“You’ve been a lovely and kind mother to me,” replied Ethel.  “You have sacrificed far too much for me and I never half appreciated it.”

“I have been an unwise mother my dear,” said she, “and you stopped me just in time.  I only now begin to realize my limitations.  I’ve been self-centered and conceited.”

Ethel kissed her mother affectionately, and the two old ladies coughed and knitted vigorously.

“We are all liable to make mistakes, Bella,” said Aunt Susan.  “Yours has been in loving your child too dearly.”

CHAPTER VI

UNCLE JOHN’S

They arrived in Columbus where Uncle John greeted them affectionately and insisted upon kissing his sister-in-law.  Mrs. Hollister was persuaded not to go to camp until after a few days, when the girls should be settled.  Then Uncle John was to take her up.  So Ethel, Kate, and the girls, with one new member, went alone.

Save that Nora Casey wore mourning and seemed quiet, everything was the same as the summer before.  Patty Sands was wild with delight upon seeing Ethel.  Edna Whitely was the same happy-go-lucky Edna as of old.  Mollie Long and Edith Overman had grown very tall, while Sallie Davis had become a perfect roly poly.  She had gained twenty pounds and was constantly dieting and taking long walks.

Mattie Hastings cried when she beheld Ethel.  Mattie had grown quiet and dignified, while in her face she showed more character.

Ethel looked at them all, especially at Honora.

“Can I not put my dislike of that girl behind me?” she thought.  “Why can’t I be nice to her?”

She tried hard.  She began asking her of her mother, and tears filled Nora’s eyes, but after a while her voice began to take on its old shrill tones, while in her manner there came that indescribable something that had always repelled Ethel.

“That girl is my cross,” she thought.  “I must like her, and yet I can’t.  I shall never become worthy to be a Camp Fire Girl until I overcome it.  I wonder if she’ll affect Mother as she does me.”

Ethel was now a Fire Maker.  In addition to her Wood Gatherer’s ring she wore the pretty silver bracelet of the Fire Maker.

The second evening they had a Council Fire.  The wood and kindling had been gathered and brought by Edna Whitely and a new girl named Kate Winthrop, who had never been to Camp before.  Edna couldn’t seem to advance.  She was actually too lazy to work for honors and it worried Kate Hollister not a little.

“What’s the difference?” she would say.  “Someone will have to gather wood and we have but one new girl—­that’s Kate.  You may be glad that I stayed.”