time to start for the landing if they
were to catch the little steamer that was to take them to the other end
of the lake.
"I tell you what! We'll all go with you as far as you go on the boat,
and come back on her," said Marcia. "That will be good fun, won't it?
I've got plenty of money for the fares, and those who haven't their
money with them can pay me when we get back to camp."
All the girls from Camp Halsted fell in with her suggestion, delighted
by the idea of such an unplanned excursion. It was easy enough to
arrange it, too, for the little steamer would be back on her return trip
early in the afternoon, even though she did not make very good speed and
had numerous stops to make, since Lake Dean's shores were lined with
little settlements, where camps and cottages and hotels had been built
at convenient spots.
"We've heard you singing a lot of songs we never heard before," said
Marcia to Bessie, as they took their places on the boat. "Won't you
teach us some of them? They were awfully pretty, we thought."
"You must mean the Camp Fire songs," said Bessie, happily. "We'll be
glad to teach them to you--and they're all easy to learn, too. I think
Dolly's got an extra copy of one of the song books and I know she'll be
glad to let you have it."
And so, as soon as Bessie explained what Marcia wanted, the deck of the
steamer was turned into an impromptu concert hall, and she made her
journey to the strains of the favorite songs of the Camp Fire, the
Wo-he-lo cheer with its lovely music being, of course, sung more often
than any of the others.
"We were wondering so much about that," said Marcia. "We could make out
the word Wo-he-lo, but we couldn't understand it. It sounded like an
Indian word, but the others didn't seem to fit in with that idea."
"It's just made up from the first syllables of work and health and love,
you see," said Eleanor. "We make up a lot of the words we use. A good
many of the ceremonial names that the girls choose are made that way."
"Then they have a real meaning, haven't they?"
"Yes. You see, one of the things that we preach and try to teach in the
Camp Fire is that things ought to be useful as well as beautiful. And
it's very easy to be both."
"But tell me about the Indian sound of Wo-he-lo. Was that just an
accident, or was it chosen that way on purpose?"
"Both, I think, Marcia. You see, the Indians in this country had a lot
of good qualities that a great many people hav
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