Both girls nodded and laughed in rather an abashed fashion. But at a
safe distance away Betty turned to Polly. "Won't you confess, please,
that it is rather a nuisance having Esther Clark in the tent with us? I
don't see why Martha McMurtry insisted upon it when we might have had
Meg or most anybody else."

Polly looked unusually grave. "You don't care for Esther, do you?" she
questioned. "It is curious, because though you haven't been
particularly nice to her, she is devoted to you and I believe would do
anything in the world for you."

Ten minutes later the four girls in their Camp Fire bathing suits were
in the waters of the lake near their camp, Polly and Betty swimming with
long even strokes toward its center, Mollie hovering near the shore,
while Esther stood shivering in a foot of water trying vainly to warm
herself by splashing and throwing handfuls of water on her chest and
face.

Half a mile out Betty turned over on her side. "Say the Law of the Camp
Fire to yourself, Polly. I have just said it and I am going back toward
shore. I suppose if one makes a vow to 'give service' it is little
enough to show another girl how to swim. If Esther didn't look so big
and wasn't so horribly shy, I am sure I should like her better, but here
goes!"

It wasn't easy work teaching Esther to swim, for she was so much larger
than Betty and had such an absurd fashion of keeping both feet down and
splashing the water into her own and her teacher's face. Polly laughed
softly to herself as she swam slowly forward to offer her assistance.
She was wondering if a single week in camp had really begun to reform