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
"And that's Lizette Stone!" Lena said to Eva after they left. "Who
would ever have thought she'd say a thing like that?"
For more than a week Olga, alone in her room, listened to the merry
voices across the hall. Then one night, she put aside her work, and went
across again.
"I've found out that I'm lonesome," she said as Lizette opened the door.
"May I come in?"
"Well, I _guess_!" and Lizette drew her in and motioned to the bed. "You
shall have a reserved seat there with Bessie and Myra," she cried, "and
we're gladder than glad to have you."
For a moment sheer surprise held the others silent till Olga exclaimed,
"Don't let me be a wet blanket. If you do I shall run straight back."
The tongues were loosened then and though Olga said little, the girls
felt the difference in her attitude. She lingered a moment after the
others left, to say, "Lizette, you mustn't stay away any more. I really
want you to come to my room."
Lizette's sharp eyes studied her face before she answered, "Yes, I see
you do now, and I'll come. I'll love to."
Back in her own room Olga turned up the gas and stood for some minutes
looking about. Clean it was, and in immaculate order, but bare, with no
touch of beauty anywhere. The contrast with the simple beauty of
Lizette's room made her see her own in a new light. The words of the
Wood Gatherer's "Desire" came into her mind--"Seek beauty." She had not
done that. "Give service." She had given it, grudgingly at first to
Elizabeth, grudgingly all this time to Sadie, grudgingly to Lizette, and
not at all to any one else. Only one part of her promise had she kept
faithfully--to "Glorify work." She had done that, after a fashion. She
drew in her breath sharply. "Lizette is a long way ahead of me. She is
trying to be an all-around Camp Fire Girl. If I'm going to keep up with
her, I must get busy," she said to herself. "Before I can be Miss
Laura's Torch Bearer I've a lot to make up. Here I've been calling Sadie
Page a selfish little beast and all the time I've been as bad as she in
a different way. Well--we'll see."
She went shopping the next morning. Her purchases did not cost much, but
they transformed the bare room. Cheesecloth curtains at the windows, a
green crex rug on the dull stained floor, two red geraniums, and on the
mantelpiece three brass candlesticks holding red candles. These and a
few pretty dishes were all, but she was amazed at the difference they
made. At six o'clock she set her door ajar, and when Lizette came,
called her in.
"You are to have supper with me to-night," she said.
"But I've had my supper. I----" Lizette began--then stopped short with a
little cry, "O, how pretty! Why, your room is lovely now, Olga."
"You see the influence of example," replied Olga. "Yours is so pretty
that I couldn't stand the bareness of mine any longer."
"I'm glad." Lizette spoke earnestly. "Isn't it splendid--the way the
Camp Fire ideas grow and spread? They are making me over, Olga."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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