almost anything else I can think of. When you start to do a thing, no
matter how hard it is, be hopeful and confident. Then the set-backs
won't bother you, because you'll know that it's just because you've
chosen the wrong way, and you go back and start again, looking for the
right way."

"Oh, look!" said Bessie, suddenly. "Isn't it growing black? Do you see
that big cloud? And I'm sure I felt drops of rain just then."

"I believe it is going to rain. That's too bad. It will spoil the great
Council Fire."

"Won't they have it if it rains?"

"I'm not sure whether there's a big enough place inside or not. But,
even if there is, it's much better fun to have it out of doors--a great
big fire always seems more cheerful if it's under the trees, so that the
great shadows can dance about. And the singing sounds so much better in
the open air, too. Oh, I do hope this won't be a real storm!"

But that hope was doomed to disappointment. The rain came down slowly at
first, and in great drops, but as the wagons neared the fire and got
under the shelter of the trees, the wind rose, and soon the rain was
pouring down in great sheets, with flashes of lightning now and then. As
they climbed out by the fire it hissed and spluttered as the rain fell
into it. No girls were in sight.

"They must all have gone in to get out of the rain, or else they'd be
out here to welcome us," said the Guardian. "Oh, there's Mrs. Chester! I
knew she wouldn't let the rain keep her!"

And Wanaka ran forward to greet a sweet-faced woman whose hair was
slightly tinged with grey, but whose face was as rosy and as smiling as
that of a young girl. Bessie and Zara followed Eleanor shyly, but Mrs.
Chester put them at their ease in a moment.

"I've heard all about you," she said. "And I'm not going to start in by
telling you I'm sorry for you, either, because I'm not!"

Had it not been for the laugh that was in her eyes, and her smile, the
words might have seemed unkind.

"I don't believe in being sorry for what's past," the Chief Guardian
explained at once. "If people are brave and good, trouble only helps
them. And it's the future we must think about, always. That is in your
own hands now, and I'm sure you're going to deserve to be happy--and if
you do, you can't help finding happiness. That's what I mean."

The two girls liked her at once. There was something so motherly, so
kind and wholesome about Mrs. Chester, that they felt as if they had
known h