ou have to work hard before you can stop
being a Wood-Gatherer and get to the higher ranks. We all have to work
all the time, you see."

"I've had to work, too," said Bessie. "But this seems different because
you enjoy your work."

"That's because we like to work. We work because we want to do it, not
because someone makes us."

"Yes, I was thinking of that. I always worked because I had to--Maw
Hoover made me."

"Who's Maw Hoover, Bessie?"

So Bessie told her story, or most of it, all over again, and the other
girls, seeing that she was telling a story, crowded around and listened.

"I think it's a shame you were treated so badly," said Minnehaha. "But
don't you worry--Miss Eleanor will know what to do. She won't let them
treat you unfairly. Is she going to find out about things in the
village?"

"Yes."

"Well, you needn't worry any more, then. Why, one of the first things
she did in the city, when she started this Camp Fire, was to get us all
to work to get better milk for the babies in the poor parts, where the
tenement houses are. We all helped, but she did most of it. And now all
the milk is good and pure, and the babies don't die any more in the hot
weather in summer."

"That's fine. I'd like to be a Camp Fire Girl."

"Why shouldn't you be one, then?"

"But--"

Bessie hesitated.

After all, why not? Maw Hoover would never have let her do anything like
that--but Maw Hoover couldn't stop her from doing anything she liked
now. Wanaka had told her what Zara had always said, that Maw Hoover
couldn't make her stay, couldn't make her keep on working hard every day
for nothing but her board. She had read about girls who had gone to the
city and earned money, lots of money, without working any harder than
she had always done. Perhaps could do that, too.

"You talk to Wanaka about that when she comes back," said Minnehaha, who
guessed what Bessie was thinking. "You see her. She'll explain it to
you. And you're going to be happy, Bessie. I'm sure of that. When people
do right, and still aren't happy for a while, it's always made up to
them some way. And usually when they do wrong they have to pay for it,
some way or another. That's one of the things we learn in the Camp
Fire."

"Here comes Wanaka now," said one of the other girls. "There's someone
with her."

Bessie looked frightened.

"I don't want anyone from Hedgeville to see me," she said. "Do you
suppose they're coming here?"

"Wanaka will com