The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains or Bessie King's Strange Adventure   By: Jane L. Stewart

[Frontispiece: The motor boat kept dashing back and forth, making swimming almost impossible.]

CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES, VOLUME IV

The Camp Fire Girls

In the Mountains

or

Bessie King's Strange Adventure

by

JANE L. STEWART

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY

Chicago AKRON, OHIO New York

MADE IN U. S. A.

Copyright, 1914

By

The Saalfield Publishing Co.

THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES

1. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE WOODS 2. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE FARM 3. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT LONG LAKE 4. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS 5. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE MARCH 6. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT THE SEASHORE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. PEACEFUL DAYS II. FOREBODINGS OF TROUBLE III. A NEW PLAN IV. A FRIEND IN TROUBLE V. A TANGLED NET VI. BESSIE KING'S PLUCK VII. BACK AT LONG LAKE VIII. A NOVEL RACE IX. THE PATHFINDERS X. THE SIGNAL SMOKES XI. OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS XII. ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE XIII. A PLAN OF REVENGE XIV. THE SPIRIT OF WO HE LO XV. COALS OF FIRE

The Camp Fire Girls In the Mountains

CHAPTER I

PEACEFUL DAYS

On the shores of Long Lake the dozen girls who made up the Manasquan Camp Fire of the Camp Fire Girls of America were busily engaged in preparing for a friendly contest and matching of skill that had caused the greatest excitement among the girls ever since they had learned that it was to take place.

For the first time since the organization of the Camp Fire under the guardianship of Miss Eleanor Mercer, the girls were living with no aid but their own. They did all the work of the camp; even the rough work, which, in any previous camping expedition of more than one or two days, men had done for them. For Miss Mercer, the Guardian, felt that one of the great purposes of the Camp Fire movement was to prove that girls and women could be independent of men when the need came.

It was her idea that before the coming of the Camp Fire idea girls had been too willing to look to their brothers and their other men folks for services which they should be able, in case of need, to perform for themselves, and that, as a consequence, when suddenly deprived of the support of their natural helpers and protectors, many girls were in a particularly helpless and unfortunate position. So the Camp Fire movement, designed to give girls self reliance and the ability to do without outside help, struck her as an ideal means of correcting what she regarded as faults in the modern methods of educating women.

Before the camp on Long Lake was broken up they hoped to have a ceremonial camp fire, but there were gatherings almost every night around the big fire that was not a luxury and an ornament at Long Lake, but a sheer necessity, since the nights were cool, and at times chilly. This fire was never allowed to go out, but burned night and day, although, of course, it reached its full height and beauty after dark, when the flames shot up high and sent grotesque shadows dancing under and among the trees, and on the sandy beach which had been selected as the ideal location for the camp.