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
"Well--all is, I can't keep up with you," Lizette dropped unconsciously
into one of her country phrasings. "I can't help getting into the
doleful dumps sometimes, and I can't--I just _can't_ be happy and
contented with the mercury at ninety-three. I guess it's easier for some
folks to stand the heat than it is for others."
"I think it is," Olga admitted. "Give me your hat. Now take that fan and
sit there by the window till I come back. I'm not so tired as you are,
and I must get something for our supper."
While she was gone Lizette sat thinking of the Camp with its shady woods
and blue water and wishing herself back there. She had had three weeks
there, but a hateful little imp was whispering in her ear that some of
the girls were staying four or five weeks, and it wasn't fair--it wasn't
_fair_! Of course it was better to earn her living doing embroidery than
in Goldstein's store, but still, some girls didn't have to earn their
living at all, and----
The door opened and Olga came breezily in, her hands full of bundles. "I
really ought to have taken a basket," she said. "There's the nicest
little home bakery opened just around the corner--I got bread there."
"I'm not a bit hungry," Lizette said listlessly, then started up, crying
out, "Well, I am ashamed of myself! I meant to have the table set when
you came back, and I forgot all about it."
"Never mind--I'll have it ready in a minute. Sit still, Lizette."
But Lizette insisted upon helping, and her face brightened as Olga set
forth fresh bread, nut cakes, ice cold milk, and a dish of sliced
peaches.
"Weren't you mistaken?" Olga asked with a laugh. "Aren't you a little
bit hungry?"
"Yes, I am. How good that bread looks--and the peaches."
"After all it is rather nice to be back here at our own little table,
isn't it?" Olga asked as they lingered over the meal.
Lizette looked at her curiously. "Olga Priest, what makes you so happy
to-night?" she demanded. "I never saw you so before."
"Maybe not quite so happy, but wasn't I happy all the time at camp?
Wasn't I, Lizette?"
"Yes--yes, you were, only I didn't notice it so much there with all the
girls, and something always going on. You never were so here before.
Sometimes you wouldn't smile for days at a time."
"I know. I hadn't realised then that I could be happy if I'd let myself
be--and that I had no right not to."
"No _right_ not to," Lizette echoed with a puzzled frown. "I don't see
_that_. I should think anybody might have the privilege of being blue if
she likes."
"No." Olga shook her head with decision. "No, not when she has health,
and work that she likes, and friends. A girl has no right to be unhappy
under those conditions--and I've found it out at last. I'm going to keep
my Camp Fire promises now as I never have done."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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