From the child's point of view, summer camps are a blessing, and, as
such, they have come to stay. But there are those who doubt their
benefits, even the financial ones, for the teachers, who mortgage their
vacations to conduct them. Unfortunately, as every one knows, almost
every teacher has to mortgage her spare time in one way or another in
order to make a more than bare living. Call the roll of those whom you
may know, and you will be surprised--no, scarcely surprised; merely
interested--to find that nine-tenths of them do some additional work. It
may be extra tutoring, hack writing, translating, the editing of school
texts or the writing of text-books, taking agencies for this, that, or
the other commodity, conducting travel parties, lecturing at educational
institutes, running women's clubs, or organizing nature classes. Some
outside vocation is necessary if the teacher is to enjoy the advantages
her training makes almost imperative, or the comforts her tired, nervous
organism demands. So, as one philosopher was heard to remark, it is
perhaps best to run a summer camp, since in the doing of it there is at
least the advantage of being in the open and of leading a wholesomely
sane existence.

Two good friends and fellow-teachers who have conducted a camp in
northern Maine for the last five years have been extremely frank in
setting forth their experiences for the benefit of those who are
standing on the brink of a similar venture. And their story is worth
while, because from every point of view they have been successful. Any
pessimistic touches in their narrative cannot be laid at the door of
failure. Indeed, in their first year they cleared expenses, and that is
rare; and their clientèle has steadily increased until now they have a
camp of forty or more girls, at the very topmost of camp prices. Again,
as there were two of them and they are both versatile, they have needed
little assistance; the mother of one has been house mother and general