“But, Kara, won’t you tell us first? It is so hard to wait,” Tory pleaded.
The thin face with the beautiful gray eyes and long dark lashes, the lips grown thinner and less colorful in these past months, slowly parted.
“There is not so much to tell you as I hoped when I wrote you. Waiting and hoping are still my passwords.
“I am far happier. See the lovely things I have made! I have been practicing dress-making and weaving and basket-making, whatever I can do with my hands. I want you to take what you wish for gifts and show the rest to our Girl Scout Council so that I may pass my proficiency tests. I am afraid I cannot manage to be a First Class Scout so soon as the other girls, but I don’t want to fall too far behind.”
“If the decision were mine you would be a First Class Scout now, Kara. By the way, we have brought you a banner.” Dorothy unrolled a package.
It revealed one of the banners that had hung among the evergreens high up on the wall of the House in the Woods on Christmas Eve.
“We were to declare you one of the Knights of our Round Table, Kara.” Tory smiled. “I have an order from King Arthur. Do you wish to be Sir Boris, whose eyes were an outdoor sign of all the warmth within, or Sir Lancelot, ‘his warrior, whom King Arthur loved and honored most, first in tournament’?”
Kara shook her head with emphasis, her eyes resting with affection and amusement on one of the faces upturned toward hers.
“Good gracious, I don’t wish to be any kind of Knight of any Round Table! For me it is enough to be a Girl Scout. I am sure the idea of the Girl Scouts of the Round Table originated with you, Tory.”
“Yes, there isn’t any harm. The Girl Scout organization does not object. The truth is we were not so interested in our Girl Scout work this winter as we had been in the past. We missed being together at camp and the outdoor sports and opportunities. Then, too, we missed you, Kara. Miss Mason realized this and we talked things over together, wondering what we had best do. Then one night when I was alone at Miss Frean’s I read the story of the Round Table. Later we decided to have a Round Table of our own. Few of our winter meetings can take place out of doors, so we have decided to hold our Patrol meetings about a round table. On our banners we can embroider whatever good deeds we have accomplished. The other girls are pleased with the idea, Kara, but you are always a practical person to the last.”