The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House

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The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House, by

Laura Lee Hope
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Title: The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House
Author: Laura Lee Hope
Release Date: November 24, 2004 [eBook #14136]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE***
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THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE
Or, Doing Their Best for the Soldiers
by
LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale, The Moving Picture Girls, The Bobbsey Twins, Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue, Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's, etc.
Illustrated
New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers

* * * * *
BOOKS FOR GIRLS
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SERIES
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS

THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES (Twelve Titles)

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES (Eight Titles)

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES (Five Titles)

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
* * * * *

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
HERO WORSHIP II THE ACCIDENT III THE SHADOW OF MYSTERY IV MRS. SANDERSON'S STORY V FUN AND SOLDIERS VI PLANNING CAPTURE VII A LARK IN THE OPEN VIII ENTER SERGEANT MULLINS IX THE BAYONET DRILL X ALARMING SYMPTOMS XI POLITE KIDNAPPERS XII WHERE LOVE IS DEAF XIII THE COPPERHEAD XIV THE REINS TIGHTEN XV THE FATEFUL DAY XVI SPARRING FOR TIME XVII TEARS AND PATRIOTISM XVIII AFTER THE BOYS LEFT XIX REAL TRAGEDY XX THE MOTORCYCLIST AGAIN XXI THE CHASE XXII STARTLING DEVELOPMENTS XXIII THE MIRACLE XXIV MYSTERY EXPLAINED XXV TO "CARRY ON"
CHAPTER I
HERO WORSHIP
"Oh, Mollie, please be careful!"
The big car skidded perilously around a sharp curve and chug-chugged merrily down the road.
"Goodness, I've been careful so long I'm afraid it will grow on me," Mollie Billette, sometimes known as "Billy," retorted, a determined set to her pretty chin. "Someway, I've got to get it out of my system."
The automobile, a big seven-passenger car, belonged to Mollie, and the four Outdoor Girls, having secured a half-holiday from their work at the Hostess House, were out for recreation.
As may have been gathered, Mollie was driving. Amy Blackwell, fearful of an accident, was in the seat beside her, while Grace Ford and Betty Nelson, their beloved Little Captain, occupied the tonneau and amused themselves by laughing at Amy's fears.
"Well, but you needn't take it out on us," Amy said in reply to Mollie's assertion. "If you're going to take many more of those two-wheel turns, I'm going to get out and walk. Oh, Mol-lie!" The speech ended in a wail, as Mollie wickedly rounded another curve, jolting Amy half out of her seat.
"I don't know but what I agree with Amy," drawled Grace, from the tonneau, helping herself to a chocolate, upon which Betty's eye had just rested longingly. "I've been bumped around so much I can't tell whether I'm a girl or a scrambled egg. Now, look what you did!" A sudden lurch of the big car had sent the box of chocolates to the floor, where its contents rolled about aggravatingly at their feet. "Come back here, Mollie Billette, and pick them up. That's the least--"
The rest of the sentence was never uttered, for Mollie brought the car to so sudden a stop that Grace and Betty both lurched forward and narrowly escaped bumping their noses on the back of the seat in front of them.
"Sure," said the reckless driver, turning her bright black eyes expectantly upon them. "Will you promise to give me all I pick up?"
"All you--" Grace was beginning, striving desperately to recover her breath and her dignity at the same time, the accomplishment of which feat was decidedly retarded by growing indignation. "Goodness, I never heard such a--"
"Very well," returned Mollie, and, without deigning to parley further, turned determinedly to the wheel. "That's all I wanted to know--"
"Just a minute, Mollie, dearest," Betty's laughing voice broke in. "You know I'm not worrying about the chocolates at all, but I'm not particularly anxious to spoil my perfectly good shoes with crushed chocolate or, on the other hand, frump my perfectly good nose in a