lfil her allotted task, and in an incredibly short
space of time a family of gophers was sniffing about a strange object
blocking their front door; and a pan of fragrant trout sputtered on
top of the little stove. As Blue Bonnet set the great platter of
perfectly browned fish in front of her grandmother, there was a
flattering "ah!" of anticipation that repaid--almost repaid, her for
the previous bad quarter of an hour. Canned pears and the cookies that
should have been saved for future emergencies, completed a dinner
which was voted "not half bad" by the other girls, who secretly
marvelled at getting any dinner at all. No one noticed that neither
Blue Bonnet nor Amanda partook of potatoes, and there proved to be
ample for the rest.

"I'll wash the dishes, Amanda," Blue Bonnet offered, when at last that
night-mare of a dinner was over. "I ought to walk over red-hot
plowshares, or wear a hair-shirt or something as a penance for my sins
of this day. Lacking both plowshares and shirt, I'll substitute
dish-washing. And you may bear me witness--I'd take the hair-shirt if
I had my choice!"

It was a very weary Blue Bonnet who turned the dishpan upside down and
hung the dish-cloth on a bush to dry. The long tramp of the morning,
the preparations for the bonfire party, and then the exhausting
experience of getting dinner, had tired even her physique, which had
seldom known fatigue.

"I wish we could dis-invite the company," she said to Amanda.

"So do I," groaned her partner. "Fancy having to sit around a bonfire
and sing 'merrily we roll along'--! It makes me ache all over."

Later, when the inmates of both camps were gathered in a great circle
about the fire, singing, jesting and story-telling, both girls forgot
their weariness and might have been heard singing the same "merrily we
roll along" with great zest and vocal strength.

The bonfire did its builders proud and without any preparatory sulking
or coaxing burst almost at once into pillars of soaring flame. There
was a backing away at first on the part of the spectators as the
intense heat began to scorch the circle of faces; then a gradual
drawing near again. It was not until the flames had died down and the
logs were a mass of glowing coals that Blue Bonnet handed around her
willow-wands. Each one was now tipped with a white ball, puffy, round
and mysterious.

To most of the boys this was an innovation, and they had to be shown
how to hold the white globules ov