The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 3

precious
missives behind her back.
"Not one other word, Betty Nelson!" they cried, and after a merry but
brief struggle the letters were seized and delivered to their rightful
owners.
"Now I wonder," drawled Grace with a twinkle, as she hastily tore open
her envelope, "who could possibly be writing to us from the other
side?"
"Now I wonder," chuckled Betty, as she happily drew from the
convenient pocket the last, but in her estimation decidedly not the least,
fat letter and proceeded to devour its contents without delay.
And indeed the Outdoor Girls had little reason to wonder who their
correspondents might be, for as regularly as clockwork those precious
letters with the strange foreign postmarks were delivered to their eager
hands.
There were other letters with that foreign postmark, too, for in addition
to their work at the Hostess House, the girls had faithfully kept up a
large correspondence with the brave boys who had already crossed the
water and were waiting impatiently for their chance "at the Huns."
But the four special letters were from their closest friends--boys who
had lived in Deepdale before the war and were now in France preparing
for the last stage of their journey.
Allen Washburn, on his way to make a great name for himself in the
law before the war put a temporary check upon his ambitions, had been
in love with the Little Captain for--oh, yes, ever since he could

remember, while Betty--but Betty would never really admit anything,
not even to herself.
Then there was Will Ford, Grace Ford's brother, who was not only
devoted to his pretty sister, but, in spite of Amy's flushed protestations
to the contrary, to Amy Blackford, also--although in quite a different
manner!
Frank Haley was a high school chum of Will's, who from the time of
his first meeting with Mollie Billette had seemed inclined to become
her shadow, to the latter's secret gratification and outward indifference.
The last of the quartette was Roy Anderson, one of the Deepdale boys,
who was chiefly distinguished by his very open admiration for Grace.
The boys had shared in many of the adventures of the Outdoor Girls,
and of course had been among the very first to volunteer to help "lick
the Boche" as they slangily but ardently put it. The girls had gloried in
their patriotism, and it was their assignment to Camp Liberty that had
first given Betty the idea of working in the Hostess House there.
They had been very happy, fired as they were by enthusiastic patriotism,
until the fateful day had come when the boys had entrained for
Philadelphia and from there to the Great Adventure. Then for the first
time the girls had had the real and terrible meaning of war brought
home to them. And the boys, so merry and care-free when they had first
entered the service, had seemed suddenly older, more important, more
manly, only the fire of enthusiasm in their eyes showing their
indomitable youth.
Several months had passed since that day of mingled tears and pride
and heartache, and the girls had had time to get used to the separation a
little--a very little. And now Betty had brought them the letters they
were always hungry for, anxiously eager, yet always, at the very back
of their hearts, a little haunting fear of what they might contain.
For several minutes they sat engrossed while occasionally one of them
read a funny or characteristic extract over which they laughed happily.

"Listen to this," chuckled Mollie, while the girls looked up expectantly.
"Frank says that Roy is getting terribly fat in spite of all the exercise--"
"Horrors!" interjected Grace.
"And when he, Frank, ventured to remonstrate with him the other day
and advised him to cut down on his chow, Roy said: 'Nothing doing!
I've got a definite end in view, old man. This khaki outfit has acquired
so much terra firma it's beginning to stand alone, but if I get so fat I
can't wear it they'll have to give me another one--see?'"
The girls laughed, but there was just a shade of wistfulness in their
laughter, for they knew that the boys were only skirting the outer edge
of the hardships they would be called upon to encounter later on.
Then suddenly Betty gave a little cry of dismay.
"Oh, girls," she cried when they looked up at her fearfully, "it's come!
What we've been dreading so long! The boys have been ordered to the
front!"
CHAPTER II
BAD NEWS
The girls stared wide-eyed at Betty while slowly the color drained from
their faces. It was true they had been dreading just this news for a long,
long time, yet now that it had come they felt strangely quiet and numb.
They had much the same