Seated on a stool beside her, with her head resting in the palms of her hands, was the youngest member of the household, the small daughter of an English miner. Chitty’s hair was even blacker than Mrs. Burton’s, her skin darker and more sallow, and her eyes large, black and wistful. A peculiarity of the little girl was that she rarely ever talked unless a question were addressed to her directly, expressing herself chiefly through her music. At a table with her back to the others, Mary Gilchrist, who recently had requested the Camp Fire girls to use her father’s name for her, Gill, rather than Mary, apparently was deeply engaged with a history of the North woods which she seemed to be reading. Ordinarily one of the gayest and most animated of the group of Camp Fire girls, since her reckless action the day before she had been uncommonly silent and subdued. Bettina Graham and her mother had not yet entered the room and tea had not been served. “Is that you, Sally dear? I have scarcely seen you all day. Tell me what you are thinking of while you stand there studying our Camp Fire circle.” The other girls, attracted by Mrs. Burton’s speech, looked over toward Sally, who often was unexpectedly amusing. Coming further into the room, Sally stood close beside the Camp Fire guardian’s chair. “Do you want really to hear what I was thinking, Tante? I was considering the fact that our Sunrise Camp Fire at present was smaller in number than I ever have known it to be and that I am sorry. Yvonne Fleury has returned to live with her brother at the Château Yvonne, Gerry is married and she and Felix in California, and now Peggy is no longer with us. Naturally, as she is planning to marry after Christmas, she wishes to be with her mother and father. Well, thank goodness we shall have her for a visit at Christmas time!” Sally’s reply was so unexpected that there was a short silence in the big room, broken only by the crackling of the wood fire. The loss of Peggy Webster as a member of the Sunrise Camp Fire group was perhaps more keenly felt than that of any other girl. The daughter of Mrs. Burton’s twin sister, Mollie O’Neill, who afterwards became Mrs. Daniel Webster, Peggy had been particularly devoted to her aunt and, as Mrs. Burton had no children of her own, was more like her own daughter. Moreover, Peggy and Bettina Graham, Sally and Alice Ashton had been intimate friends since they were tiny children, long before they had any acquaintance with the later members of their Camp Fire group. Peggy possessed a singularly vital personality and was generous, ardent and sweet.