y. Perhaps
you'd better let it keep until you have put things to rights."

"We'll help in doing that," said Eleanor. "Dolly, run over and get the
other girls, won't you? Then we'll all turn in and lend a hand, and it
will all be done in no time at all."

"Indeed you won't!" said Marcia. "We're going to do everything
ourselves, just to show that we can."

"There isn't much to do," said Mary Turner, with a laugh. "So you
needn't act as if that were something to be proud of, Marcia. You see, I
thought it was better to take things easily at the start, Eleanor. They
wanted to come here with all the tents and things and set up the camp by
themselves, but I decided it was better to have the harder work done by
men who knew their business."

"You were quite right, too," agreed Eleanor. "That's the way I arranged
things for our own camp the day we came. To-day we did do the work
ourselves, but there was a reason for the girls were so excited and
nervous about the fire that I thought it was better to give them a
chance to work off their excitement that way."

"I'm dying to hear all about the fire and what has happened here," said
Mary. "But I suppose we'd better get everything put to rights first."

And, though the girls of the new Camp Fire insisted on doing all the
actual work themselves, they were glad enough to take the advice of the
Manasquan girls in innumerable small matters. Comfort, and even safety
from illness, in camp life, depends upon the observance of many
seemingly trifling rules.

Gladys Cooper, who, more than any of her companions at Camp Halsted, had
tried to make things unpleasant for the Manasquan girls at Lake Dean,
had not been with the first section of the new Camp Fire to reach the
beach. Dolly had inquired about her rather anxiously, for Gladys had not
taken part in the general reconciliation between the two parties of
girls.

"Gladys?" Marcia said. "Oh, yes, she's coming. She's back in the wagon
that's bringing our suit cases. We appointed her a sort of rear guard.
It wouldn't do to lose those things, you know."

"I was afraid--I sort of thought she might not want to come here if she
knew we were here, Marcia. You know--"

"Yes, I _do_ know, Dolly. She behaved worse than any of us, and she
wasn't ready to admit it when you girls left Lake Dean. But she's come
to her senses since then, I'm sure. The rest of us made her do that."

Bessie King looked a little dubious.

"I hope you didn't both