They are pretty!" Betty conceded.
But Polly had dropped down by the side of her bed. "They have another
name, Betty, which isn't calumets and you know it, and we were to use
them at our Council Fire to-night. They are called 'pipes of peace' and
I can't very well lead the party that is to bring them to camp and also
the children who are to receive them."
A silence in the tent then followed, lasting several moments.
"Aren't you a little ashamed, Princess, thinking of the character of our
ceremony this evening, not to be willing to be present? It is to be war
and not peace then, isn't it?"
Betty laughed. "I only said I was tired," she argued faintly. "I am
sure no one has the least reason for thinking I am angry if I happen to
prefer to rest."
Then Polly began to feel that her case was won. Very quietly she
slipped over to a wooden dress-good's box covered with bright cretonne
and, opening it, drew forth the ceremonial dress so recently finished by
Esther, then she lighted two candles on either side the table underneath
their small mirror. Betty's head-dress was there, a band of her
favorite blue velvet ribbon with three white feathers crossed in front.
Catching it up Polly waved it temptingly.
"Come on, Betty, and let me help you dress, everybody is waiting for us
and there never was such a night!" But seeing that her friend still
hesitated, added in a tone which was a question, not a reproach: "Don't
you think, dear, that so long as you really originated our Camp Fire
club and asked Miss McMurtry to be our guardian, it is rather a pity for
you to make the first break? Isn't one of the Camp Fire ideas to learn
to put the happiness of a good many people before our own personal
desires?"
In a half minute Betty was out of bed with her Camp Fire dress nearly
on.
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