Margaret Vandercook

“ Dawn Light It was curious that the guide had not seen the place where Bettina had fallen.
A few moments after her burro had deserted her, Bettina, hurrying up the incline to join her companions, slipped on a loose stone. Yet this would not have been serious had she given up and allowed herself to go. Instead she stumbled sideways, tried to regain her balance, stumbled a second time, and then, looking down, found herself at the edge of a ravine that had a sheer descent of thirty or more feet. Even now Bettina might have saved herself by dropping down on her knees or flinging herself backward. ”

“ If there were further coldness or friction between them, it had disappeared in their great common interest in the things before them and in the dream of their new life together in the desert. And, though they were too absorbed at the time for reflection, this is the way in which all friction between human beings may be destroyed; unconsciously the girls were acquiring one of the big lessons of the Camp Fire work—to live and think outside themselves. ”

“ They were planning to follow an old trail which led along the side of the river and now and then came close to the cliffs and deep ravines which fringed the river bed on the northern side.
They rode as they had in the morning, with the guide ahead and Bettina in the rear. But if the girls had any desire to exchange confidences at present, it was out of the question. One might be familiar with horseback riding and fairly valiant in spirit and yet, according to the old phrase, find one’s heart in one’s mouth every few minutes. ”

“ Mrs. Burton asked. “You know I would rather you girls did not go far from camp by yourselves. This country is too unfamiliar to all of us.”
But she picked up the flowers and held them lovingly against her face. They had not the usual fragrances, but a kind of aromatic sweetness.
“Oh, I wasn’t alone all the time,” Gerry replied evasively, although the older woman did not notice this. “I followed Vera and Peggy and then came back along the creek.”
“But what about Bettina?” Polly asked carelessly, “I thought she went with the other two girls.” ”

“ She lived—as so many other people do—in her own visions and her own desires. Yet, at present, she deeply wished her mother’s old friend to care for her and exaggerated the failure she was making with her. Without appreciating it, Polly walked in a kind of halo of achievement and charm before Bettina’s eyes. Therefore, it was unfortunate Bettina did not realize that everything and everybody in the world Mrs. Polly Burton took more seriously than she did her own fame, and that the dearest desire of her heart at the present time was that her new Camp Fire girls should regard her as their friend. ”

“ But, then, behind everything else that had happened, or was to come, was the fact that Gerry disliked Bettina.
Since their first meeting she had not liked what she called her coldness and pride. Then there was the more recent sting of their open quarrel. Moreover, to Gerry’s nature it was tantalizing to know that Bettina had the very things she most desired, without appreciating them; even though with her prettiness and wit she expected some day to acquire all she wished. ”

“ But in this short time since his homecoming, he was not the same. It may be that his Indian costume made the difference. Yet it would be interesting to see just how much influence modern civilization did have upon the Indian character. Was it not, after all, just a veneering, and would the young man not return to his own customs and his own people when the American influence was removed?
They were sitting in front of Nampu’s 159house while Mrs. Burton made these reflections. She was resting in the shadow of the cliffs behind the hut on a splendid Indian blanket of black and red. ”

“ He did not like not having found Bettina. There was simply no accounting for her disappearance in so short a time, and along a trail where no one else had lately passed.
Fortunately Mr. Simpson’s manner never 137betrayed his emotions. Before Peggy and Vera he behaved as if Bettina must be comfortably awaiting them not far off. But, while he led Bettina’s riderless burro, both girls saw that he stared over the sides of the ravines every foot along the route.
And they looked, too, although the thought that any human being should ever slip in some of the places made one ill. ”

“ Although living at a little distance from her own people, Nampu was a distinguished woman among them. In the Indian world there was no more famous maker of pottery. Her daughter was being trained to the same work. Nampu was a typical squaw—silent, a little dirty, squatting all day in the sun, with only her wonderful old wrinkled hands moving like an artist’s and setting her apart from the rest of her tribe. ”

“ She looked almost poorly dressed as she stood by Bettina, but girls do not realize that handsome clothes are not necessary when one is pretty and young. Gerry’s traveling dress was also blue, a brighter color, and equally becoming. Just for half an instant, and before the young man answered, it flashed through Polly Burton’s mind that the young Indian might become interested in Gerry if they should chance to meet often. And Gerry had not the social training to make her realize how wrong it might be to cultivate such a friendship. ”

“ He stood there on the platform of the most civilized and civilizing monster in the world—a great express train—gazing out on the fields as if he had been an Indian chief at the door of his own tepee, surveying his own domains.
Naturally Bettina was fascinated. What young girl could have failed to have been interested? And Bettina had lived more in books and dreams than in realities.
72“We are also going to Arizona,” Bettina added quickly. “I have never been West before, though I have longed to always. We are to camp somewhere on a ranch not far from the Painted Desert. ”

“ The Eternal Feminine This morning there seemed to be a great deal of activity about the new Sunrise Hill camp. But then, no matter how people may talk of leading the simple life, there still remains a good deal of work to be done to make even the simple life agreeable.
The four tents stood in a kind of half circle in front of the small group of pine trees, which had influenced the choice of the camping site. Before the central tent was a tall totem pole, as yet uncolored and uncarved, which was later to record the experiences of the Arizona Sunrise Camp Fire club. ”

“ And Bettina was equally relieved by the vision of Sally Ashton—a Sally no longer suggesting the least appearance of sleepiness, or of anything but sweetness and animation. It is curious, but there are a number of girls in this world—and an equal number of women—who really never do wake up until something masculine appears upon their horizon. ”

“ Usually the country was flat and covered with great fields of young corn or wheat, with prosperous farm-houses standing in the background. Yet Bettina saw color and grace in everything.
As the car rushed along, with its rattling and banging, she was trying to recall a line of Kipling’s poetry which described the sound the wind made through the corn.
After Peggy left her, Bettina had caught hold of the wide railing at the end of the car for safety. She was now occupying the entire rear platform of the observation train alone. ”

“ For Betty Graham, as Senator Graham’s wife, living in Washington, was compelled by the conditions of political life, as well as by her own nature and point of view, to conform to the conventions that every capital city requires. And Polly Burton and her husband, although famous members of their profession, naturally passed a wholly different existence. They knew all the actor people with whom they worked—rich and poor, successful and unsuccessful. ”

“ Since her arrival two days before, the Indian girl had been teaching the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire club to improve their hand craft in more than one way. Although Dawapa was not yet an artist to equal her mother, her skill in basketry, in silver work and more especially in pottery had awed the American girls. It was one thing to be a modern Camp Fire girl, no matter how successful in the obtaining of the green honors, and another to have been born to the life of the camp and the inheritances of generations of hand workers. ”

“ In camping with so wealthy and famous a woman as Polly Burton there would be scarcely any great hardships to be endured. The new Sunrise Camp Fire girls were in more danger of having life made too easy for them rather than too difficult. Yet there might be circumstances now and then which would require good sense and courage to overcome. And, most of all, Bettina needed to see the practical side of every-day life. ”

“ Richard Burton gave an expressive shrug of her slender shoulders.
“I expect I am more at fault than any one else; but life is a matter of the future—not of the past—isn’t it? And yet I am sure we have all learned many worthwhile things from our few months of campfire life together. So, suppose we let Gerry have another chance. In the meantime we may be missing a wonderful sight. Let us walk toward Oraibi together.”
Taking Bettina’s arm in hers, Mrs. Burton left her tent, Vera and Peggy just behind. ”

“ But Bettina knows nothing of the actual world. She has lived in her ambitions and dreams. Hard as it is for us, she must take her own risks and learn her own lessons.”
“If only you would come with me, Betty—you or Mollie. I may not be equal to the task alone,” Polly suddenly announced, having felt another qualm at the task ahead of her. Then she laughed.
“I have just had the funniest letter from Sylvia Wharton. You see, I wrote and asked Sylvia to take a year from her hospital work and come west to look after me. ”

“ Sometimes I feel a little nervous, for we are to be only a party of girls and our Camp Fire guardian, except that we are to have a man and his wife for our cook and guide.”
For an instant the young fellow laughed as any other boy would have done, and showing white, fine teeth. Afterwards he relapsed into the conventional Indian gravity.
“My own people are peaceful and always have been, except when we have been attacked by other Indians. Hopi means ‘peaceful people,’ and we have lived in Arizona, the land of ‘few springs,’ since before the days when your written history begins. ”

“ We are all girls and, whatever our circumstances, have pretty much the same needs and ideals.”
Then feeling her cheeks crimson because she feared that her words held a suggestion of preaching, Peggy turned and started to lead the way back into the observation car. Bettina, however, did not at once follow her.
The rear half of the observation train was occupied by the new Sunrise Hill Camp Fire club. Mrs. Polly Burton, the new Camp Fire guardian, sat by one of the windows, glancing out at the great grain fields through which their train was cutting its way like a mammoth thrashing machine. ”

“ Burton’s amiability, which she had announced as necessary to her Camp Fire work, had suddenly vanished.
“One thing I shall never allow in my Camp Fire club is for one girl to talk to me unkindly of another. If Bettina is friendly to Tewa it is because she is grateful to him, as I am. He is an unusual fellow and she may help him with his education. I am afraid, Gerry, you do not understand just who Bettina is, nor who her father and mother are.” ”

“ She knew that he had taken all the prizes at the government schools; that his teachers at the schools had insisted he be sent East to college. Old Nampu also knew that Se-kyal-ets-tewa’s desires had become like those of the white youth. He would wish to have at least some part in choosing his own life companion.
Therefore the old Indian woman had put Dawapa off, telling her that she was too young; that the Indian youth must be allowed to finish his education. She had not told her that marriage between them was impossible, because Nampu herself wished that it might take place. ”

“ By nightfall the Camp Fire party expected to arrive at a tiny village not far from Winslow and the next day begin the trek to their own camp.
Already the air was clear and brilliant. Away to the west were the outlines of high mountains and the peaks of giant canyons. Here and there were bits of dreary, olive-gray desert and then an unexpected green oasis.
In the night it appeared as if the face of 79the world had changed, and with it the Camp Fire girls had changed also. ”

“ Burton considered that Bettina’s mother would have objected to any possibility of an intimacy between her daughter and any young man not in her own social position. Betty herself had been in love with Anthony Graham before he was a person of the least importance; but grown people have a way of forgetting the facts in their own lives. However, Polly may have been mistaken in her theory of Bettina’s mother’s point of view. In writing, she had never mentioned the young Indian, except in a casual fashion, and never that Bettina appeared more interested in him than any one of the other girls. ”

“ She was not really bad-tempered or deceitful; it seemed impossible that any daughter of Esther and Dick Ashton’s could be! But the fact was that Sally was like a pretty, soft kitten. She did not wish her pleasures interfered with, and if they were she was capable of a scratch. Moreover, she had fallen very much under the influence of an older girl who had experiences of life which Sally considered extremely fascinating. And at present Gerry’s power was perhaps stronger than the Camp Fire’s.
Bettina and Ralph both got up hastily. ”