Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire GirlBenson, Irene Elliott
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Ethel Hollister's Second Summer as a Campfire Girl
Benson, Irene Elliott
Camp Fire Girls -- Juvenile fiction
After visiting her Uncle John's family, whom she liked at once, Kate,
Ethel, and the eight girls started for Camp. It was situated in a stretch
of woods on the banks of the Muskingum river. One of the girls--Patty
Sands--became Ethel's chum. She was motherless and the only child of
Judge Sands, ex-congressman of Ohio, and greatly respected. The rest of
the girls were also congenial save two--one a Mattie Hastings, whom Ethel
avoided saying that her eyes were too close together. Mattie's parents
were poor people but she was one of Kate's Sunday School class and has
asked to be allowed to join the "Ohios." The other girl was a large,
raw-boned Irish girl, or rather of Irish parentage. Her voice was shrill
and unpleasant, while her hair was black and her eyes dark blue and
lovely, her face was covered with freckles and she dressed loudly and in
bad taste. Pat Casey--her father---was one of the wealthiest men in town.
He was a contractor and an honest, respectable man, but his wife was
a pusher, trying to bluff her way into society. She was ignorant and
disagreeable. People refused to receive her. Nora had been only half
educated at a convent. Mrs. Casey, hearing of the Camp Fire Girls,
bethought herself that it would be an opening for Honora, so she boldly
called upon Miss Kate and asked--yes, begged--that Nora might belong; and
Kate, who was kind-hearted, received the girl to the great joy of Mrs.
Pat. Having been born in the old country, both parents spoke with a
brogue. Occasionally, from association, Nora would use it; then she would
stop suddenly, turn red, and speak perfect English. Ethel disliked her
even more than she did Mattie.
One day as she was helping wash dishes she lost a valuable diamond ring.
It had been her Grandmother's engagement ring and she was heart-broken.
Although they searched everywhere no trace of it could they find, but as
they were walking up the hill a week or so afterwards they thought they
saw Mattie Hastings through the trees. They called as a jest, "We've seen
you and you're discovered--come out!" Whereupon someone shrieked, and
proceeding to the spot they found Mattie lying upon the ground. She had
walked in the sun and had started to run and had fallen over some stumps.
Instantly they saw that she had been prostrated by the heat, and having
recently studied "First aid to the injured" they proceeded to remove her
blouse and open her corset, when lo! there upon a silver chain around her
neck was not only Ethel Hollister's ring but another belonging to Honora
Casey. She had missed it a few days after Ethel had lost hers, but she
wisely refrained from speaking of it to anyone but Patty Sands, adding,
"Shure, it would only be afther worryin' Miss Kate, and it might turn up.
I'll bide me time."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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