“It’s never too late to find out one’s been in the wrong, Dolly, if one admits it.  There aren’t many girls like you, who are ready to say they’ve been wrong, no matter how well they know it.  I haven’t anything to forgive you for—­so don’t let’s talk any more about that.  Everyone makes mistakes.  If I thought anyone had treated me as you thought I had treated you to-night I’d have been angry, too.”

Poor Dolly sighed disconsolately.

“You’re the best friend I ever had, Bessie,” she said.  “I make everyone angry with me, and when I say I’m sorry, they pretend that they’ve forgiven me, but they haven’t, really, at all.  That’s why I said that about your still being angry with me.  I thought you must be.  I really am going to try to be more sensible.”

And so the little misunderstanding, which might easily, had Bessie been less patient and tactful, have grown into a quarrel that would have ended their friendship before it was well begun, was smoothed over, and Dolly and Bessie, tired but happy, went upstairs to their room together, and were asleep so quickly that they didn’t even take the time to talk matters over.

Eleanor Mercer, standing in the big hall of the farm house as the girls went upstairs, smiled after Dolly and Bessie.

“I think you thought I was foolish to put those two in a room together,” she said to Mrs. Farnham, the motherly housekeeper, whom Eleanor had known since, as a little girl, she had played about the farm.

“I wouldn’t say that, Miss Eleanor,” said Mrs. Farnham.  “I didn’t see how they were going to get along together, because they were so different.  But it’s not for me to say that you’re foolish, no matter what you do.”

“Oh, yes, it is,” laughed Eleanor.  “You used to have to tell me I was foolish in the old days, when I wanted to eat green apples, and all sorts of other things that would have made me sick, and just because I’m grown up doesn’t keep me from wanting to do lots of things that are just as foolish now.  But I do think I was right in that”

“They do seem to get on well,” agreed Mrs. Farnham.

“It’s just because they are so different,” said Eleanor.  “Dolly does everything on impulse—­she doesn’t stop to think.  With Bessie it’s just the opposite.  She’s almost too old—­she isn’t impulsive enough.  And I think each of them will work a little on the other, so that they’ll both benefit by being together.  Bessie likes looking after people, and she may make Dolly think a little more.

“There isn’t a nicer, sweeter girl in the whole Camp Fire than Dolly, but lots of people don’t like her, because they don’t understand her.  Oh, I’m sure it’s going to be splendid for both of them.  Dolly was awfully angry at Bessie before they started from the church—­but you saw how they were when they got here to-night?”

“I did, indeed, Miss Eleanor.  And I’d say; Dolly has a high temper, too, just to look at her.”