleanor shook her head repeatedly.
"I wonder what can be wrong, Zara," she said. "Do you suppose thatFarmer Weeks has been making trouble for us again?"
"Oh, I hope not! Do you think it's about us they're talking?"
"I'm afraid so. See, they're calling me. We'll soon know."
Bessie did indeed, soon know what had happened.
"Bessie," said Mrs. Chester, "did you go anywhere else this morning whenyou went for berries?"
"I just walked about the place, Mrs. Chester, and looked around. That'sall."
"But you were quite alone?"
"Yes, quite alone. I only saw a few men who were working, cutting thegrass, and trimming hedges."
"Oh, I'm sorry! Bessie, over there in the woods there's a place that'sfenced off, where General Seeley keeps a lot of pheasants. And some timesince last night someone has been in there and frightened the motherbirds and taken a lot of the eggs. Some of them were broken--and it wasnot an animal."
Bessie looked frightened and concerned.
"Oh, what a shame! But, Mrs. Chester, you don't think I did it?"