Margaret Vandercook

“ She made a sweeping movement of her hand at this instant, appearing to include the lake, forest, hillside and the small group of tents about the evergreen cabin.
“You have not yet said, Don, that you consider our camp superior to yours, when I am perfectly convinced that it is, without having laid eyes on yours. Lance has given me the impression that he agrees with me. He has not exactly said so in any words I can recall, but he can be tactful when he likes. You are always so tiresomely silent, Don, whether you think a thing true or not true. ”

“ Several of the girls in her Patrol felt that Teresa was unnecessarily self-conscious before a masculine audience.
At this instant Tory Drew returned her glance. Her face showed bewilderment.
“Why, Teresa, how can you ask what is troubling me? Is one of us thinking any other thought? Of course we have had to talk of other things, but nothing matters except what Dr. McClain may at this moment be deciding about Kara. You know we all care for her more than any other girl at camp. She has had so much more to contend with than the rest of us even before this. ”

“ He was Dorothy’s favorite among her brothers, a delicate, musical chap, partly admired and partly scorned by the five who were stronger and more matter of fact.
Lance’s passion for music, of which he knew but little, his desire to be left alone, his failure in most athletic sports, the rest of his family found annoying and amusing.
Lance McClain alone was like his mother who had died some years before, the others like Dr. McClain.
“Lance, why in the world don’t you help Don out? You know he will only make things worse if left to himself.” Tory whispered at this moment. ”

“ We are both ‘different,’ and no one ever really likes being. Dorothy says you have got some queer idea in your head that you would like to be a naturalist. That is almost as good as my wishing to be a musician, when we both have our own livings to earn, the sooner the better for ourselves and families. We aren’t all Tory Drews in this world!”
Louise’s earnest pale gray eyes with their dark lashes were staring intently at her companion.
“I agree with the first part of your speech, Lance, but I really don’t understand what you mean about Tory,” she returned. ”

“ Kara looked up now with slightly more animation.
“Yes, I do need something to interest me these days, Mr. Hammond. I am afraid you will find me pretty difficult. Only a few weeks ago I cared so intensely for our summer camp in Beechwood Forest and every one of our Girl Scout occupations that nothing else appeared of the slightest importance. Now when everyone is so good to me I don’t seem interested in anything. There are so many Scout subjects I could study when I have so much time and I don’t care to take the trouble. I really am stronger perhaps than I pretend to be.” ”

“ Of course she would be glad to have sacrificed her summer to Kara, if Kara had revealed a moderate amount of appreciation.
In truth Kara was not even as fond of her as she had been in the past before she had been able to show her devotion. To do one’s best and always seem inadequate is not a condition many persons can face cheerfully.
Inside, in the room beyond the open door, the other girl stirred, and Tory glanced in. ”

“ From the first you have been sentimental over your friendship with Katherine Moore. Kara first made a strong appeal to you when you were lonely and antagonistic toward your new life in a small New England town. This drew her closer to you than had you grown up together in ordinary girl fashion. Besides, you are romantic, Tory. You respond to the people who call forth that side of you. The mystery surrounding poor Kara has fascinated you. The fact that she knew nothing of her parents has made you feel that you could be more to her than had she enjoyed the family affection other girls receive. ”

“ Edith’s family had been small farmers for generations. Tory Drew’s had been students and artists and writers. She had no appearance of physical strength and yet her vitality was probably as great.
She looked admiringly at the other girl.
“Edith is splendid. She knows more of cooking and practical things than any girl in camp. She was trying to teach me to cook and we were together a good deal of the time before Kara’s accident. Now I see little of any of the other girls, although I really think Kara often would prefer anyone’s society to mine.” ”

“ Don’t you realize, dear, that you are growing tired out from too much responsibility. You can’t help Kara if you are tired and nervous and, though you may not confess it to yourself, a little resentful of your own disappointment in the summer. ”

“ Often I have wanted dreadfully to go off on our Scouting expeditions and have remained at camp because I thought Kara needed me and did not wish the other girls to be sacrificed. It does require an extraordinary number of virtues to be a good Scout.” 141
Memory Frean shook her head.
“I don’t believe I would put the case in just that fashion, Tory. To be a good Scout demands first of all common sense. You have the artistic temperament, Tory, and common sense is perhaps more difficult for you. Glad you are willing to be friends again.” ”

“ Lance and Don and Jack Hardin told you that their entire Troop of Scouts wished you to play the ‘Goddess of Wisdom.’ The tableaux are to be arranged so you need not appear but once. Then you are to be seated upon a throne as Pallas Athena should be. You know how we all feel on the subject. Surely you do not wish to disappoint everyone,” Tory protested.
She was wondering if the other girls had observed what she had. In these days of discussion of the Greek tableaux Kara had appeared brighter and more like her former self. ”

“ Fenton began. “They left us such inheritances that we have remembered their great days; with other nations we are too apt to recall the years of their decay, their mistakes.
“Perhaps one reason for this is that the Greeks were our forefathers, a branch of the Aryan-speaking peoples who in the faint twilight of early history, a nomadic, wandering people, moved southward, and combined with the inhabitants of Crete. This gives us the story of the Odyssey, one of the two great Greek poems, but more filled with legend than the story of the Iliad, which is the siege of Troy.” ”

“ Her bright red-gold hair was bound in a silver fillet. Her maids were Margaret Hale, Edith Linder, Martha Greaves and Julia Murray. Their costumes were white and crimson, yellow and green.
In making a careful study of the costumes worn by the early Greeks, Miss Frean and the Troop Captain had been surprised to find that white did not play so important a part in their dress as they had supposed. Together with their love for the beauty of line and form the Greeks possessed an equal love for color.
Nausicaa and her maidens begin a game of ball on the sands. ”

“ His brothers and other people might insist there were several girls in the Girl Scout Troop of the Eagle’s Wing far prettier than Victoria Drew—Teresa Peterson, with her half Italian beauty, his own sister, Dorothy, Joan Peters, with her regular features and patrician air. Don knew that Tory possessed a charm and vividness, a quickness of thought and a grace of movement more attractive to him than ordinary beauty. ”

“ But there are days when the fact that I am never going to have a chance to be a great musician gets hold of me, and I know there is nobody on earth then who is as disagreeable as I can be. I don’t see why Kara cannot play some part in the tableaux. She could be seated in her chair as if it were a kind of throne,” Lance concluded. ”

“ Kara’s tone was so unhappy and listless that Mr. Hammond’s agreeable face clouded.
“Your state of mind is due to the fact that you have not recovered from the shock of your fall. You won’t feel like that always, sure not to, a girl with the courage and good sense you have always revealed. Still, what I am going to tell you is obliged to stir you up. I don’t believe you will object to the other Girl Scouts hearing what I tell you. You are such devoted friends.
“Ever since I entered this pretty room I have experienced an odd sensation connected with it. ”

“ You can’t know what I am talking about, if I don’t myself. There is only one other person in the world to whom I could speak, Miss Frean. When I know better what I am only dreaming of at present I shall confide to her and ask her advice. Isn’t it fine to think of her nearby in her little House in the Woods, always ready to give us help and advice. Tory declares she would never have dared to insist we have Kara at camp with us when she is so ill and unhappy except for Miss Frean’s nearness. ”

“ Besides, when one is a Girl Scout I do not think one desires to keep secrets from the other girls. Perhaps you won’t approve of me afterwards, but I shall run that risk.”
Tory laughed.
“You are a dear! I approve of nearly every one. What could there be to object to in your wonderful dancing? Don’t you know every girl who sees you must envy you.”
A little fearfully Tory glanced upward toward Kara. ”

“ Victoria Drew leaned closer toward the fire and looked at her wrist watch.
“It is half-past twelve o’clock, Kara. The witching hour over and I have seen no woodland spirits come to haunt us, and no human beings. I am afraid my signals have failed to attract attention. The other girls at camp must have decided to give us up for lost and await our return in the morning; I am sorry for your sake. Are you sure you are not uncomfortable?” ”

“ At once a dozen girls were crowding about him.
A quarter of an hour after Tory Drew and Dorothy McClain were walking with him toward the road that led back into Westhaven.
“We will have the little evergreen house made comfortable for Kara. Miss Mason and all of us have decided she will be safer and easier to care for there than in one of the tents. You are sure it will be best for her? She must become stronger and in better spirits being with us,” Dorothy McClain insisted, clinging to her father’s arm as if she were unwilling to let him go. ”

“ Tory touched him on the arm. 205
“Please, Mr. Hammond, don’t let us start out upon our search in such a hopeless spirit. I feel as you say you do about Kara. Ever since I met her I have been convinced we would learn that she had a delightful background of some kind, which would explain why she is so brave and charming.”
Mr. Hammond smiled.
“No, Tory, I cannot go so far as you. I have never anticipated so much. Besides, I do not consider it necessary. Personality is the strongest force in the world, not the question of one’s immediate ancestors. ”

“ The last scene reveals Odysseus, his shabby coat cast aside, his figure no longer bent and aged, a shining hero seated opposite Penelope in the courtyard of his home, united at last after long parting.
The Greek tableaux were over. Within a quarter of an hour the audience departed for their homes, the Girl Scouts to their own camp and the boys to theirs on the other side of the hill. Yet not until bed-time was any other subject discussed by the players and their audience than the surprising success of the Greek pageant given that afternoon in the familiar setting of the New England woods. ”

“ Some one of us will always have to stay with Kara day and night. She must never be left alone for any length of time, when we may be wanting to go off together on a hike or a swimming party. It may be hard now and then to be left out. We must not expect Kara always to be cheerful and patient.”
Louise had been looking toward Tory Drew. She now turned her head and her glance traveled from one face to the other.
The group of girls, except for a few additional ones, was the same that had gathered in the old Fenton home in Westhaven on a momentous evening the winter before. ”

“ Apparently she had lost all interest in her guests, now that Lucy had so utterly forgotten the old days at the Gray House on the hill. She always had been an odd little creature, passionate, self willed and self seeking. Still, Kara had never doubted her affection.
Not yet eight o’clock and Kara not expected to retire until nine, nevertheless Tory looked about the room in search of Miss Mason. Kara was being wearied. Better the room full of people be asked to go outdoors. They could talk on in the deepening dusk.
At the open door Sheila Mason was talking to Miss Frean and Mr. Richard Fenton. ”

“ A valiant effort, Tory’s to smile, when in the other girl’s voice and manner there was so much to make smiling difficult.
“When that day arrives, Kara, I presume I also shall wish to resign from the Girl Scouts. It is hard to imagine when we both care so deeply. Has anyone or anything offended you? Do you feel I am responsible for your accident? If you realized how many times during the past week I have wondered if this were true. I did ask Miss Mason for permission to allow us to go for the day alone. I told her that I could sketch so much better without any companion save you. ”

“ No Girl Scout has been near me since Edith came on a borrowing expedition late yesterday afternoon. If you had waited any longer I should have been offended. See, I have put 111 on a clean dress, and the water is boiling for tea, and the table spread in the Shakespeare garden.”
Miss Frean led the way, with Edith and Tory clinging to her and Sheila Mason following.
The herbs in the Shakespeare garden were in the perfection of bloom. In the fragrance of the summer air mingled the pungent odors of thyme and marjoram, sage and rosemary. ”

“ Lance is an obstinate chap and was not altogether convinced. He arose at dawn and discovered the two smoke columns. He wakened no one but me. We set out and were lucky enough to find Tory and Kara without much trouble. We must say good-by to you at once. The other fellows will not know what has become of us, as we can’t reach our own camp for another two hours. ”

“ You have not shown me a new drawing since Kara’s accident.
“Then, don’t you suppose the other girls miss having you with them on some of their excursions? Martha Greaves, the English Girl Guide, must have felt many times that you have been neglecting her. She is a stranger and in a way has the right to depend upon you. Am I reproaching you for too much all at once, Tory?”
The girl arose up from her low stool and stood with her hands clasped and a frown on her forehead.
“You have said a good deal, Memory Frean. If you don’t mind, suppose we start back to camp.” ”

“ Kara has had too much to bear. She has always made the best of the fact that she had no parents, no family! Cleverer and sweeter than anyone, she was found in a deserted house with no explanation as to why she had been left there.
“Kara found happiness in the life at the Gray House because everybody cared for her at the asylum and in the village. ”