The morning of the long-awaited field day dawned clear and bright.  The camp was stirring with the first rays of the rising sun, that gilded the tree tops to the east, and painted the surface of the lake, smooth as a mirror, with a hundred hues.  The day promised to be hot in the open, but there was no danger of great heat on the march, which was entirely through the woods.

“We won’t worry about how hot it’s going to be under the sun,” said Eleanor Mercer as the girls sat at their early breakfast.

“No.  Our work is under the trees, until we get to the camping spot,” said Margery Burton.

“Now here’s the plan of campaign,” said Eleanor.  “I am going to send two girls ahead to build the fire.  That’s the most important thing, really-to get the fire started.”

“We can’t use matches, can we?” asked Zara.

“No, the fire must be made Indian fashion, with two sticks.  But we all know how to do that, I think.  The idea of sending two girls ahead is to have that part of the work done when the main body reaches our camping ground.”

“Where is that?  We can know now, can’t we, Wanaka?” asked Margery.

“Yes, it’s all right to tell you now.  You know those twin peaks beyond Little Bear Lake-North Peak and South Peak?”

“Yes,” came the answer, in chorus.

“Well, our place is on North Peak, and Mr. Hastings will take his Scouts to South Peak.  The trails are different, but they’re the same length.”

“Why was that kept such a secret?” asked Bessie.

“Because Mr. Hastings and I decided that it would be fairer if there was no chance at all to go over the trail first and learn all about it.  Then there was the chance that if either party thought of it they could locate kindling wood and fallen wood that could be used for the fire-making.  On a regular hike, you see, you would go to a place that was entirely strange, and it seemed better to keep things just as near to regular hiking conditions as we could.”

“Oh, I see!  And that’s a good idea, too.  It’s just as fair for one as for the other, then.”

“Who are going to be the two girls to go ahead?  And why can’t we all get there at the same time?” asked Dolly.

“One question at a time,” said Eleanor, with a laugh.  “I’ll answer the second one first.  We’ve got to carry all the things we need for making camp and getting a meal cooked.  So if we send out two girls ahead, with nothing to carry, they can make much better time than those who have the heavy loads.”

“Will they do the same thing?” asked Zara.  “The Boy Scouts, I mean?”

Eleanor smiled.

“Ah, I don’t know,” she said.  “They will if Mr. Hastings thinks of it, I’m sure, because it would be a good move in a race.”

“Is it quite fair in case they don’t happen to think of it?” asked Margery, doubtfully.

“Why not?  This isn’t just like a foot-race.  It isn’t altogether a matter of speed and strength, or even of endurance-”

“I should hope not!” declared Dolly.  “If it was, what chance would we have against those boys?”

“Suppose we found some new way of rubbing sticks that would make fire quicker than the regular way, it would be fair to use that, wouldn’t it, Margery?” asked Bessie.

“That’s the idea.  Bessie’s right, Margery,” said Eleanor.  “We have a perfect right, and so have they, to employ any time-saving idea we happen to get hold of.  And I’m quite sure this is a good one, and that Mr. Hastings will think of it, too.”

“Well, I hope he doesn’t do anything of the sort!” said Margery, wholly converted and now enthusiastic for the plan.

“You haven’t told us yet who is to go ahead,” said Dolly.  “I’m just crazy to be one of the two-”

“We all are!  Who wouldn’t like to get out of carrying a load?” cried two or three girls in chorus.

Eleanor laughed at the eagerness they displayed.

“It won’t be all fun for the pathfinders, as we’ll call them,” she said.  “They’ve got a lot of responsibility, you see.”

“What sort of responsibility?” asked Margery.  “All they’ve got to do is to go just as fast as they can and make a fire when they get to the peak.”

“That isn’t all they’ve got to do, though.  They’ve got to make a smoke signal, for one thing, by stopping the smoke with a blanket, and then letting it rise, straight up, three times.  And they’ve got to go to work and get enough wood to keep the fire going, as soon as they’ve lighted it.”

“But they’ll be able to go along ever so easily on the trail!”

“It isn’t a very well marked trail.  Neither of the trails to the peak is, for that matter.  And the pathfinders, if they find they’re in any danger of making a wrong turn, must make a sign for us who follow.  That might easily save us a good many minutes in getting there.  So you see it isn’t quite as easy as you thought.  Now, I’ll call for volunteers.  Who wants to join the pathfinders?”

Every girl there put up her hand at once, amid a chorus of laughs and jesting remarks.

“Heavens!  Well, you can’t all be pathfinders, or there’d be no one to carry the dinner!  We’ll have to figure out some way of picking out two, because that’s all there can be.”

“We might draw lots,” said Margery.

“I don’t like that idea much,” said Eleanor.  “If you’re all so anxious to go, we ought to make it a reward of some sort-a prize.  It’s too bad I didn’t think of it earlier, because then we could have had a really good competition.”

She frowned thoughtfully for a moment.

“I know what we’ll do,” she said.  “There are just eight of you, and we’ll divide all the dishes from breakfast into eight even piles.  We can do that easily.  Then you shall all start together-”

“Oh, that’s good!” said Dolly.  “And the ones who finish first will be pathfinders?”

“Yes, those who finish first, and put their dishes away properly, Dolly-not just finish washing and drying.  I’ll be the judge.  Come on, Margery, we’ll arrange the piles.”

So the arrangements were made, and then, with each girl standing over her own pile of dishes, they waited eagerly for the word.

“I’ll start you,” laughed Eleanor.  “Now, are you ready?  Take dishes-wash!”

And at once there was a great splashing and commotion.  But Eleanor broke in with a laugh.

“Time!” she called.  “Stop washing’”

Everyone stopped, and looked at her curiously.

“Here’s a rule,” she said.  “I only just thought of it.  Anyone who breaks a dish is out of the race, even if she finishes five minutes ahead of the next girl.  Understand?”

“Yes,” they cried.

“All right.  Dolly, you kept on washing for nearly half a minute after the others had stopped.  When I give them the word to start again, don’t you do it.  I’ll give you a starting signal of your own.  You, too, Mary King!  I’ll call your names when you two are to start.”

Then they bent to their piles again, and waited for Eleanor’s “Ready? 
Wash!”

Dolly and Mary King, forced to restore the time they had unwittingly stolen from the others, waited as patiently as they could until they heard “Now, Dolly!” and after a moment more, “All right, Mary!”

“Oh, this is fine sport!” cried Dolly, washing with an energy she had never displayed before.  “I think we ought to have races like this ever so often.  They’re much better fun than most of the games we play!”

“Anything that makes you act as if you liked work is a fine little idea, Dolly,” said Margery.  “But I haven’t got time to talk-I’ve got to wash.  I never thought anyone could wash dishes as fast as you’re doing it!”

“I’m in practice,” laughed Dolly.  “I hate them so, that I’m always trying to get them done just as quickly as I can.”

And a moment later Dolly, to the general surprise, had put away her last dish, an easy winner.

It was plain to her in a moment that the struggle, now that she was out of it, would be between Margery and Bessie.  They had finished washing almost at the same moment, with Margery perhaps a couple of spoons ahead.

“Hurry, Bessie, do hurry!” pleaded Dolly.  “We’ve done so much together up here, we ought to be pathfinders together, too.  Can’t I help her, Miss Eleanor?”

“No, that wouldn’t be fair, Dolly,” laughed Eleanor.  “Each one has got to win or lose on her own merits in this race.”

Bessie smiled as she heard Dolly’s impulsive appeal.  She wanted to win, too, because it was impossible for her to engage in any contest without wanting to come out ahead, or as far ahead as she could.  This time, of course, second place was all she could hope for, but she was not one of those people who, if the chief prize is beyond their reach, relax their efforts to do as well as they can.

As she finished wiping each dish dry she arranged it, stacking her dishes in order of their size, so that they could all be carried easily to the tent where they were to be laid away.

Margery, on the other hand, grew nervous as she neared the end.  Once a plate slipped through her hand, but, fortunately, her cry of dismay as it fell was premature, for it did not break.  But she was putting her dishes down anywhere, without regard for their size or for convenience in carrying them, and as a result, though she had finished the actual drying nearly a minute before Bessie, she was still frantically gathering her piled dishes together in her arms when Bessie wiped the last spoon.

Then, without haste, Bessie picked up her whole pile, and, starting before Margery, walked carefully over to the tent.  She put away her last dish before Margery was half done, and the contest was over.

“Go on, girls!” cried Eleanor, as she saw that interest was slackening with the choice of the second pathfinder.  “You don’t want to be last, do you?  I should think you’d all want to avoid that!”

The reminder was enough, and the others were soon busily finishing their tasks.  Zara was fourth, right after Margery, and then there was a wild scramble among the last four.  They finished almost together, and Eleanor, with a laugh, had to declare that there was a tie for sixth, seventh and eighth places.

“So no one was really last!” she declared, merrily.  “My, but that was good fun!  It certainly was, if you enjoyed racing half as much as I did watching you!  It’s a pity we never thought of that before.”

“I’ll beat you next time, you two!” vowed the panting Margery, shaking her first in mock anger at Bessie and Dolly.  “More haste, less speed!  That’s what beat me!  But I’ll know better next time.”

“We’ll have a team race some time,” said Eleanor.  “Two teams of four-that ought to be good fun.  Oh, there are lots of ways of having a good time if you only think of them!”

Then she clapped her hands as a sign for attention.

“Now we’ve got to take our fun for the rest of the day more seriously,” she said.  “You girls will have to take your fire-making sticks, and an old blanket.  You understand how to make smoke signals, don’t you?”

“Yes, indeed!” cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath.

“All right, then.  How will you make signs to show us which way to go?”

“With a hatchet.  We’ll blaze the trees,” suggested Bessie.  “Then you’ll be sure to see it.  There’s no way that a sign like that can be blown away, or get moved by accident.  With the thin end of the blaze in the direction you are to take, if there’s a choice.”

“All right.  Hatchet, old blanket, fire-making sticks.  You’d better carry water bottles, for you’ll be thirsty on the way.”

“Why, we’ll find plenty of water.  There must be springs!” Dolly protested.

“Undoubtedly; but you don’t know just where they are, and you’d waste time looking for them.  If you have your water bottles, with a little bit of lemon juice in the water, you can have a drink wherever you like.”

“I like the taste of lemon juice, too.”

“It isn’t only because you like it that it’s a good thing to have it, but it will quench your thirst better than plain water, and it will make your water last better, too, because you don’t need to drink so much of it.”

“It’s fine if you’re hot, too,” said Margery, approvingly.  “A little lemon water will cool you off better than half a dozen of those ice-cream sodas you’re so fond of, Dolly.”

Dolly made a face at her.

“I think it’s mean of you to tease me about soda when you know I can’t have it, no matter how much I want it,” she said.  “But I don’t care, really.  I wouldn’t have an ice-cream soda now, if I had a pocket full of money and I could get one by going across the street!”

Eleanor smiled at her.

“What a reckless promise!  Only you know you are perfectly safe,” she said, half mockingly.

“I really mean it,” protested Dolly.  “I’m going to swear off-for a long time, anyhow.  Bessie and Zara and I are going to try to get enough honor beads to be Fire-Makers as soon as we get back to the city, and that’s one of the ways I’m going to try.”

“Then you’ve started already?” said Eleanor.

“No, not yet,” said Dolly.  “I’m going to wait-”

A shout of laughter interrupted her.

“Oh, yes, we know!  Until you have just one or two last ones-”

Dolly flushed dangerously for a moment.  But her new control over herself, that she was fighting so hard to maintain, saved her from the sharp reply that was on her tongue.

“You might let me finish,” she said.  “If I swore off now I suppose the time while we’re here would count toward an honor bead, but what’s the use of swearing off something I can’t get, anyhow?  I’m going to swear off the first time I see a soda fountain!”

“Good for you, Dolly!” exclaimed Eleanor, heartily.  “That’s the right spirit.”