* * * * *
CHAPTER XII.
A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
The Flamingo Camp Fire arrived at the Stanlock home on Friday.
Christmas was scheduled on the calendar to fall on the following
Wednesday.
From the day of their arrival all of the girls were busy with
Christmas preparations. Every one of them, several weeks before, had
taken on her the task of making, buying, or assembling from parts
purchased a score or more of presents. As one of the chief aims of
Hiawatha Institute was to teach wealthy men's daughters how to be
economical, it goes without saying that each of these girls had on
hand no enviable Winter Task.
Madame Cleaver laid the matter very plainly before her two hundred and
forty-odd girls. She had observed that the Christmas problem had a
tendency to make some of the students of her school sympathize with
Old Scrooge. If Christmas wasn't a humbug it could very easily be made
a nuisance.
Madame Cleaver agreed with them in this respect. She told them so.
Furthermore, she added:
"I don't wish you to understand that there is anything compulsory in
the giving of presents on such occasions.
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