The Camp Fire Girls on the Edge of the Desert

"It isn't so impracticable as you think, Mr. William Webster," said Polly O'Neill Burton from the depth of a big camp chair. It was a warm April afternoon and tea was being served out under the elms not far from the Webster house. Mollie Webster sat before a big wicker table covered with the Webster tea service and china over a hundred years old. Dan Webster, who was a big, dark-haired fellow with blue eyes and his mother's sweet nature, was carrying about teacups. He was followed by Ralph Marshall, who was spending a spring vacation from college at the Webster farm, and was now making himself useful by serving the hot muffins and cakes. Billy Webster sat apart from the others reading, while Bettina and Polly were on either side of Mrs. Burton's camp chair; and Mr. Webster stood upright, smiling down on its occupant. "When was there anything that Polly O'Neill wanted from her girlhood up that wasn't practical according to her view?" he demanded. The Polly in the camp chair reached up and took hold of his hand. "Do sit down, William, I suppose I must call you by that bugbear of a name, since we have another Billy and are getting so hopelessly old. We shall have to find another name for Polly as well, now that we are going to be together for a long time." And having persuaded her brother-in-law to sit down beside her, the older Polly pulled one of the younger's curls, "Why not Peggy, 'Peg o' My Heart,' after the charming play? But see here, William, I have persuaded my husband to come around to my way of thinking, and he is not an easy person to manage. "Although she won't confess it, Mollie is half persuaded; and when I can lead you to the light, then I must see Betty and Anthony. But, seriously, why not? It will be a wonderful experience for the girls and one we shall never forget in this life and perhaps in another. I have to spend a year outdoors. For that length of time I am not to be allowed to act for a single night. Richard must, of course, go on with his engagements. Now I never am able to see my family or my friends when I am working and I regret it a great deal more than any of you realize. "Instead of being sent off somewhere with my maid to a horrid hotel, where I shall probably die of the blues and the lonesomes, as I did once years ago before Bobbin and Richard rescued me, why won't all of you or some of you come and camp in the desert with me?"Polly's cheeks were glowing with two bright spots of color and her eyes darkening as they always did in moments of excitement or pleading. She had forgotten the sofa pillows back of her, upon which she was supposed to recline, like an invalid, and had raised herself upright in her chair with one foot twisted up under her.

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