The Outdoor Girls in Army Service | Page 6

"If they'd jumped on you they'd have shown more taste," remarked
Mollie unflatteringly.
"But, Allen," put in Grace, who had listened to the recital, with a
troubled frown on her forehead, "was Will with you?"

Allen's glance fell and he shoved his hands deep into his pockets.
"No," he said.

CHAPTER III
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
There was another awkward pause, which nobody seemed able to
break.
"But Will went to town with you," Amy remarked at last.
"Yes, he went with us," Allen agreed reluctantly. "But after we reached
the hotel, and were making our plans for enlisting, he refused to go
with us, saying he had business of his own to attend to. What that
business was none of us know, for we were getting ready to catch the
train for here when he rejoined us. However," he added loyally, "I'd bet
my bottom dollar that Will has good reasons for everything he does,
and when he gets ready he'll tell us about them. In the meantime, how
about some biscuits, Betty?"
"Yes, how about them?" added Roy, rousing to sudden life. "We've
done our duty--now we want the reward."
"Goodness, you haven't done anything," said Grace loftily, as the Little
Captain vanished within the house, followed by black-eyed Mollie.
"You just sit around and let all the others do the work and then take the
credit to yourself."
"That's all right if you can get away with it," grinned Allen. "Besides,"
he added, with a humorous glance at Grace's languid figure, "you don't
look the soul of energy yourself this morning, Miss Ford."
"Looks are often deceitful," retorted Grace, languidly turning the heel
of her sock. "If you had to knit all day long, every day in the week,
you'd find out what work is."

"Well, you don't have to do it," returned Roy placidly.
"Yes," said gentle Amy, roused to sudden indignation. "That's all the
credit we get. Goodness knows, we're glad enough to do the work, but
we do like it to be appreciated."
Roy turned half way round, and regarded Amy's flying fingers and bent
head soberly for a moment.
"I'm sorry," he said then, so gravely that she looked up in surprise, and
even Grace stopped knitting. "I didn't mean that we fellows don't
appreciate what you girls are doing for us. We do--and there'll come a
time when we'll appreciate it still more. When we're in the trenches up
to our knees in mud and water, when the wind finds the chinks in our
clothing, and freezes us to the bone, when--"
"Oh, please don't!" cried Amy, clapping her hands to her ears. "I can't
even bear to think of those things."
"Yet those are some of the things we've got to think about," said Roy,
still with that unusual gravity. "It's because you girls have thought of
those things, that you're giving your time and energy to preparing for
them, and warding them off. Please don't ever again think that we're
ungrateful."
"We won't," said Amy softly, fighting back a sudden mistiness which
had come before her eyes. "We'll just go on knitting ten times harder
than before."
"I think we're missing something," came Betty's voice from the
doorway, where she stood with her arm intertwined in Mollie's. "The
biscuits are in the oven now, and we're going to talk to you while
they're baking." "Will it take long?" asked Roy, sniffing hungrily.
"I like that," said Betty, with a little grimace, as she flung herself upon
the top step, pulling Mollie down beside her. "When Roy has to choose
between biscuits and us--"

"We're not in it," finished Mollie with a merry laugh.
Roy looked pained.
"I never said that, did I?" he inquired. "I haven't had the painful
necessity of making a choice yet."
"What were you talking about so earnestly when we came out?"
queried Betty. "Roy looked solemn, Grace looked surprised, Amy
looked exalted, and Allen was thoughtful, while Frank looked as
though-- well, as though he were seeing visions."
"All I have to do is turn my head to see visions," Frank returned
gallantly, suiting the action to the word. "Gee, I never saw a crowd of
prettier girls."
"Hey, you're going to get an extra biscuit for that," put in Roy, raising
himself on his elbow and looking alarmed. "Just because you're a better
flatterer than I am--"
"Oh, hush, hush," protested Betty, showing all her dimples--Allen was
watching, so we have his authority for it. "You boys can never get to
the point, unless we happen to be talking of something to eat. Allen,
what were they talking about?"
Allen roused himself from the happy reverie into which Betty's dimples
had thrown him, and responded good-naturedly. Allen was invariably
good-natured.
"We were talking about some of