{"product_id":"2940149283002","title":"The Camp Fire Girls in Glorious France (Illustrated)","description":"One afternoon in March, the windows of an old French farmhouse stood open, the curtains blowing in the breeze like white flags of truce, while from indoors came the murmur of a number of voices, girls’ voices, gay and animated and speaking in English, not French.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe next moment there was a brief silence; afterwards one of them began singing, with an odd foreign accent, a song strange to hear in this French countryside, the song of an American camp fire:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The fire of our camp is burning,\u003cbr\u003eSing sweet, sing low, sing far,\u003cbr\u003eFrom the long, long trail returning\u003cbr\u003eLed by the evening star.\u003cbr\u003e[8]\u003cbr\u003e“Bright is our fireside’s glowing,\u003cbr\u003eSing sweet, sing low, sing high,\u003cbr\u003eFragrant the wind now blowing\u003cbr\u003eOver the fields nearby.\u003cbr\u003e“Pleasant shall be our resting,\u003cbr\u003eSing sweet, sing low, sing clear,\u003cbr\u003eOthers life’s storms are breasting,\u003cbr\u003eOurs is the home fire dear.\u003cbr\u003e“Yet what is the night wind sighing?\u003cbr\u003eSing sweet, sing low, sing true,\u003cbr\u003eThe ill, the hungry and dying,\u003cbr\u003eAre they not calling you?\u003cbr\u003e“Back over the long trail moving,\u003cbr\u003eSing sweet, sing low, sing wide,\u003cbr\u003eFollowing the law of loving,\u003cbr\u003eFrance, we come to thy side!”\u003cbr\u003eA murmur of applause, and then a group of girls in Camp Fire costumes stepped out of the house and into the front yard. The March afternoon was unusually warm with a flood of pale sunshine covering the landscape, the sky was a delicate blue, the clouds changing into fantastic shapes. Beyond, the open country was showing little patches of green in the upturned fields; on the branches of a few newly planted fruit trees were tiny buds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[9]\u003cbr\u003e“I want to congratulate you, Bettina, on your original Camp Fire song,” one of the girls declared. She had dark hair with red lights in it, a slightly tanned skin, a little slender figure, as forceful and erect as a young boy’s. Indeed both in her appearance and manner Mary Gilchrist gave one the impression at this time in her life that she possessed certain qualities of mind and character which are not supposed to be essentially feminine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBettina Graham, who was a tall, fair girl, older than her companion, smiled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It is good of you, Gill, to congratulate me, when I realize that you were longing to be outdoors and at work during all our Camp Fire ceremony. If there was any value in my song it was due to Yvonne’s singing.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStanding close beside the two American girls was a young French girl who apparently had not heard their conversation. Her expression was troubled, there was a frown between her brows. It was as if she were listening, straining her ears for the sounds of battle which had been resounding through France for almost four years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[10]\u003cbr\u003eIt was now the memorable spring of the year before the last desperate German drive and the final victory of the Allies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSlipping her arm through Yvonne Fleury’s, Bettina Graham made an effort to distract her attention.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Try not to be unhappy, Yvonne. Even if the Germans are winning an unexpected success in Flanders, surely you cannot think they will ever reach the valleys of the Marne and Aisne a second time! I don’t believe our work of reconstruction will go for nothing. Of course it is hard for you to be compelled to give up your brother after so brief a time together when for so long you had supposed him killed. Yet he has scarcely had opportunity to have rejoined his regiment at the front, since he was first to report at Soissons. We must do our best to continue our efforts here at our farmhouse on the Aisne until his return. Surely the war cannot last much longer!”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt this instant Bettina’s conversation was interrupted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Behold a sight to banish all gloom!” exclaimed Mary Gilchrist, pointing over toward a field which adjoined the farmhouse yard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[11]\u003cbr\u003eThere in truth was an amazing spectacle to be seen in a quiet French countryside!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMounted upon an American tractor, which was ploughing vigorously through the earth, was an elderly American woman. She was wearing the usual blue blouse of the French peasant made slightly longer and showing underneath an unmistakable pair of full trousers of the same material. Upon her head was a large straw hat, tied under her chin with a bright red ribbon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForgetting their anxieties the three girls laughed in chorus.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e[12]\u003cbr\u003e“Count upon Miss Patricia Lord’s doing and saying exactly what she pleases at any time or place,” Mary Gilchrist continued. “As it happens I promised Miss Patricia to run our tractor over that particular field some time this afternoon, as soon as our Camp Fire ceremony closed. But you see she has preferred not to wait for me. In regard to her present costume, I heard Mrs. Burton say to Miss Patricia the other day that such a costume was not to be endured, France having already suffered enough without being compelled to behold Miss Patricia looking as she does at present.","brand":"Lost Leaf Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47111854063856,"sku":"2940149283002","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940149283002_p0.jpg?v=1763714478","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940149283002","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}