was waiting its chance. No one ever had so
gay a laugh as Kara!"

Unconscious of what she was doing, at this instant Tory jumped up.
Leaving her seat she stood alone in the center of the circle looking
toward the other girls.

The first rays of the sunset slanted through the trees, turning the
green to gold. One ray fell directly upon Tory Drew, her bright,
red-gold hair, her thin, eager face and graceful figure.

About her the other girls were more in darkness.

There was almost a mystic quality in the late afternoon atmosphere,
here in the heart of an ancient woods, with no one near save the
circle of Girl Scouts.

"Margaret has suggested just what I want to make clear to all of you.
The old Kara for the time being seems to have disappeared. And perhaps
for the reasons Margaret has mentioned.

"Kara has had too much to bear. She has always made the best of the
fact that she had no parents, no family! Cleverer and sweeter than
anyone, she was found in a deserted house with no explanation as to
why she had been left there.

"Kara found happiness in the life at the Gray House because everybody
cared for her at the asylum and in the village. But she was always
thinking that the day was coming when she would be able to earn her
own living at some congenial work.

"Now, Kara told me the other day that this hope has been taken from
her and she sees nothing left. I am frightened about her. The doctors
tell her she may walk again some day, but not for a long time. She
insists this is only to encourage her. If we, her own Troop of Girl
Scouts, can do nothing for her, I don't see who can."

Louise Miller, seated beside her most intimate friend, Dorothy
McClain, uttered an unexpected exclamation.

Under ordinary circumstances she talked less than any one of her
companions. Usually it was conceded that Louise alone among all of
them thought of what she was going to say before making a remark.

She was not good looking. Her features were heavy and she had grown
too rapidly. She had peculiar light gray eyes under thick dark brows
which held a kind of fascination. Yet Louise's only real claim to
beauty was a mass of coppery, red-brown hair.

She was not happy or congenial with her own family. They were poor and
her mother, a pretty woman, resented Louise's lack of beauty as well
as their poverty. On Louise's part there was no effort to conceal the
fact that she had been happier these past weeks at their Girl Scout
cam