“You might tell the girls how you felt when you believed that all was lost,” suggested the Chief Guardian smilingly, nodding at Tommy.  “Do you recall how you felt in that trying moment?”

“I motht thertainly do.”

“How did you feel?”

“I felt cold.  I had what Harriet callth ‘cold feet.’  Then I gueth I didn’t feel much of anything till I felt mythelf thitting in the thand with thome of me dry and thome of me wet, and Harriet trying to drag me out of the thudth.”

“Out of what?” exclaimed the Chief Guardian.

“Thudth.”

“Suds,” interpreted Miss Elting.  “Grace refers to the froth left on the shore by the beating waves.”

“Yeth, thudth,” repeated Tommy.

“Harriet, your companions would like to hear from your own lips about your experiences in the water.”

“Oh, please, Mrs. Livingston, won’t you excuse me?”

“If you wish, but—­”

“My own part was nothing more than an instinct to save myself, which everyone possesses.  I do want to say, though, that Tommy Thompson was the bravest girl I ever saw.  She was not afraid, nor can she be blamed for getting numb and sleepy.  I did myself.  No one can ever tell me that Tommy isn’t as brave a girl as lives.  She has proved that.”

“Yeth, I’m a real hero,” piped Tommy with great satisfaction.

“A heroine, you mean, Tommy,” corrected Harriet.

“Yeth, I gueth tho,” agreed the little lisping girl amid general laughter, in which, the Chief Guardian joined.

“There is nothing else that I can think of to say, Mrs. Livingston.  We were fortunate; we have much for which to be thankful, for it was through no heroism on my part that we got ashore and were saved.”

Harriet sat down, inwardly glad that her part of the story was told.

“We have our own views as to that,” answered the Chief Guardian.  “And now that we have cleared the way, I would say that the camp guardians have unanimously agreed on giving each of you two young ladies a full set of beads for your achievements of last night, for such achievements touch upon nearly all the crafts of our order.  They have been worthily won and will prove a splendid addition to the already heavy necklace of beads you have earned.”

“I gueth we’ll need a chain bearer inthtead of a torch bearer if we keep on earning beadth,” suggested Grace.

The two girls were requested to step out.  They did so, posing demurely before the blazing campfire.

Mrs. Livingston placed a string of beads about the neck of each of the two girls.  There were beads of red, orange, sky blue, wood brown, green, black and gold, and red, white and blue, representative of the different crafts of the organization.

Linking hands and raising them above their heads, thus forming a chain about the blazing campfire, the Wau-Wau Girls began swaying the human chain, chanting in low voices: