you think it over. Come, Bessie!"

Bessie, quite stunned by the trouble that had come upon them so suddenly
out of a clear sky, couldn't speak for a minute.

"Oh," she said, then, "you don't mean that all the girls will have to
leave this lovely place because of me?"

"Not because of you, but because of a mistake that's not your fault,
Bessie. You mustn't worry about it. Just leave it to me. I'm sure you're
telling the truth, and I'm going to stick by you."

CHAPTER XIV

THE TRUTH AT LAST

But Bessie, despite Mrs. Chester's kind words, was terribly downcast.

"Really, Mrs. Chester," she said miserably, "it's awfully unfair to make
all the other girls suffer on account of me."

"You mustn't look at it that way, Bessie. You couldn't tell a lie, you
know, even to prevent this trouble."

"No, but I'm sure he thinks I did that. He's not an unkind man, and he
really doesn't want to make me unhappy, and drive you all away, I know.
Mrs. Chester, won't you send me away?"

"Nonsense, Bessie! If you haven't done anything wrong, why shouldn't we
stand by you? Even if you had, we'd do that, and we ought to do it all
the more when you're in the right, and unjustly suspected. Don't you
worry about it a bit! Everything will be all right."

"But I really think you ought to let me go. I'm just a trouble maker--I
make trouble for everyone! If it hadn't been for me, Jake Hoover would
never have burnt his father's barn--don't you know that?"

"That isn't so, Bessie. If you hadn't been there, something else would
have happened. And it's the same way here. You haven't anything to do
with all this trouble here. It would have come just the same if you
hadn't arrived at all, I'm sure of that. And then one of the girls would
have been accused, and everything would have happened just the same."

"Oh, I'm afraid not!"

"But I'm sure of it, Bessie, and I really know better than you. You
mustn't take it so hard. No one is going to blame you. Rest easy about
that. I'll see to it that they all understand just how it is."

"I wish I could believe that!"

Mrs. Chester told Eleanor what General Seeley had said as soon as they
returned to the camp, and Eleanor, after a moment, just laughed.

"Well, it can't be helped," she said. "If he wants to act that way, we
can't stop him, can we? And I'm so glad that you're going to stick by
poor Bessie. I know she feels as bad as she can feel about it--and it's
so fine for her to know tha