<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<h1><span class="small">THE</span> <br/>CAMP FIRE GIRLS <br/>AMID THE SNOWS</h1>
<p class="tbcenter">BY
<br/>MARGARET VANDERCOOK</p>
<hr>
<div class="pb" id="Page_7">[7]</div>
<h2 id="c1"><br/>CHAPTER I <br/><span class="sc">The Winter Manitou</span></h2>
<p>The snow was falling in heavy slashing
sheets, and a December snowstorm
in the New Hampshire hills
means something more serious than a
storm in city streets or even an equal downfall
upon more level meadows and plains.</p>
<p>Yet on this winter afternoon, about an
hour before twilight and along the base of
a hill where a rough road wandered between
tall cedar and pine trees and low bushes
and shrubs, there sounded continually above
the snow’s silencing two voices, sometimes
laughing, occasionally singing a brief line
or so, but more often talking. Accompanying
them always was a steady jingling of
bells.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_8">[8]</div>
<p>“We simply can’t get there to-night,
Princess,” one of the voices protested, still
with a questioning note as though hardly
believing in its own assertion.</p>
<p>“We simply can’t do anything else,
my child” the other answered teasingly.
“Have you ever thought how much harder
it is to travel backward in this world than
forward, otherwise I suppose we should
have had eyes placed in the back of our
heads and our feet would have turned
around the other way? Don’t be frightened,
there really isn’t the least danger.”</p>
<p>Then there was a sudden swish of a whip
cutting the cold air and with a fresh tinkling
of bells the shaggy pony plunged ahead.
Five minutes afterwards with an instinctive
stiffening of his forelegs he started
sliding slowly down a steep embankment,
where the road apparently ended, dragging
his load behind him and only stopping on
finally reaching the low ground and finding
his sleigh had overturned.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_9">[9]</div>
<p>For a while the unusual stillness was
oppressive. But a little later there followed
a movement and then an unsteady voice
calling, “Steady, Fire Star,” as a tall girl
in a gray hood and coat covered all over
with snow came crawling forth from the
uppermost side of the sleigh and immediately
began pulling at it with trembling
hands.</p>
<p>“Princess, Princess, please speak or move!
Oh, it is all my fault. I should never
have let you attempt it; I am the older
and even——”</p>
<p>A little smothered sound and a slight
disturbance under an immense fur rug
interrupted her: “I can’t speak, Esther,
until I get some of this snow out of my
mouth and I can’t move until this grocery
store is lifted off me. I’m—I’m the under
side of things; there are ten pounds of
sugar and a sack of flour and all the week’s
camping supplies between me and the gay
world.” A break in the cheerful tones
ended these words and there was no further
stirring, but Esther Clark failed to notice
this, as she first lifted the rug which had
almost covered up Betty Ashton and then
helped her to sit upright, looking more of a
Snow Princess than even the weather justified.
For all about her there were small
mounds of sugar and flour white as the
snow itself and dissolving like dew. While
Betty’s seal cap and coat were encrusted in
ice and the snow hung from her brows and
lashes, indeed her face, usually so brilliantly
colored, was now almost as pale.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_10">[10]</div>
<p>Esther was again tugging at the overturned
sleigh trying to set it upright, the
pony waiting motionless except for turning
his head as if with the suggestion that
matters be hurried along.</p>
<p>“I could manage a great deal better,
Betty, if you would help me,” Esther protested
a little indignantly. “I know the
girls at Sunrise cabin are getting dreadfully
worried over our being so late in arriving
at home.”</p>
<p>Betty shivered. “I am getting a bit
worried myself,” she agreed, “and I might
as well confess to you, Esther, that I haven’t
the faintest idea where we are, nor how far
from the village or our camp. This snow
has completely mixed me up; and I haven’t
sprained my ankle, of course, or broken it
or done anything <i>quite</i> so silly, but my foot
does hurt most awfully and I know I never
can stand up on it again and—and—if I
wasn’t a Camp Fire girl about to be made
a Torch Bearer I’d like to weep and weep
until I melted away into a beautiful iceberg.”
And then in spite of her brave
fooling Betty did blink and choke, but only
for an instant, for the sight of her companion’s
face made her smile again.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_11">[11]</div>
<p>“The runner of our sleigh has snapped in
two,” Esther next announced in accents of
despair after having partially dragged the
sleigh upright, although one runner still
remained imbedded several inches deeper
than the other in the drift of snow which
had caused their disaster.</p>
<p>Betty held up both hands. “I believe it
never rains but it pours,” she said a little
mockingly; “but what about the snow?
I am sorry I was so obstinate, dear. It is
nice to be sorry when the deed is done, isn’t
it? I suppose I should never have attempted
driving back to Sunrise Hill on
such an evening, but then we did need our
groceries so terribly in camp and I was
afraid nobody would bring them to-morrow.
And, well, as I have gotten you into this
scrape I must get you out of it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_12">[12]</div>
<p>So by clinging with both hands to Esther,
Betty Ashton, by sheer force of will, did
manage to rise on the one sound foot and
then putting the injured one on the ground
she stood wavering for a second. “I’m
thinking, Esther, so please don’t interrupt
me for a moment,” she gasped as soon as
she found breath. “I can’t but feel that
this is our first real emergency since we
started our camp fire in the woods this
winter. If we only are able to get out
of it successfully, why—why, won’t Polly be
envious?”</p>
<p>Betty Ashton was so plainly talking at
the present instant to gain time that the
older girl did not pay the slightest attention
to her; instead, she was thinking herself.
Of course she or Betty could mount
their pony and ride off somewhere to look
for help, but then Esther had no fancy for
being left alone in a snow-storm in a part of
the country which she did not know in
its present aspect and certainly under the
circumstances she had no intention of
leaving Betty to the same fate.</p>
<p>Imagination, however, was never one of
Esther Clark’s strong points, although fortunately
for them both now and in later
years it was always a gift of the other girl’s.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_13">[13]</div>
<p>“Better let me sit down again,” Betty
suggested, letting go of her clasp on her
friend; “and will you unhitch Fire Star
and lead her here to me. Somehow I think
it best for us to manage to get back on the
road and find some sort of shelter up there
under the trees until the worst of this storm
is past.”</p>
<p>With Betty to think and Esther to accomplish,
things usually moved swiftly. So
five minutes later, half leading and half
being led by the pony, Esther climbed the
embankment on foot with Betty riding
and clinging with both arms about Fire
Star’s neck. Under a pine tree partly
protected from the wind and snow by
scrub pines growing only a few feet away,
the girls found a temporary refuge. There
they remained sheltered by the fur rug
which Esther brought back on her second
trip. The pony safely covered over with
his own blanket stood hitched under another
tree a short distance away.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_14">[14]</div>
<p>Nevertheless, half an hour of waiting
found the two girls shivering uncomfortably
under their rug and losing courage
with every passing moment, for the storm
had not abated in the least and Betty was
really suffering agonies with her foot,
although she had removed her shoe, bathed
her ankle in snow and bound it up in her
own and Esther’s pocket handkerchiefs.</p>
<p>“Esther,” she said rather irritably, after
a fresh paroxysm of pain had left her
almost exhausted, “don’t you think that,
as we have been Camp Fire girls living in
the woods for the past six months, even
though conditions do seem trying, we ought
to <i>do</i> something and not just sit here in this
limp fashion and be snowed under?”</p>
<p>Esther nodded, but made no sort of suggestion.
She was so cold and worried about
Betty that she hadn’t an idea in her mind
save the haunting fear that if they continued
long in their present situation they might
actually be turned into icebergs.</p>
<p>However, Betty promptly gave her a
pinch that was realistic enough to be felt
in spite of all her frozenness. “Wake up,
Esther, dear, and if you are really so cold,
child, just warm yourself by your nose,
it certainly is red enough. Now as you
girls have always said I dearly loved to
boss, please, won’t you let me be general of
this expedition and you do what I say since
I am too lame to help?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_15">[15]</div>
<p>Again Esther nodded. She generally had
done whatever Betty Ashton had asked of
her since the day of her coming to the great
Ashton homestead in Woodford a little
more than half a year before. But as Betty
outlined her plan Esther grew interested
and in half a moment jumping up began
stamping her feet and swinging her arms
to get the warmth and vigor back into her
body.</p>
<p>“Why, Betty Ashton, of course we can
manage even to stay here in the woods all
night and not have such a horrid time!
It won’t be so difficult, I’ll have things
fixed in the least little while.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_16">[16]</div>
<p>A short time afterwards and Esther had
brought up from their broken sleigh a
portion of the precious grocery supplies
which she and Betty had driven into Woodford
early that afternoon to obtain—a can
of coffee, crackers, a side of bacon and,
most welcome of all, a bundle of kindling
tied as neatly together as toothpicks. For
several weeks of having to gather wood out
of doors, oftentimes in the snow and rain,
and then drying it under cover, had made an
occasional supply of kindling from the shops
in town extremely grateful to the camp
fire makers. Fortunately, Betty had filled
the last remaining space in their sleigh with
kindling wood before starting back to camp.</p>
<p>And in Esther’s several absences she had
been diligently preparing a place for a fire,
first by scooping away the snow with her
hands and then by scraping it with a three-pronged
stick which she had found nearby.</p>
<p>However, a fire in the snow was not easy
to start even by a Camp Fire girl, so that
fifteen minutes must have passed and an
entire box of matches been consumed before
the paper collected from about their packages
had persuaded even the kindling to
light. And then by infinite patience and
coaxing, wet pine twigs and cones were
added to the fire until finally the larger
logs, discovered under the surrounding
trees, also blazed into heat and light.</p>
<p>And while Betty was cherishing the fire,
Esther managed to make a partial canopy
over their heads with brushwood.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_17">[17]</div>
<p>There are but few things in this world
though that do not take a longer time to
accomplish than we at first expect and
require a longer patience. So that when the
two girls had finally arranged their temporary
winter shelter, the twilight had come
down and both of them were extremely
weary. Nevertheless, the most wonderful
coffee was made with melted snow in the
tin can, bacon sliced and fried with the
knife no Camp Fire girl fails to carry and
the crackers toasted into a smoky but
delicious brown. And then when supper
was over Betty crept close to Esther under
their rug resting her head on her shoulder.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_18">[18]</div>
<p>“No one knows where we are to-night,
Esther, so no one will worry. The girls
will think we stayed in town on account of
the storm and our friends in the village that
we are now safe back in Sunrise cabin.
So do let us make the best of things,” she
whispered. “To-night, at least, we are
real Camp Fire girls from necessity and
not choice, and I believe I can better understand
why our ancestors once used to worship
the fire as the symbol of home. Then,
too, I am glad we chose the pine trees for
our refuge. I wonder if you know this
legend? When Mary was in flight to Egypt
to save our Lord from Herod, she stopped
beneath a pine tree and rested there safe
from her enemies in a green chamber filled
with its balsamy fragrance, the tree proving
its love for the Christ Child by lowering
its limbs when Herod’s soldiers passed by.
And then when the Baby raised its hand to
bless the tree, it so marked it that when
the pine cone is cut lengthwise it shows the
form of a hand—the hand of Christ.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_19">[19]</div>
<p>With the telling of her story Betty’s
voice was sinking lower and lower, and as
her cheeks were now so flushed with her
nearness to the fire and with fever from the
pain in her foot, Esther hoped she might
soon fall asleep. So she made no reply,
but instead began singing the “Good-Night
Song” of the Camp Fire girls which
has been set to the beautiful old melody
“Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes.”
And though she began very softly, meaning
her song to reach only Betty’s ears, by and
by forgetting herself in the pleasure her
music always brought her, she let her voice
increase in power, until the final notes
could have been heard some distance
through the woods and even a little way up
the hill which stood like a solid white wall
before them. The snow had stopped falling
and the wind had died down, but the
coldness and the stillness were therefore
the more profound.</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“The sun is sinking in the west,</p>
<p class="t">The evening shadows fall;</p>
<p class="t0">Across the silence of the lake</p>
<p class="t">We hear the loon’s low call.</p>
<p class="t0">So let us, too, the silence keep,</p>
<p class="t">And softly steal away,</p>
<p class="t0">To rest and sleep until the morn</p>
<p class="t">Brings forth another day.”</p>
</div>
<p>“Betty, Betty!” Instead of allowing her
friend to sleep Esther began shaking her
nervously only a few moments after the
closing of her song.</p>
<p>And Betty started suddenly, giving a
little cry of pain and surprise, for evidently
she had been dreaming and found it hard
to come back to so strange a reality. Here
she and Esther were alone in the winter
woods not many miles from shelter and yet
unable to find it, while she had been dreaming
of herself as a poor half-frozen waif
somewhere out in a city street listening to
strains of music, which were not of Esther’s
song but of some instrument. The girl
rubbed her eyes and laughed.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_20">[20]</div>
<p>“Dear me, Esther, it’s too cold to sleep,
isn’t it? Let us put some more wood on
our fire and stay awake and talk. I think
the Winter Manitou, Peboan, must have
been visiting me with the wind playing the
strings of his harp, for I have just dreamed
I was listening to music.”</p>
<p>“You didn’t dream it; I wasn’t asleep
and I heard it also. There, listen!”</p>
<p>The two girls caught hold of one another’s
hands and silently they stared ahead of
them through the opening in their curious,
Esquimaux-like tent. Could anything be
more improbable and yet without doubt
the notes of a violin could be heard approaching
nearer and nearer.</p>
<p>Transfixed with surprise and pleasure
Esther kept still but Betty, who in spite of
her whims was a really practical person,
shook her head in a somewhat annoyed
fashion. “It is perfectly absurd you know,
Esther, for any human being to be strolling
through the New Hampshire woods on a
winter’s night playing the violin. We are
not in Germany or the Alps or in a story
book. But if it really is a person and not
the Spirit of Winter, as I still believe, why
he might as well help us out of our difficulty.
I don’t feel so romantic as I did an
hour or so ago.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_21">[21]</div>
<p>At this instant a dim figure did appear
around a turn in the road where the girls
had previously met disaster and putting
her cold fingers to her lips Betty cried
“Halloo, Halloo,” in as loud a voice as
possible and at the same time seizing one of
their burning logs she waved it as a signal
of distress.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_22">[22]</div>
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