Girl Scouts' Good Turn/Canoe Trip

I mentioned in a recent post that the Girl Scouts series by Lavell has a slower pace than the series books that came later and that much time is giving to storytelling. In the third book, The Girl Scouts' Good Turn, there was one lengthy story told to the girls while they were on a brief trip. This story added to the feel of the book since it was a story about a haunted house, and the girls were inside the house during the telling of the story!

Also in The Girl Scouts' Good Turn, the Scouts attempt to help a poor girl, Frieda Hammer. Due to her upbringing, Frieda is sullen and refuses the friendship of the Scouts. Marjorie is the most interested of all the Scouts in helping Frieda and even begins to win Frieda's friendship, but Ruth makes a hateful remark within Frieda's hearing, causing Frieda to run away.

In the Girl Scouts books, Ruth is constantly causing Marjorie problems. The irony of it all is that the two girls were best friends before they began attending Miss Allen's school. Ruth treats Marjorie badly, yet expects Marjorie to stay her friend. Fortunately, Marjorie understands Ruth all too well, as indicated on page 166 of The Girls Scouts' Good Turn:

Marjorie and Ruth rode home in the train together. As soon as the girls were away from Miss Allen's, and there was no longer any rivalry raging between them, Ruth became her old self again, and expected to have Marjorie once more as her best friend. But Marjorie was not to be so easily won.

Ruth is also very conceited and strives to be the center of attention. She is always hoping to win badges and awards that the other girls do not have. From pages 4-5 of The Girl Scouts' Canoe Trip, Ruth imagines herself a heroine:

"I hope you gals is all good swimmers," interrupted Michael, advancing slowly to the edge of the shore. "Purty ticklish business—canoeing is!

"Not in flat bottom canoes!" protested Marjorie. "Why I've had mine for nearly a year now, and never upset once!"

"But you never tried to navigate a stream like the Silver!" said the old man, reaching for his pipe and tobacco pouch. "There's one place in this here stream I'd be willing to bet a silver dollar somebody upsets!"

"Oh, where is it?" cried Ruth, delighted that all of the water was not to be so monotonous as it seemed to be in the locality of the boathouse. Already she had visions of the rest of the girls upsetting; and after steering her own canoe safely through, she saw herself effecting thrilling rescues. There were even medals in life-saving, she had read in the handbook; it certainly would be worth while to possess one, especially if it were the only one of its kind in Pansy troop.