t's sure. Have a good time, and stop worrying. That's the best
legal advice I can give you right now."

Once her mind was made up, Eleanor acted quickly. The outing at her
father's farm, which was not at all like the Hoover farm in Hedgeville
of which Bessie King had such unpleasant memories, was one that had long
been promised to her girls, and she herself had been looking forward to
going there. The troubles of Bessie and Zara had almost led her to
abandon the idea of going there herself, and she had arranged for a
friend to take her place as Guardian for a time. Now, however, she sent
word to all her girls, and that very evening they met at the station and
took the train for Deer Crossing, the little station that was nearest to
the farm.

"They'll meet us in the farm wagons," said Eleanor, when the girls were
all aboard. "So we'll have a ride through the moonlight to the farm--the
moon rises early to-night, you know."

It was a jolly, happy ride in the train, and Bessie, renewing her
acquaintance with the Camp Fire Girls, who had seemed to her and Zara,
when they had first seen them, like creatures from another world, felt
her depression wearing off. They had a car to themselves, thanks to the
conductor, who had known Eleanor Mercer since she was a little girl, and
as the train sped through the country scenes that were so familiar to
Bessie, the girls laughed and talked and sang songs of the Camp Fire,
and made happy plans for walks and tramps in the country about the farm.

"It's just like the country around Hedgeville, Miss Eleanor," said
Bessie, as the Guardian stopped beside the seat she shared with her
first chum among the Camp Fire Girls, Minnehaha. "The houses look the
same, and the stone fences, and--oh, everything!"

"I wonder if you aren't a little bit homesick, down in your heart,
Bessie?" laughed Miss Mercer. "Come, now, confess!"

"Perhaps I am," said Bessie, wonderingly. "I never thought of that. But
it's just for the country, and the cows and the animals, and all the
things I'm used to seeing. I wouldn't go back to Maw Hoover's for
anything."

"You shan't, Bessie. I was only joking," said Eleanor, quickly. "I know
just how you feel. I've been that way myself. When you get away from a
place you begin very quickly to forget everything that was disagreeable
that happened there, and you only remember the good times you had.
That's why you're homesick."

"We'll be able to take walks and go for stra