howing in every line of his face he turned his steps back toward
his boat. Just then he heard the sound of singing coming from
somewhere.

"Burn, fire, burn,
Burn, fire, burn,
Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flame!"

With ears strained to listen he began to walk toward the sound.
Soon he saw the soft glow of a fire shining through the distant
trees and hastened toward it.

"The torch shall draw them to the fire--" The wind carried the
words distinctly to his ears. Through the wet loneliness of the
woods the flame drew him like a magnet. Drawing nearer he saw a
bright fire burning high in the middle of an open space,
unchecked by the rain, and around it moved a number of black-robed
figures. He recognized the Winnebagos, clad in bathing suits and
bathing caps, and covered with their ponchos, calmly having their
Ceremonial Meeting in the pouring rain. The song over, they sat
down in a circle and went through their ritual with the water
streaming over their firelit faces. A play was enacted, which he
made out to be a pantomime presentation of "Cinderella," and he
recognized Nyoda in the guise of the fairy godmother. Hinpoha
was the prince and Migwan Cinderella. In the teeming rain she was
rescued from her ashy seat by the fireplace and borne to the
ball. As the prince bent over to fit the slipper to her foot a
perfect torrent rolled off his poncho into her lap and threatened
to swamp the romance. They plighted their troth with one hand
and held their ponchos around them with the other.

Sherry pulled his sou'wester down over his ears and standing
under the shelter of a pine tree watched the performance to the
end. "Glory, what a bunch of girls," he muttered to himself.
"Having fun out in the wet woods while our boys are sticking
around in their dry bungalows!" The Council Fire came to an end
and the girls filed out among the trees singing the goodnight
song. Of course Sherry didn't know the difference, but instead
of singing the regular words, "May the peace of our firelit
faces," most of the girls were singing, "May the peace of our
dripping noses!" Nyoda was the last to come, as she had lingered
to extinguish the fire, and Sherry placed himself directly in her
path and stepped out from behind a tree as she came along. She
started violently and flashed her bug light in his face. "Don't
be afraid," he said, embarrassed and blushing, "it's only I, come
to tell you that the boys can ac