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--I--no. I heard the recall, and I came--I guess I was asleep,"
stammered Myra bewildered by something tense in the atmosphere, and the
eyes all centred on her.
"Asleep!" echoed Louise Johnson with a chuckle. "What did I tell you,
girls?"
But Mrs. Royall saw that Myra looked pale and tired, and she noticed the
change that came over her face as Louise spoke. A quick wave of colour
swept the pale cheeks and the small head was lifted with an air that was
new and strange--in Myra Karr. Mrs. Royall spoke again, laying her hand
gently on the girl's shoulder.
"Myra, how long have you been asleep? How long have you been back in
camp?"
And Myra answered quietly, but with that new pride in her voice, "It was
quarter of four by the kitchen clock when I came. There was nobody
here--not even Katie----"
"I'd just run out a bit to see if anny of ye was comin'," put in the
cook from the kitchen door where she stood, as much interested as any
one else in what was going on.
"And did you go to Kent's Corners, my dear?" Mrs. Royall questioned
gently.
It was Myra's hour of triumph. She forgot Louise Johnson's mocking
laugh--forgot everything but her beautiful new freedom.
"O, I did--I did, Mrs. Royall!" she cried out. "I was awfully frightened
at first, but coming home I wasn't _one bit afraid_, and, please, you
won't let them call me Bunny any more, will you?"
"No, my child, no. You've won a new name and you shall have it at the
next Council Fire. I'm so glad, Myra!" Mrs. Royall's face was almost as
radiant as the girl's.
It was Louise Johnson who called out, "Three cheers for Myra Karr! She's
a _trump_!"
The cheers were given with a will. Tears filled Myra's eyes, but they
were happy tears, as the girls crowded around her with questions and
exclamations, and Miss Grandis stood with a hand on her shoulder.
"That's what Camp Fire has done for one girl," Mrs. Royall said in a low
tone to Laura Haven. "That child was afraid of the dark, afraid of the
water, afraid to be alone a minute, when she came. It is a great triumph
for her--a great victory."
"Yes," returned Laura thoughtfully, and Anne added,
"You've no idea how lonesome the camp looked when Laura and I came back
and found you all gone. It was so still it seemed almost uncanny. Myra
never would have dared to stay alone here before."
IV
THE POOR THING
A week later Miss Grandis was called home by illness in her family, and
she asked Laura to drive to the station with her.
"I wanted the chance to talk with you," she explained, as they drove
along the quiet country road. "You know I should not have been able to
stay here much longer anyhow, and now I shall not come back, and I want
you to take charge of my girls. Will you?"
"O, I can't yet--I haven't had half enough training," Laura protested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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