The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 7

frightfully dull."
"I should think so," said Grace, adding suddenly, as though she had
thought of it for the first time: "Why she would have been all alone,
wouldn't she? How awful!" For Mollie had no father, he having died
several years before.
"And the other day she said the strangest thing," Mollie continued,
suddenly earnest. "You know how she adores Paul. Well, I caught her
looking at him with the most wistful expression, and when I asked her
what the matter was she looked up at me and I saw there were tears in
her eyes.
"'It's Paul,' she said softly. 'Of course I'm thankful he is so little that I
can keep him safe at home with me, but sometimes when I think of my
dear country and the terrible wrongs she has suffered, I almost wish
that my little son were old enough to bring retribution upon those
hideous Germans. Sometimes I feel cheated--yes, you needn't
stare--that I have not a son "over there".'"
"Oh, Mollie!" cried the Little Captain softly, "what a wonderful thing
to say. And yet I think she would die if anything happened to either of
the twins."
"That's just it," said Mollie, her eyes glowing with pride. "Loving them
as she does, she almost wishes it were possible to make the supreme
sacrifice for her country."
"It was that spirit," said Grace thoughtfully, "that won the battle of the
Marne."
For a long time after that the girls worked quietly, each busy with her
own thoughts. It was Amy who finally broke the silence.
"And here we are," she said plaintively, "letting another whole
afternoon slip by without deciding what we are going to do on our
vacation. Can't somebody suggest something?"

"I have already suggested half a dozen things, only to be laughed to
scorn," said Mollie, adding decidedly: "I'm through."
"And nothing I can say seems to meet with approval," added Betty
plaintively.
"Well," said Grace, stretching herself, sitting up in the swing, and
looking important, "nobody asks me whether I have anything to
suggest," adding as they turned a battery of surprised and eager glances
her way: "I don't know whether I can be persuaded to tell you now or
not."
"Tell us!" they cried, piling into the swing till the supporting ropes
creaked with the strain.
"Can't we bribe you with candy?" pleaded Amy.
"No. I just made an advantageous trade in that article, you will
remember," was the answer.
"Anyway, we don't bribe, we command," put in Betty. "Grace, we
refuse to be trifled with. What have you to suggest? Out with it!"
"You'd better hurry," added Mollie, raising her knitting needle
threateningly, "before I spit thee like a pig!"
CHAPTER IV
GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS
"I'm not a pig," cried Grace, striving to look dignified, which is a rather
difficult procedure when one is being hugged by three pairs of arms at
once. "I don't care how many times you spit me, whatever that is,
Mollie, but you shan't call me a pig."
"Of course she shan't," said Betty soothingly. "If she does it again, we'll
try our hand at this spitting business--"

"Goodness, sounds like a cat fight," chuckled Grace, but Mollie
unceremoniously shook her into attention.
"Grace, behave and tell us," she ordered.
"What?" asked Grace aggravatingly, but added hastily as Mollie again
raised the knitting needle at a threatening angle: "All right, if you'll just
give me space enough to breathe I'll do any little thing you ask."
With that the three jumped from the swing so suddenly that Grace, the
only occupant left, bounced into the air and landed with a thump on the
cushions.
They laughed and drew up three chairs in a semi-circle in front of her
to make escape impossible. Then three pairs of merry eyes focused
commandingly upon her.
"I didn't know it myself till last night," she said in response to the tacit
order. "Then it was patriotic Aunt Mary who proposed it."
"Proposed what?" they cried.
"Well, that's what I'm going to tell you if you give me half a chance.
She said she felt as if she owed something to us girls for having stood
so loyally behind Uncle Sam, and had decided to offer us her cottage at
Bluff Point to use as long as we wanted it."
"Bluff Point!" cried Betty, while her eyes began to sparkle. "Why
Grace! isn't that the place you were telling us about--"
"Where the quaint little house stands on a bluff--" added Amy eagerly.
"Overlooking a sparkling white beach that leads down to the ocean?"
went on Betty.
"The very same," nodded Grace, and they heaved a sigh of pure
excitement and happiness.
"Isn't it wonderful," cried Mollie joyfully, "how somebody is always

doing something to make us happy?"
"Yes,