The Outdoor Girls in Army Service | Page 5

it

all over again."
"You said it," agreed Frank. "Gee, but I'm hungry!"
"Did you say we could have anything we wanted?" Allen was
demanding of the Little Captain in an undertone. "No exceptions?"
"None," said Betty, dimpling.
"Then," said Allen deliberately, his eyes fixed steadily upon her
sparkling face. "If you please--I'll take--you!"
"Oh," gasped Betty, her eyes falling before the young lawyer's ardent
gaze, while the rich color flooded her face. "I said anything--not
anybody. Allen, please don't be foolish. They're all looking at us."
"Well, you can't blame 'em," Allen retorted whimsically. "They're not
used to seeing two such good-looking people together," he added in
bland explanation.
"My, don't we hate ourselves!" said Betty, dimpling again. "But go
ahead and tell us your adventures," she added, glad to change a subject
which was becoming too personal. "No story--no supper, you know."
"We don't want supper--we want breakfast," interrupted Frank, with a
grin. "What have you been saying to her, Allen--to get her dates mixed
like that?"
"Allen Washburn, are you going to tell that story or are you not?"
queried Mollie, in a menacingly quiet tone of voice. "If you're not--"
"Yes, ma'am," said Allen meekly. "Where shall I begin, please?"
"At the beginning," said Grace sarcastically, and reached for her candy
box, grimacing to find it empty.
"Thank you," said Allen courteously. "Well, as you know, we four
husky braves meandered from the island one bright morning in the
early part of the week to seek our fortune, as it were, in the city of

promise."
"Yes, that's all it does do," Roy put in pessimistically. "Promise!"
"As I was saying," Allen continued, settling himself in a more
comfortable position on the steps, and ignoring the interruption. "We
sauntered off, and straightway looked up a recruiting station."
"Oh!" gasped Amy, hands clasped and eyes shining. "That must have
been exciting."
"Well, I don't know," said Allen, scratching his head reflectively, "that
that part was so exciting, but wait till you hear what happened
afterward. After we found where the recruiting office was, we went to
the hotel we were stopping at, and punished a mighty big breakfast.
You see, we figured out that we were going to put our necks into the
noose, as it were, and we wanted something good and big to stand up
on."
"Wouldn't your feet do?" asked Betty innocently.
"Heavens, no!" replied Allen, answering the query in solemn earnest,
while the girls giggled, and the boys grinned appreciatively. "We were
so nervous by that time we weren't sure we had any feet."
"All you had to do was to look," murmured Mollie maliciously. "You
couldn't miss 'em."
Allen looked hurt, got up and sat on his feet.
"If you don't see them, perhaps you'll forget about them," he offered by
way of explanation. "You don't know how sensitive I am on the subject
of feet."
"I couldn't blame you," Mollie was beginning, when Betty broke in
with a little despairing cry for help.
"If we don't stop them," she said, looking appealingly about her, "we
won't get any farther than breakfast. Allen, what did you do next?"

"Next?" queried Allen, stretching his long legs and squinting up at the
sun. "Let me see. Oh yes! Having put down a breakfast that must have
added four pounds to our weight, we sauntered forth once more to meet
our doom. By that time we were so nervous, we almost mistook a café
on the corner for the recruiting station--"
"Hey, speak for yourself, won't you?" queried Roy, adding, as he turned
to the girls with a grin, "We had to show Allen a performing monkey
on the street, and get his mind off, before we succeeded in engineering
him to the right place."
"Gee, some fellows have a gift," said Allen, regarding Roy admiringly.
"If I could tell 'em like that, old man, I'd be Supreme Court Justice
before the month was up.
"Well, as I was saying," he continued, "after much hesitation and
side-stepping, we at last succeeded in reaching our destination. After
that, it took ten minutes to get up nerve to go in.
"When we had at last tremblingly ascended the stairs, we found
ourselves in a large room, with all the windows open and half a dozen
wise-looking men, whom we took to be doctors, presiding. There were
three or four other fellows in the room, come like ourselves, to be
examined. Then we were shoved behind a huge screen with half a
dozen other huskies--they looked like prize fighters to me--and told to
take our clothes off. Then--we were examined."
"Well?" they queried, leaning forward eagerly.
"Well," said Allen, waving his hand in a deprecating gesture, "of course,
being the perfect specimens of manhood we are, the committee jumped
at us."