Nevertheless the girls did not sit down to breakfast
at once although they were dreadfully hungry. Already they had
established certain Camp Fire customs, and one was their morning habit
of reciting some verse of thanksgiving in unison before beginning the
real living of their day. The hymn, which first introduced Betty to
Esther was always sung at the close of each day, but this morning verse
had always to be original and one girl at a time was allowed to make the
selection. To-day it had fallen to Polly's lot and she had taught it to
the other girls over their camp fire the night before.
So now the ten girls with their guardian in the center stood in a
semicircle facing Sunrise Hill. The sun had fully risen and the earth,
as the Indians used to say, had "become white." Led by Polly they
slowly recited this ancient chant:
"Shine on our gardens and fields, Shine on our working and weaving;
Shine on the whole race of man, Believing and unbelieving; Shine on us
now through the night, Shine on us now in Thy might, The flame of our
holy love And the song of our worship receiving."
And when they had finished, Polly O'Neill, with a note of reverence in
her voice that gave it an unconscious dramatic quality she would have
vainly tried to have at any other time, added: "We Camp Fire girls
worship not the fire but Him of whom in ages past it was the chosen
symbol because it was the purest of all created things.
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