e her. Holding his hand in both hers, and
softly patting it, she said, "Sit down, girls, and we'll talk this
matter over. Jim's hardly big enough or old enough to face you all at
once. But, honestly, don't you think there is some truth in what he
says? As Camp Fire Girls, do we think as much about patriotism as the
Scouts do? Elsie, you have a Scout brother, what do you think about it?"

Elsie laughed but flushed a little too as she answered, "I hate to admit
it, but I don't think we do."

"Time we did then. We can't have any Boy Scouts getting ahead of us,"
Lena declared emphatically.

Jim, gathering courage from Miss Laura's championship, looked up with a
mischievous smile. "Bet you can't tell about the stars and stripes in
the flag," he said.

"Can you? How many can?" Miss Laura looked about the group. "Elsie,
Frances--and Mary--I see you can, and nobody else is sure. How does it
happen?" There was a twinkle now in her eyes. "Is there any special
reason for you three being better posted than the others?"

The three girls exchanged smiling glances, and Elsie admitted
reluctantly, "I think there is--a Boy Scout reason--isn't there, Mary?"
and as Mary Hastings nodded, Elsie went on, "You know my brother Jack is
the most loyal of Scouts, and before he was old enough to be one, he had
learned all the things that a boy has to know to join--and to describe
the flag is one of those things. He discovered one day that I didn't
know how many stars there are on it and how they are arranged, and he
was so dreadfully distressed and mortified at my ignorance that I had to
take a flag lesson from him on the spot--and it was a thorough one."

"Uh huh!" Jim triumphed under his breath, but the girls heard and there
was a shout of laughter. Over the boy's head Laura's laughing eyes swept
the group.

"Jim," she said, "will you ask Miss Anne to lend us her flag for a few
minutes?"

"Won't ours do? Jo'n' I've got one," Jim cried instantly, and as Miss
Laura nodded, he scampered off.

"I think Jim has won, girls," she said, and then the laughter dying out
of her eyes, added gravely, "Really I quite agree with him. I think
we--I mean our own Camp Fire--have not given as much thought to
patriotism as we ought. There have been so many things for us to talk
about and work for! But we'll learn the flag to-day, and when we go
home, it may be well for us to arrange a sort of 'course' in patriotism
for the coming year. Of all girls in Am