ur, and they must not be covered."

When the salad had been prepared, the bread and butter spread, and the
water pitchers filled from the brook it was time to cook the steak.

Four of the girls took forks made from tree branches, placed the steak
upon them, and started in. Mollie and Nora in the meanwhile, after
draining off nearly all of the water, had put some salt and a little
sugar in the peas, adding at the last a large piece of butter, and had
placed them in their kettle which stood near the potatoes.

The steak when finished was laid on a large platter and covered
plentifully with butter. Then each girl took and opened her potato, and
what a potato it was!--so unlike those cooked in an oven. The peas were
served in saucers, and the sight of the steak covered with gravy--hot
and juicy--made them hungry.

Each sat on the ground with her plate on her lap, and her saucer and
glass beside her. They ate up every vestige of food.

"Goodnight!" said Nora. "Shure a dog would starve in this crowd."

After an appetizing salad dressed with a suspicion of garlic and a fine
French dressing, came the bread pudding made by Sallie Davis. It was
filled with raisins and each girl passed her plate twice.

"Ethel, what do you think of our Camp Fire dinner?" asked Kate.

"It is simply fine," replied the girl. "I have never tasted one half so
good."

"Poor Ethel, she is unhappy over her ring," said Edna, "and I don't blame
her. Cheer up! it may be found yet," she added.

But Ethel was unhappy, not for the loss of the ring, but because it had
belonged to old Mrs. Hollister.

"I never should have brought it," she said to Kate. "I should have left
it with Aunt Susan. I know it was right on the box when I left the tent,
and it's so unpleasant," she confided to Kate. "One suspects everyone."

"Yes, that's the unfortunate part of it," replied her cousin. "The
innocent suffer for the guilty; that is, if it has been taken by anyone,
but I have an idea that it may have been thrown out with the water."

Ethel studied hard every day. She learned rapidly and one night she
received her first bead. She had learned how to row a boat and she rowed
well. In five days she had rowed twenty miles, which entitled her to
one honor. Before the next two weeks she had learned how to swim; and
she swam one mile in five days. The rule was to swim one mile in six
days, but she went one better; so at one of the council fires she
received her two bead