hese are the common things of life--dish
washing, house cleaning, first aid to the injured, darning stockings and
keeping accurate accounts. To view these as adventures, as bits of
romance, is what the Camp Fires are aiming toward. And they are
succeeding; for there are hundreds of groups of girls all over the
country who are struggling to win the beads by study and service, that
shall make these prized necklaces represent their endeavors. The mothers
are welcoming this spirit that turns a disliked piece of household work
into an adventure of high emprise. They find themselves rushed away from
a task they were about to begin lest the daughter should fail by chance
to gain a bead she was striving for, and prevented from various branches
of work by the rules the daughter was following. But it is not the
spirit of vanity and self aggrandizement that forms the basis of the
girls' endeavor; it is the love of achievement; it is the game!

If one looks over the books of directions for Camp Fire Girls, one is
delighted and fascinated by the pictures that show the many ways the
girls have to carry out the intention of the society. Here are girls in
the ceremonial costumes, the hair braided Indian fashion, the decorated
band drawn around the forehead and fastened behind at the back of the
head. In one picture the girls are sitting by the tent at camp, sewing
and carving and carpentering for honors. Here they are in a big canoe
with paddles lifted all together; again they are starting out for a
hay-rack ride, or building a gigantic bonfire for Independence Day,
setting up the logs in tepee-shape, while eight girls are bearing the
next log to the pyramid. We see them wading, swimming, and making fire
in antique fashion with bow and drill; they are cooking in house and in
camp; they are washing, they are ironing, they are mending; here they
are serving the community by teaching some little girls to sew, or by
helping to fight a real forest fire; they are holding ceremonial
meetings and conferring honors on those that by hard work have won them.
One can only say: O happy, happy girls in this happiest of countries,
that have so much done for them, that have so great opportunities, that
are so diligently and joyously making the most of their chance in life!

CHAPTER XXIX

THE COUNTRY GIRL'S DUTY TO THE COUNTRY

Are you sheltered, curled up and content by the world's warm fire,
Then I say that your soul is in danger!