ulted one another, and yet it
was impossible to catch them whispering in class because they always
conversed by hand signs. However, this also led to disaster one day when
one of our well-beloved sisters of the bow and drill tried to make the
hand sign for 'girl,' and raised her hand above her head. The Big Chief,
who was conducting the lesson, thought she wanted something, and said
benevolently: 'What is your desire?' Absent-mindedly she replied, 'It is
my desire to become a Camp Fire Girl and obey the Law of the Camp Fire,
which is to seek beauty, give service, pursue knowledge, be trustworthy,
hold on to health, glorify work, and be happy,' 'Begone,' said the Big
Chief, 'what do you think this is, a Ceremonial Meeting?'"

At the words "Ceremonial Meeting" all the girls jumped up to change
places, and in the scramble a vase was knocked off the table and broken.
Every one sat rooted to the spot with fright, all except Mr. Bob, who
fled at the sound of the crash as if he had been the guilty one. Hinpoha
calmly collected the pieces and carried them out. "My mother will be
extremely grateful to you for this when she comes home," she said. "If
there was one vase in the house she hated it was this one. My Aunt
Phoebe brought it from the World's Fair in Chicago and thinks it's the
chief ornament of our home. Won't mother be glad when she finds it
broken and she can prove that none of us did it?" The tension relaxed
and the girls breathed easily again.

"When are your mother and father coming home?" asked Nyoda.

"They sailed last week on the _Francona_," answered Hinpoha.

"Weren't you worried to death to have them in Europe so long with the
war going on?" asked Migwan.

"No, not much," said Hinpoha, "because they have been in Switzerland all
the while, which is safe enough, and as they are coming home on a
neutral vessel they have had no trouble getting passage. They should be
here in a week." And Hinpoha's eyes shone with a great, glad light, for
although she had been having the jolliest time imaginable, doing as she
pleased in the house, which was in the care of easy-going "Aunt Grace,"
who never cared a bit what Hinpoha did so long as it did not bother her,
she missed her mother sorely, and could hardly wait until she returned.
Nyoda saw the transfigured look that came into her eyes when she spoke
of her mother's home coming, and her own eyes went dim, for her mother
had died when she was just Hinpoha's age.

After