The Torch Bearer: A Camp Fire Girls' StoryThurston, I. T. (Ida Treadwell)
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The Torch Bearer: A Camp Fire Girls' Story
Thurston, I. T. (Ida Treadwell)
Camp Fire Girls -- Juvenile fiction
"I know. I won't go with wet feet any more," Olga promised, "and I won't
work fourteen hours a day and go without eating, as I've been doing this
summer. You see, Miss Laura, when I got the order for all that silver
work, I knew that if I could fill it satisfactorily, it would mean many
other orders. And I did--I finished the last piece the day I was taken
sick. But now the money I got for it will go to the doctor and the
nurse, and I've lost all this time and other work. And that isn't all.
My sickness made it harder for Lizette and Elizabeth. I can't forgive
myself for that. They were so good to me, and so were all the Camp Fire
Girls! Every single one of them came to see me, some of them many times,
and they brought so many things, and all wanted to stay and help--O,
they are the dearest girls!"
Laura's eyes searched the eyes of the other in the moonlight.
"Olga, are you happy?" she asked softly.
Olga caught her breath and for a moment was silent. When she spoke there
was wonder and a great joy in her voice. "O, I am--I am!" she said.
"And--and I believe I have been for a long time, but I never realised
it till this minute. I didn't _want_ to be happy--I didn't mean to
be--after mother died. I shut my heart tight and wouldn't see anything
pleasant or happy in all my world. It was so when I went to the camp
last year. I went just to please Miss Grandis because she had gotten me
into the Arts and Crafts work, and though I wanted to refuse, I
couldn't, when she asked me to go. But I'm so glad now that I went--so
_glad_! Just think if I had not gone, and had never known you and
Elizabeth, and Lizette, and the others! Miss Laura, I can't ever be half
glad enough for all that the Camp Fire has done for me."
"You will pay it all back--to others, Olga," Laura said gently, her eyes
shining. "When I made you my Torch Bearer, you did not realise the
importance of holding on to health, nor the duty as well as privilege of
being happy. Now you do."
"O, I do--I _do_!" the girl cried earnestly.
"So now my Torch Bearer is ready to lead others."
"I'll be glad to do it now. I want to 'pass on' all that you and the
girls have done for me. It will take a lifetime to do it, though.
And--I'm not half good enough for a Torch Bearer, Miss Laura."
"If you thought you were good enough I shouldn't want you to be one,"
Laura answered.
XVI
CAMP FIRE GIRLS AND THE FLAG
Miss Laura's girls had been at the camp a few days when Sadie Page one
morning raced breathlessly up to a group of them, crying out, "There's a
big white yacht coming--I saw it from the Lookout. Do you s'pose it's
Judge Haven's?"
"Won't it be splendid if it is--if it's bringing Miss Laura and Olga!"
Frances Chapin cried. "Could you see the name, Sadie?"
"No, it was too far off."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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