CHAPTER I

A GROUNDLESS JEALOUSY


"I told you we were going to be happy here, didn't I, Zara?"

The speaker was Dolly Ransom, a black-haired, mischievous Wood Gatherer
of the Camp Fire Girls, a member of the Manasquan Camp Fire, the
Guardian of which was Miss Eleanor Mercer, or Wanaka, as she was known
in the ceremonial camp fires that were held each month. The girls were
staying with her at her father's farm, and only a few days before Zara,
who had enemies determined to keep her from her friends of the Camp
Fire, had been restored to them, through the shrewd suspicions that a
faithless friend had aroused in Bessie King, Zara's best chum.

Zara and Dolly were on top of a big wagon, half filled with new-mown
hay, the sweet smell of which delighted Dolly, although Zara, who had
lived in the country, knew it too well to become wildly enthusiastic
over anything that was so commonplace to her. Below them, on the ground,
two other Camp Fire Girls in the regular working costume of the Camp
Fire--middy blouses and wide blue bloomers--were tossing up the hay,
under the amused direction of Walter Stubbs, one of the boys who worked
on the farm.

"I'm awfully glad to be here with the girls again, Dolly," said Zara.
"No, that's not the way! Here, use your rake like this. The way you're