't be bothered with that Poor Thing--she makes me sick--always
hanging around and wanting to get her hands on me. I can't stand that
sort of thing, and I won't--that's all there is about it. I'll go home
first."

When Laura answered nothing, Olga glanced at her grave face and went on
sulkily, "Nobody ought to expect me to put up with an everlasting
trailer like that girl."

Still Laura was silent until Olga flung out, "You might as well say it.
I know what you are thinking of me."

"I wasn't thinking of you, Olga. I was thinking of Elizabeth. If you saw
her drowning you'd plunge in and save her without a moment's
hesitation."

"Of course I would--but I wouldn't have her hanging on to me like a
leech after I'd saved her."

"I suppose you have not realised that in 'hanging on' to you--as you
express it--she is simply fighting for her life."

"What do you mean, Miss Haven?"

"I mean that Elizabeth is--starving. Not food starvation, but a worse
kind. Olga, this is the first time in her life that she has ever spent a
day away from home--she told me that--or ever had any one try to make
her happy. Is it any wonder that she doesn't know how to _be_ happy or
make friends? It seems strange that, from among so many who would gladly
be her friends here, she should have chosen you who are not willing to
be a friend to any one--strange, and a great pity, it seems. It throws
an immense responsibility upon you."

"I don't want any such responsibility. I don't think any of you ought to
put it on me," Olga flung out sulkily.

"We are not putting it on you," returned Laura gently.

Olga twitched her shoulder with an impatient gesture, and the two walked
some distance before she spoke again. Then it was to say, "What are you
asking me to do, anyhow?"

"_I_ am not asking you to do anything," Laura answered. "It is for you
to ask yourself what you are going to do. I believe it is in your power
to make over that poor girl mind and body--I might almost say, soul too.
She thinks she can do nothing but household drudgery. She is afraid of
everything. When I think of what you could do for her in the next
month--Olga, I wonder that you can let such a wonderful opportunity pass
you by."

They went the rest of the way mostly in silence. When they returned to
the camp, Elizabeth was watching for them, but the glance Olga gave her
was so repellent that she shrank away, and went off alone to the
Lookout. Later Laura tried to interest E