here I'll see
how things are."

"You won't tell Maw Hoover where we are; or Farmer Weeks?" cried Bessie.

"I'll do the right thing, Bessie," said Wanaka, smiling. "You may be
sure of that. I believe what you've told me--I believe every word of it.
But you'd rather have me find out from others, too, I'm sure. You see,
it would be very wrong for us to help girls to run away from home. But
neither you nor Zara have done that, if your story is right. And I think
it is our duty to help you both, just as it is our pleasure."

CHAPTER IV

AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND

Bessie wasn't afraid of what Wanaka would find out in Hedgeville. Wanaka
wouldn't take Jake Hoover's word against hers, that much was sure. And
she guessed that Wanaka would have her own ways of discovering the
truth. So, as Wanaka changed from her bathing suit to a costume better
suited to the trip to the village, Bessie went out with a light heart to
find Zara. Already she thought that she saw the way clear before them.
With friends, there was no reason why they should not reach the city and
make their own way there, as plenty of other girls had done. And it
seemed to Bessie that Wanaka meant to be a good friend.

"Oh, Bessie, have you been hearing all about the Camp Fire, too?" asked
Zara, when she espied her friend, "It's wonderful! They do all sorts of
things. And Minnehaha is going to teach me to swim this afternoon.
She'll teach you, too, if you like."

But Bessie only smiled in answer. She could swim already, but she said
nothing about it, since no one asked her, seeming to take it for granted
that, like Zara, she was unused to the water. Moreover, while she could
swim well enough, she was afraid that she would look clumsy and awkward
in comparison to the Camp Fire Girls. Most of them had changed their
clothes now, before dinner.

Some wore short skirts and white blouses; one or two were in a costume
that Bessie recognized at once as that of Indian maidens, from the
pictures she had seen in the books she had managed to get at the Hoover
farmhouse. She noticed, too, that many of them now wore strings of
beads, and that all wore rings. Two or three of the girls, too, wore
bracelets, strangely marked, and all had curious badges on their right
sleeves.

"We've got to wash the dishes, now," said Minnehaha, who bore out her
name by laughing and smiling most of the time. She had already told Zara
that her real name was Margery Burton. "You sit down an