kory sticks piled more or less
scientifically against the backlog. "Don't you know it needed just that
back-draught to break the deadlock in the chimney and start your fire
crackling this way?"

"Bah! it was just hateful," grumbled Grace. "I hate fire making. And it
does seem as though my week for playing fireman comes around twice as
often as it should." Wyn had moved rather too near to the darting
flames, and Grace suddenly pulled the captain of the club aside.
"_Don't_ stand so near, Silly!" she cried.

"Fireman! save my che-ild!" wailed "Frank" Cameron, coming forward and
winding her long arms around Wynifred. "What's the news, Wyn, dear?
Nobody had the politeness to ask you. Wherefore all the excitement?"

"There must be a strike at the blacksmith shop," said Percy Havel, a
curly-headed blonde girl.

"No!" cried Frank, with a droll twist of her rather homely features.
"I'll wager they've laid off one of the hands of the town clock.
Business is dreadfully dull. I heard my father say so."

She was a tall, lanky girl, was Frances Cameron, with a great mass of
blue-black hair and flashing black eyes. She was thin, strong, and
lacking in those soft curves of budding womanhood which girls of her age
usually display. "Straight up and down, my dears," she often said.
"Built upon the most approved clothespin plan, with every bone
perfectly--not to say generously--developed."

"Well," said Wyn, laughing, "if you girls will give me a chance I will
divulge my news."

"Be still!" commanded Frank. "The oracle speaks."

"Oh, hurry up, Wyn!" exclaimed Percy, coming nearer the group before the
now roaring fire. "I've been dying to tell them."

"Well, girls," said Wyn, smiling, so that her brown eyes fairly danced.
"Mrs. Havel--Percy's aunt--says she will go."

"Fine!" exclaimed Frankie.

"You don't mean it, Wyn?" gasped Mina Everett. "Then we really
_can_ go camping?"

"And to Lake Honotonka?" put in Bessie.

"That's what we aimed to do; wasn't it?" demanded Wyn, laughing. "And
when the Go-Ahead Club starts to do a thing, it usually arrives; doesn't
it?"

"At least, the captain arrives for them," said Frank, giving Wyn's arm a
little squeeze. "We wouldn't get far in our 'go-ahead' plans if it
wasn't for you, Wynnie."

"Such flattery!" protested the captain.

"You didn't have an easy time convincing my mother--I know that," said
Mina, shaking _her_ head. "You know, she's so afraid of water."

"And my mother is