<h2 id="c2"><br/>CHAPTER II <br/>“<span class="sc">Sunrise Cabin</span>”</h2>
<p><SPAN href="#pic1">“Ach, gnädige Fräuleins, it ist not possible.”</SPAN></p>
<p>“No, I know it isn’t,” Betty
returned with her most demure expression,
although there were little sparks of light
at the back of her gray-blue eyes. She
rose stiffly from the ground with Esther’s
assistance and stood leaning on her arm,
while both girls without trying to hide
their astonishment surveyed a middle aged,
shabbily dressed German with his violin
case under one arm and his violin under
the other.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_23">[23]</div>
<p>“I haf been visiting the Orphan Asylum
in this neighborhood where I haf friends,”
he explained. “I am in Woodford only a
few days now and after supper when the
storm is over I start back to town. Then I
thought I heard some one singing, calling,
perhaps it is you?” He looked only at
Betty, since in the semi-darkness with the
fire as a background it was difficult to
distinguish but one object at a time and
that only by concentrated attention. But
as she shook her head he turned toward
Esther.</p>
<p>“When I hear the singing I play my
violin, thinking if some one was lost in these
hills I may find them.”</p>
<p>But Esther was not thinking of her discoverer,
only of what he had said. “Do
you mean we are really not far from the
Country Orphan Asylum?” she asked incredulously.
“And actually I have gotten
lost in a neighborhood where I have spent
most of my life! It is the snow that has
made things seem so strange and different!”
Turning to Betty she forgot for a moment
the presence of the stranger. “I’ll find my
way to the asylum right off and bring some
one here to mend our sleigh and give poor
little Fire Star something to eat. I don’t
believe we are more than two miles from
Sunrise Camp.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_24">[24]</div>
<p>However, Betty was by this time
attempting to make their situation clearer
to the newcomer. She pointed toward
their sleigh at the bottom of the gully and
their pony under the tree and told him of
camp fires and grocery supplies to be carried
to Sunrise cabin, until out of the chaos
these facts at least became clear to his
mind—the girls had lost their way in the
storm and because of Betty’s injured ankle
and the broken vehicle, had been unable to
make their way home.</p>
<p>At about the same hour of this same
evening, two other young women were
walking slowly up and down in front of a
log house in a clearing near the base of a
hill, with their arms intertwined about
each other’s shoulder. Outside the closed
front door of the house a lighted lantern
swung. From the inside other lights shone
through the windows, while every now and
then a face appeared and a finger beckoned
toward the sentinels outside. Nevertheless,
they continued their unbroken marching,
only stopping now and then to stare out
across the snow-covered landscape.</p>
<p>“They simply have not tried to attempt
it, Polly; it is foolish for you to be so
worried,” one of the voices said.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_25">[25]</div>
<p>But her companion, whose long black
hair was hanging loose to her waist and
who wore a long red cape and a red woolen
cap giving her a curiously fantastic appearance,
only shook her head decisively.</p>
<p>“You can’t know the Princess as well as
I do, Rose, or you would never believe she
would give up having her own way. She
went into town when the rest of us thought
it unwise and she will come back, frozen,
starved, goodness only knows what, still
come back she will. Poor Esther is but
wax in her hands. I wonder if anything
happens to break the Princess’ will whatever
will become of her?”</p>
<p>The other girl sighed and her friend gazed
at her sympathetically but a little curiously.</p>
<p>“Betty will bear disappointment just as
the rest of the world does,” she answered,
“filling her life with what she can have.
But I do wish she and Esther would come
back to camp now, or at least send us some
word. The storm has been over for several
hours and none of us will be able to sleep
to-night on account of the uncertainty.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_26">[26]</div>
<p>With one of her characteristic movements
Polly O’Neill now moved swiftly away
from the speaker. “I am going to ring our
emergency bell if you are willing, Rose,”
she announced. “Oh, I know we Camp Fire
girls hate to appeal to outsiders for aid,
but it’s got to be done for once, for I simply
can’t stand this suspense about Betty and
Esther any longer.” Then without waiting
for an answer, she ran toward the back
yard of the cabin and an instant later the
loud clanging of a bell startled the peace
and quiet of the country night, but only for
a moment, because before the second pull
at the bell rope Polly felt her arm being
held fast.</p>
<p>“Don’t ring again, Polly, or at least not
yet,” her companion insisted, “for I am
almost sure I can see a dark object coming
this way along our road and there’s a chance
of its being Betty and Esther.”</p>
<p>Ten minutes later the front door of the
Sunrise cabin was suddenly burst open and
out into the snow piled half a dozen other
girls in as many varieties of heavy blanket
wrappers. The music of Fire Star’s sleigh
bells had reached their ears several moments
before the arrival of the wayfarers.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_27">[27]</div>
<p>However, very soon afterwards, following
a suggestion of Sylvia Wharton’s, Betty
Ashton was borne into the cabin, four of
the girls carrying her on a light canvas cot.
This they set down before their big fire
glowing in the center of the living room of
the Sunrise cabin—Sunrise cabin which had
not existed even in the dreams of the Sunrise
Camp Fire girls until one afternoon in
September not four months ago. Esther,
with Mollie O’Neill’s arm about her, walked
into the cabin on foot, since she was only
stiff with fatigue and cold. However, on
throwing herself back in a big arm chair
and allowing her shoes to be changed by
Mollie for slippers, she seemed more
affected, by their adventure than Betty.</p>
<p>For Betty, in Princess fashion, with
Polly, Sylvia and Nan, and the girl whom
Polly had called Rose, all kneeling devotedly
at her feet, was talking cheerfully.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_28">[28]</div>
<p>“He was just the most impossible, ridiculous
looking person you ever could imagine,
with red hair and glasses and dreadfully
shabby clothes, the kind of a man in a
German band to whom you would throw
pennies out the window, but he declared
that he had once lived here in Woodford
for a short time years ago and had come
back on some business or other. Oh,
Esther, don’t look at me so disapprovingly;
I am saying nothing against him really. I
am sure it was I who invited him to come
out to our cabin and play for us girls. He
looked so poor I thought I might be able
to pay him then and I couldn’t quite offer
him anything for helping Esther mend the
sleigh and then seeing us part of the way
home. Home! Oh, isn’t our beloved Sunrise
cabin the most delightful and original
home a group of Camp Fire girls ever
possessed!”</p>
<p>And Betty’s eyes clouded with tears,
partly from pain and weariness but more
from joy at her return, as she looked from
the faces gathered about hers in the neighborhood
of the great fireplace and then saw
all their glances follow hers with equal
ardor throughout the length of their great
living room.</p>
<p>For if ever Betty Ashton had proved her
right to her friend Polly’s definition of her
as a “Fairy Princess,” it was when through
her desire and largely through her money,
Sunrise cabin rose on the very ground
covered by the white tents of the Sunrise
Camp Fire girls only the summer before.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_29">[29]</div>
<p>The cabin was built of pine logs from the
woods at the foot of Sunrise Hill and the
entire front of forty-five feet formed a
single great room. The end nearer the
kitchen the girls used as their dining room,
while the rest of the room was music room,
study, reception and every other kind of a
room. And, except for the piano which
Betty had brought from her own blue room
at home and a few chairs, every other
article of furniture and almost every ornament
had been made by the Sunrise
Camp Fire girls themselves.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_30">[30]</div>
<p>On either side the high mantel there were
low book shelves and a music rack stood by
the piano filled with the songs of the Camp
Fire. Polly, Nan and Sylvia had manufactured
a dining room table which was
considered an extraordinary achievement
although the design was really very simple.
Four wide pine boards about ten feet in
length formed the top and the legs were of
heavy beams crossed under it at the center
and at either end. The furniture of the
living room was stained a Flemish brown to
match the walls and floor done in the same
color. On the floor were rag rugs of almost
oriental beauty made by the girls and dyed
into seven craft colors. On the walls
hung pieces of homemade tapestry, leather
skins embossed with Camp Fire emblems,
and flowers so pressed and mounted as to
give the effect of nature. Then on the
mantelpiece were two hammered brass
candlesticks and a great brass bowl filled
with holly and cedar from the surrounding
wood. On odd tables and shelves were
Indian baskets woven by the girls and used
for every convenient purpose from holding
stockings waiting to be darned to treasuring
the Sunrise Camp Record Book which now
had twenty-five written and illustrated
pages setting forth the history of Sunrise
Camp since its infancy.</p>
<p>But Eleanor Meade had given the living
room its really unique distinction. Having
once read a description of a famous Indian
snow tepi, she had painted on the ceiling
toward the northern end of the room seven
stars which were to represent the north from
whence the winter blizzards blew and on the
southern side a red disc for the sun. The
artist had pleaded long to be permitted to
make the rest of the ceiling a bright blue
with outlines of rolling prairie on the walls
beneath, but this was greater realism in
Indian ideals of art than the other girls
were able to endure.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_31">[31]</div>
<p>Yet notwithstanding so much artistic
decoration, Science also had her place in
the Sunrise cabin living room. For Sylvia
Wharton had established a cupboard in
an inconspicuous corner where she kept
a collection of first aid supplies: gauze
for bandaging, medicated cotton, peroxide,
lime water and sweet oil, arnica, and half
a dozen or more simple remedies useful
in emergencies. True to her surprising
announcement at the close of their summer
camp Sylvia, without wasting time, and in
her own quiet and apparently dull fashion,
had already set about preparing herself for
her future work as a trained nurse by persuading
her father to let her have first aid
lessons from a young doctor in Woodford.
So now it was stupid little Sylvia (although
the Camp Fire girls were no longer so convinced
of her stupidity) who took real
charge of caring for Betty’s foot, going
back and forth to her cupboard and doing
whatever she thought necessary without
asking or heeding any one else’s advice.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_32">[32]</div>
<p>Nevertheless, her work must have been
successful, because in less than an hour
after their return Betty, Esther and all the
other girls were in dreamland in the two
bedrooms which, besides the kitchen, completed
Sunrise cabin. So soundly were
they sleeping that it was only Polly O’Neill
who was suddenly aroused by an unexpected
knocking at their front door. It was
nearly midnight and Polly shivered, not so
much with fear as with apprehension.
What could have happened to bring a
human being to their cabin at such an hour?
Instantly she thought of her mother still
in Ireland, of Mr. and Mrs. Ashton traveling
in Europe for Mr. Ashton’s health.
Slipping on her dressing gown Polly touched
the figure in the bed near hers.</p>
<p>“Rose,” she whispered, so quietly as not
to disturb any one else. “There is some
one knocking. I am going to the door, so
be awake if anything happens.” Then
without delaying she slipped into the next
room.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_33">[33]</div>
<p>Crossing the floor in her slippers Polly
made no noise and picking up the lantern
which was always kept burning at night in
the cabin, without any warning of her
approach she suddenly pulled open the door.
The figure waiting outside started.</p>
<p>“I—you,” he began breathlessly and then
stopped because Polly O’Neill’s cheeks had
turned as crimson as her dressing gown and
her Irish blue eyes were sending forth electric
sparks of anger.</p>
<p>“Billy Webster,” she gasped, “I didn’t
dream that anything in the world could
have made you do so ungentlemanly a
thing as to disturb us in this fashion at
such an hour of the night. Of course I
have never liked you very much or thought
you had really good manners, but I didn’t
believe——”</p>
<p>“Stop, will you, and let me explain,” the
young man returned, now fully as angry
as Polly and in a voice to justify her final
accusation. Then he turned courteously
toward the young woman who had entered
the room soon after Polly. “I’m terribly
sorry, Miss Dyer,” he continued, “I must
have made some stupid mistake, but some
little time ago I thought I heard the sound
of your alarm bell. It rang only once, so
I waited for a little while expecting to hear
it again and then I was rather a long time
in getting to you through the woods on
account of the heavy snow. It is awfully
rough on you to have been awakened at
such an hour because of my stupidity.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_34">[34]</div>
<p>But Rose Dyer, who was a good deal
older than Polly, put out both hands and
drew the young man, rather against his
will, inside the living room.</p>
<p>“Please come in and get warm and dry,
you know our Camp Fire is never allowed
to go out, and please do not apologize for
your kindness in coming to our aid.” She
lighted the candles, giving Polly a chance to
make her own confession. Though looking
only a girl herself she was in reality the new
guardian of the Sunrise Camp Fire girls.</p>
<p>Polly, however, did not seem to be enthusiastic
over her opportunity to announce
that she had been responsible for the alarm
bell which had brought their visitor forth on
such an arduous tramp. Billy Webster was
of course their nearest neighbor, as his
father owned most of the land in their
vicinity, still the farm house itself was a
considerable distance away. And to make
matters worse the young man was too
deeply offended by Polly’s reception of
him to give even a glance in her direction.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_35">[35]</div>
<p>Polly coughed several times and then
opened her mouth to speak, but Billy was
staring into the fire poking at the logs with
his wet boot. Rose had disappeared toward
the kitchen to get their visitor something
to eat as a small expression of their gratitude.</p>
<p>Unexpectedly the young man felt some
one pulling at the back of his coat and turning
found himself again facing Polly, whose
cheeks were quite as red as they had been
at the time of his arrival, but whose eyes
were shining until their color seemed to
change as frequently as a wind swept sky.</p>
<p>“Mr. William Daniel Webster,” she began
in a small crushed voice, “there are
certain persons in this world who seem
preordained to put me always in the
wrong. You are one of them! I rang that
bell because I thought my beloved Betty
and Esther were lost in the storm, but they
weren’t, and then I forgot all about having
rung it. So now I am overcome with
embarrassment and shame and regret and
any other humiliating emotion you would
like to have me feel. But really, Billy,”
and here Polly extended her thin hand,
which always had a curious warmth and
intensity in keeping with her temperament,
“can’t you see how hard it is to like a person
who is always making one eat humble
pie?”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_36">[36]</div>
<p>Billy took the proffered hand and shook
it with a forgiving strength that made the
girl wince though nothing in her manner
betrayed it.</p>
<p>“Oh, cut that out, Miss Polly O’Neill,”
he commanded in the confused manner that
Polly’s teasing usually induced in him.
“It’s a whole lot rottener to be apologized
to than it is to have to apologize, and it is
utterly unnecessary this evening because,
though, of course, I didn’t know you had
rung the alarm bell, I did know if there was
trouble at Sunrise cabin you were sure to
be in it.”</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_37">[37]</div>
<p>And, as Polly accepted this assertion with
entire amiability, ten minutes afterward
she and their chaperon were both offering
their visitor hot chocolate and biscuits to
fortify him for the journey home. In
order to make him feel entirely comfortable
Polly also devoured an equal amount of
the refreshments, not because she was
given to self-sacrifice but because uneasiness
about her friends had made her forget
to eat her supper.</p>
<div class="pb" id="Page_38">[38]</div>
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