Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
The Girl Scout Pioneers
or
Winning the First B. C.
By Lillian C. Garis
Author of "The Girl Scouts at Bellair," "The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest,"etc.
Illustrated
It was much like a scene in a movie play. The shabby dark room lightedby a single oil lamp if any light could make its way through the badlysmoked glass that served as a chimney, the broken chair, and the tablepiled high with what appeared to be rags, but which might have beenintended for wearing apparel, the torn window curtain hanging sodisconsolately from the broken cord it had one time proudly swung from,and the indescribable bed!
Like some sentinel watching the calamitous surroundings, a girl stoodin the midst of this squalor, her bright golden hair and her prettyfair face, with its azure blue eyes, marking a pathetic contrast to allthe sordid, dark detail of the ill-kept room. She took from the sidepocket of her plaid skirt a bit of crumpled paper, and placing itdirectly under the lamp, followed its written lines. Having finishedthe reading, she carefully folded the worn slip again, and returned itto her pocket. Then she threw back her pretty head, and any frequenterof the screen world would have known instantly that the girl haddecided—and further, that her decision required courage, and perhapsdefiance.
With determination marking every move, she crossed to the tumbled bed,and stooping, dragged from beneath it a bag, the sort called"telescope," and used rarely now, even by the traveling salesman, whoat one time found the sliding trunk so useful. It would "telescope,"and being thus adjustable, lent its proportions to any sized burdenimposed upon it. Into this the girl tossed a few articles selected fromthe rummage on the table, a pair of shoes gathered from more debris ina corner, and on top a sweater and skirt, taken from a peg on the door.All together this composed rather a pretentious assortment for thetelescope.
But the girl did not jam down the cover in that "movie" way common torunaways, rather she paused, glanced furtively about the gloomy place,and finally taking a candle from a very high shelf, lighted the taper,evidently for some delicate task in th