th Elizabeth for going so willingly.
Of course she must do what her Guardian asked. Nevertheless----Olga left
it there.

It was an hour before Elizabeth came back, and this time there was in
her face something half shy, half exultant, and she did not say a word
about what Miss Laura had wanted her for. Olga made a mental note of
that, but she was far too proud to make any inquiries.

The next morning after breakfast Elizabeth disappeared again, and this
time too it was fully an hour before she returned, and as before she
came back with a shining something in her eyes--a something that changed
slowly to troubled brooding when Olga did not look at her or speak to
her all the rest of the morning.

When the third day it was the same, Olga faced the situation in stony
silence. She would not ask why Elizabeth went or where, but she silently
resented her going, and Elizabeth, sensitively conscious of her
resentment, after that, slipped away each time with a wistful backward
glance; and when she returned, there was no shining radiance in her
eyes, but only that wistful pleading which Olga coldly ignored. So it
went on day after day. Olga always knew where Elizabeth was except for
that one hour in the morning, which was never mentioned between them.
The other times she was always helping some one--darning stockings for
Louise Johnson--Elizabeth knew how to darn stockings--or helping little
Bessie Carroll hunt for some of her belongings, which she was always
losing, or helping Katie the cook, who declared that nobody in camp
could pare potatoes and apples, or peel tomatoes or pick over berries so
fast as the Poor Thing. There was not a day now that some one did not
call on Elizabeth for something like this, for the girls had found out
that she was always willing. She seemed to take it quite as a matter of
course that she should be at the service of everybody. But Laura noted
the fact that she never asked anybody to help her.

Then came a night when Mrs. Royall detained the girls for a moment after
supper in the dining-room.

"I think we are going to have a heavy storm," she said, "and we must be
prepared for it. Put all your belongings under cover where they will be
secure from wind and rain. I should advise you to sleep in your
gymnasium suits--you will be none too warm in this northeast wind--and
have your rubber blankets and overshoes handy. Guardians will examine
all tent-pins and ropes and see that everything is secure.