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<div class="poem"> <p>The girls turned again to their catalogues, and made long lists of articles, stopping every few minutes to discuss flash-lights, spare-tires, khaki breeches, in fact anything that came into their minds or to their notice. Alice’s aunt had told them that she would stand the expenditures for the equipment, and they were only afraid that they would buy more than they could comfortably carry.<br /> Nor did this danger grow any less during the next few days when they actually beheld the things themselves in the stores. Alice and Lily both wanted to spend lavishly; it was Marjorie who laid the restraining hand upon them.<br /> At the end of three days their purchasing was completed; there yet remained the more difficult task of mapping out the trip. Authorities seemed generally to recommend the Lincoln Highway as a good route across the continent, so the girls were glad that their benefactor had stipulated this road.<br /> They planned to start from Philadelphia on the fifteenth of June, aiming to reach their destination by the first of August. </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>“That makes seven of us to go,” she said, using her fingers for the calculation. “I should think that two machines would really be enough.”<br /> “Yes,” answered Alice, “because we are to travel light. I forgot to tell you that one of my aunt’s stipulations is that we wear our Girl Scout uniforms all the time. We can express our trunks ahead, packed with the clothing we want to wear after we get to California.”<br /> “Then everybody will know we’re scouts?” asked Florence.<br /> “Yes; you don’t mind, do you?”<br /> “I’m proud of it!” replied the other, loyally.<br /> “If you take a big seven-passenger car,” said Lily, “wouldn’t it be possible to take my Rolls as a second? It really runs wonderfully.”<br /> “It would do beautifully,” answered Marjorie; and all the others approved her decision.<br /> “Do we camp along the way, or do we expect to stop at inns and hotels?” asked Ethel.<br /> “Both,” replied Alice. “You see we have to be a little bit economical because Aunt Emeline is only allowing us a certain amount for our trip; and if we spend any more, even though it is our own money, we forfeit our reward. So we must be rather thrifty.” </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>Five minutes later the girls were seated in John Hadley’s Ford, driving through the city to the suburbs where his mother’s home was located. Marjorie as usual was in high spirits, but again John experienced that intangible sensation of jealousy because her happiness seemed to be caused rather by her bright expectations than by his mere presence. While she was asking him about the new car, he suddenly sighed audibly; somehow he felt that as long as the Girl Scouts continued to plan these novel undertakings, he would never hold anything but second place in Marjorie’s interest. The girl noticed the sigh, and asked him whether she were boring him.<br /> “Of course not!” he declared emphatically. “As if you ever could—”<br /> “Then what is it?” she asked sympathetically.<br /> “Only that I wish that I were a Girl Scout—to merit more of your attention.”<br /> Marjorie laughed merrily; she did not believe that the young man was in earnest.<br /> “You didn’t answer my question,” she persisted. “Has the car come yet?”<br /> “Yes; it’s in our garage.”<br /> “Oh, goody! Drive fast then, John. It seems as if I can’t wait a minute to see it!”<br /> Obedient to her command he put on all his power, in defiance of the speed laws in the city, and reached home in an incredibly short time for a Ford. Marjorie waited only to pay her respects to Mrs. Hadley; then without even removing her hat, she followed John’s machine out to the garage. There she found the new possession, shining and bright and handsome with its fresh paint and polished metal. </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>“Let’s get in and drive it immediately!” she cried. “I think it’s the most beautiful car I ever saw!”<br /> “Not the most beautiful,” corrected Lily. “At least I wouldn’t admit it could compare with my Rolls-Royce—”<br /> “Or my Ford!” put in John, and the girls all laughed.<br /> “It will be great to drive into town every day to do our shopping,” remarked Alice. “Won’t we feel grand—?”<br /> “I’m afraid that won’t be very satisfactory,” said John. “On account of the parking rules. You can’t leave a machine alone, you know; you would have to put it into a garage.”<br /> “We can easily do that,” remarked Alice, airily. “Money is scarcely a consideration with us now!”<br /> “Doesn’t that sound fine?” laughed Marjorie. “I guess it’s the first time in our lives that we were ever able to say that.”<br /> “And probably the last time,” added Lily. “Unless some of us marry those rich heirs of your aunt, Alice!”<br /> John glanced up apprehensively at this suggestion.<br /> “What’s this about rich heirs?” he asked, with so much concern that all three of the girls burst into laughter.<br /> “You’ll probably never see Marjorie again!” teased Alice. “When we meet these two cousins of mine who are destined to inherit all of Aunt Emeline’s money, Marj will just fall for them. And of course they’ll fall for her!”<br /> “Oh, of course!” said Marjorie, sarcastically.<br /> “Maybe some of us fellows had better take the trip in my tin Lizzie after all,” observed John.<br /> “Nothing doing!” protested Marjorie, emphatically. “We’d be sure to break our rule not to accept help from men along the way. And then we’d forfeit our trip, and our reward at the end, too.”<br /> “Well, I hope you don’t have any accidents along the way,” said John. “Though I do hate to think of you girls all by yourselves, so far away!”<br /> “Oh, you needn’t worry,” Alice reassured him. “Don’t forget we’re not just ordinary girls. We’re Girl Scouts!” </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>Where may she of the hall bedroom hold the love-hour?<br /> In what sweet privacy find her soul before the face of the belovéd?<br /> And the kiss that lifts her from the noise of the shop,<br /> And the bitter carelessness of the streets?<br /> Neither is there garden nor secret parlor for her:<br /> And cruel winter has spoiled the shores of the sea;<br /> The benches in the park are laden with melting snow,<br /> And the bedroom forbidden... </p> </div> +

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<div class="poem"> <p>Outside rumbled the cars between drifts of the gas-lit snow,<br /> And the footsteps fell of the wanderers in the night...<br /> Within, the dark house slept...<br /> But we, in our little cave, stood, and saw in the gleaming dark<br /> Shine of each other’s eyes, and the flutter of wisps of hair,<br /> And our words were breathlessly sweet, and our kisses silent... </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>But ah, the love of a woman! She will not be cheated!<br /> Up the stoop she went to the vestibule of the house,<br /> And beckoned to me to come to that darkness of doors:<br /> Here in a crevice of the public city the love-hour was spent... </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>Where is there rose-garden,<br /> Where is there balcony among the cedars and pines,<br /> Where is there moonlit clearing in the dumb wilderness,<br /> Enchanted as this doorway, dark in the glare of the city? </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>Watchman, what of the night?<br /> Sleep and birth! Toil and death!<br /> Now the light of the topmost tower winks red and ceases:<br /> Now the lonely car echoes afar off...<br /> Helen looked over the wine-dark seas of Greece, and she was young.<br /> But not younger than we, touching each other, while dawn delays... </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>Earth and stars are in a trance,<br /> They dream of passion, but cannot break their sleep.<br /> They pass into us, and we are their passion, we are their madness,<br /> So shaped that we can kiss and clasp...<br /> One kiss, then death, the miracle being spent. </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>A breath from the sea is kissing the housetops of the city,<br /> Kissing the roofs,<br /> And dying into silence. </p> </div> +

<div class="poem"> <p>Dare we betray this moment?<br /> Dare we die, missing this fire?<br /> Whither goes massive Earth tonight, flying with the stars down eternity?<br /> We are alive: we are for each other. </p> </div> +