ges and embroideries. "I don't feel a bit
as if I were prosaic Laura Haven. I'm really one of the nut-brown Indian
maids that roamed these woods in ages past."

"If any of those nut-brown maids were as pretty as you are to-night,
they must have had all the braves at their feet," returned Anne, with an
admiring glance at her friend. "What splendid thick braids you have,
Laura!"

"I'm acquainted with the braids," Laura answered, flinging them
carelessly over her shoulders, "but this beautiful bead headband I've
never worn before. Is it on right?"

"All right," Anne replied. "The Busy Corner girls will be proud of
their Guardian to-night."

Laura scarcely heard, her thoughts were so full of her girls--the girls
she had already learned to love. She turned eagerly as the bugle notes
of the Council call rang out in silvery sweetness. "O, come. Don't let
them start without us," she urged.

"No danger--they will want their Guardians to lead the procession."

In a moment Mrs. Royall appeared, and quickly the girls fell into line
behind her. First, the four Guardians; then two Torch Bearers, each
holding aloft in her right hand a lighted lantern. Flaming torches would
have been more picturesque, but also more dangerous in the woods, and
all risk of fire must be avoided. After the Torch Bearers came the Fire
Makers, and last of all the Wood Gatherers, with Katie the cook wearing
a gorgeous robe that some of the girls had embroidered for her. Katie's
unfailing good nature had made her a general favourite in camp.

As the procession wound through the irregular woods-path Laura gave a
little cry of delight.

"O, do look back, Anne--it is so pretty," she said. "If it wasn't that I
want to be a part of it, I'd run ahead so I could see it all better."

Mrs. Royall began to sing and the girls instantly caught up the strain,
and in and out among the trees the procession wound to the music of the
young voices, the lanterns throwing flashes of light on either side,
while the shadows seemed to slip out of the woods and follow "like a
procession of black-robed nuns," Laura said to herself.

The Council chamber was a high open space, surrounded on every side but
one by tall pines. The open side faced the bay, and across the water
glimmered a tiny golden pathway from the moon in the western sky, where
a golden glow from the sunset yet lingered.

The girls formed the semicircle, with the Guardians in the open space.
Wood had been ga