The weeks pass swiftly by, and it is time for another Camp Fire. The
girls selected as their meeting place for this occasion farmer
Druckenmuller's peach orchard, to which they walked, a distance of
about three miles from the home of Elizabeth Schmidt. They left about
two o'clock in the afternoon, intending to return home before
nightfall, a good time being anticipated, as they took with them lunch
and materials for a corn-roast.

The peach orchard in question, covering many acres, was situated at
the foot of a low hill. Between the two flowed an enchanting,
fairy-like stream, the cultivated peach orchard on one side, and on
the opposite side the forest-like hill, covered with an abundance of
wild flowers.

When the afternoon set for the Council Fire arrived, had you happened
to meet the fifteen merry, chattering girls, accompanied by two older
girls, Mary and Lucy Robbins (the country school teacher), as
chaperones, wending their way to the orchard, you, without a doubt,
would have smiled and a question might naturally have arisen regarding
their sanity. They certainly possessed intelligent faces, but why
those queer-shaped Indian dresses? And such an awkward length for a
young girl's dress! And why was their hair all worn hanging in one
braid over each shoulder, with a band over the forehead? Why so many
strings of gaudy beads around their necks? These questions may all be
answered in one single sentence: The girls are dressed in Ceremonial
Costume.

[Illustration: ELIZABETH SCHMIDT "LAUGHING WATER"]