Gladys smiled indulgently at Bengal’s gush, and turned away to see Jane Pratt’s dull, unpleasant eyes gazing contemptuously upon Pom-pom’s performance, and heard her whisper to her neighbor, “She’s too stiff-legged to be really graceful.”

The Lone Wolf from Labrador, summoned to stand up and show herself next, was a long, lean, mournful-looking young woman who, when introduced, explained in a lugubrious voice that she had no talents like the rest of the councilors and didn’t know enough to be a teacher of anything; but she was very good and pious, and had been brought to camp solely for her moral effect upon the other councilors.

For a moment the camp girls looked at the Lone Wolf in silence, not knowing what to make of her; then Sahwah noticed that Mrs. Grayson was biting her lips, while her eyes twinkled; Dr. Grayson was looking at the girls with a quizzical expression on his face; Miss Judy had her face buried in her handkerchief.  Sahwah looked back at the Lone Wolf, standing there with her hands folded angelically and her eyes fixed solemnly upon the ceiling, and she suddenly snorted out with laughter.  Then everyone caught on and laughed, too, but the Lone Wolf never smiled; she stood looking at them with an infinitely sad, pained expression that almost convinced them that she had been in earnest.

The Lone Wolf, it appeared, was to be Tent Inspector, and when that announcement was made, the laughter of the old girls turned to groans of pretended aversion, which increased to a mighty chorus when Dr. Grayson added that her eye had never been known to miss a single detail of disorder in a tent.

Thus councilor after councilor was introduced in a humorous speech by Dr. Grayson, and made to do her particular stunt, or was rallied about her pet hobby.  The two Arts and Crafts teachers were given lumps of clay and a can of house paint and ordered to produce a statue and a landscape respectively; the Sing Leader had to play “Darling, I Am Growing Old” on a pitch pipe, and all the plain “tent councilors” were called upon for a “few remarks.”

All were cheered lustily, and all gave strong evidence of future popularity except Miss Peckham, who drew only a very scattered and perfunctory applause.  Gladys and Migwan, who glanced at each other as Miss Peckham stepped forward, were surprised to hear that she was Dr. Grayson’s cousin.

“That accounts for her being here,” Gladys whispered, and Migwan whispered in return, “We’ll just have to make the best of her.”

Bengal glowered at Miss Peckham and made no pretense of applauding her, and Migwan saw her whispering to the group around her, and saw Bengal’s expression of dislike swiftly reflected on the faces of her listeners.  Thus, before Miss Peckham was fairly introduced, her unpopularity was already sealed.  It takes very little to make a reputation at camp.  Estimates are formed very swiftly, and great attachments and antipathies are formed at first sight.  Young