Washington knows and
honours Mrs. Royall. Father is going to Alaska on a business trip and
I've been trying to decide where I would stay while he is gone. This
will solve my problem beautifully."

"Come then--we'll see Mrs. Royall right now and arrange it," Anne
returned, turning back.

Mrs. Royall was more than willing to accede to Laura's proposal. "Stay
at the camp as long as you like," she said, "and if you really want to
be a Guardian, I will send your name to the Board which has the
appointing power."

"She is lovely, isn't she?" Laura said as they left the Chief Guardian.
"I don't wonder you call her the Camp Mother."

Something in the tone reminded Anne that her friend had long been
motherless, and she slipped her arm affectionately around Laura's waist
as she answered, "She is the most motherly woman I ever met. She seems
to have room in her big, warm heart for every girl that wants mothering,
no matter who or what she is." They were back at the camp now, and she
added, "But we must get to bed quickly--there's the curfew," as a bugle
sounded a few clear notes.

"O dear, I've a hundred and one questions to ask you," sighed Laura.

"They'll keep till morning," replied the other. "It's so hard for the
girls to stop chattering after the curfew sounds! We Guardians have to
set them a good example."

The cots in the sleeping tents were placed on wooden platforms raised
three or four inches from the ground, and on clear nights the sides of
the tents were rolled up. Laura, too interested and excited to sleep at
once, lay in her cot looking out across the open space now flooded with
light from the late-risen moon, and thought of the girls sleeping around
her. Herself an only child, she had a great desire--almost a
passion--for girls; girls who were lonely like herself--girls who had to
struggle with ill-health, poverty, and hard work as she did not.

Suddenly she started up in bed, her eyes wide with half-startled
surprise. Reaching over to the adjoining cot, she touched her friend,
whispering, "Anne, Anne, look!" and as Anne opened drowsy eyes, Laura
pointed to the moonlit space.

Anne stared for a moment, then she laughed softly and whispered back,
"It's a ghost dance, Laura. Some of those irrepressible girls couldn't
resist this moonlight. They're doing an Indian folk dance."

"Isn't it weird--in the moonlight and in utter silence!" Laura said
under her breath. "I should think somebody would giggle and s