background, did not ordinarily insure it an essential
silence. As a matter of fact, there were generally nine youthful
persons, engaged in strenuous occupations of one kind or another, in its
immediate vicinity.

This afternoon Mrs. Burton discovered that they had withdrawn to some
distance from the camping grounds.

A camp fire was burning and the girls were seated about it in ceremonial
fashion, with Mrs. Webster also forming one of the group. A little
further off her two sons were characteristically engaged, Dan in
bringing small pieces of driftwood up from the shore and Billy in lying
upon his back, gazing toward the sky.

In truth only their Camp Fire guardian appeared deliberately to have
been left out of the gathering.

Mrs. Burton suffered a distinct sensation of aggrievement.

Evidently the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls were deep in a consultation
of some important character, so that it seemed scarcely fair that they
should have ignored her completely.

Not wishing to go back into her room, which had grown a little close,
and yet not desiring to interrupt the proceedings, from which her
presence had been so carefully excluded, Mrs. Burton hesitated a moment
just outside her house. If she were seen wandering about nearby, as a
matter of good manners she would have to be invited to the camp fire.
With Mrs. Webster already there, she had not the excuse that her
presence might be necessary. Often the girls seemed to prefer giving her
sister their confidence.

At this instant one of the Camp Fire group observed her and gave the
information to the others. Peggy began beckoning violently, while
Bettina Graham and Marta Clark both jumped up and were coming toward
her.

"You are lazy, Tante, we have been waiting for you to wake up for ages!"
Bettina remarked, slipping her arm through the older woman's. She was
several inches taller than her Camp Fire guardian, and oftentimes at a
distance Mrs. Burton was mistaken for another girl, she was so slender
and so youthfully and ardently alive both in body and spirit.

"Yes, you seem to have been tremendously anxious for my society," she
returned in the voice and manner both Bettina and Peggy understood. If
the other Camp Fire girls were at times a little in awe of their famous
guardian, Peggy and Bettina appreciated that she was much like other
persons and now and then behaved like a somewhat spoiled young girl.
Certainly she never regarded her own achievements as