The Outdoor Girls in Army Service | Page 8

the
thick of it, relate his own experiences. While he was talking you could
almost hear the thunder of cannon and the bursting of shells. I tell you,
we fellows felt like shouldering our guns, and marching over right
away."
"Oh, it's wonderful to be a man these days," sighed Mollie. "You can
get right in the thick of it, while all we can do is stay home and root for
you."
"Well, that's a lot," said Frank soberly. "Just to feel that you girls are
backing us up, and that there's somebody who cares whether we give a
good account of ourselves or not, makes all the difference in the
world."
"But that's not all we can do," cried Betty, her eyes shining with the
light of resolution. "There's real work enough to keep us busy all day
long. Girls, I've got a plan!"

"What?" they cried, leaning forward eagerly.
"I'm going to join the Red Cross!"

CHAPTER IV
THE POWDER MILL
"Who's game for a paddle?"
"I am!"
"And I!"
"Oh, it's the most wonderful night in the world for canoeing!"
"And there's going to be a moon, too!"
"Nobody seems to be eager or anything like that," remarked Frank,
strolling out on the veranda, and regarding the enthusiastic group with a
smile on his lips. "Why didn't you suggest something they might agree
to, Allen?"
Allen, who had indeed made the suggestion, rose lazily to his feet, and
stretched out a hand to Betty.
"I never make any suggestions that aren't good," he replied. "Come
along, Betty. It's a crime to waste a minute of this wonderful night."
"May we, Mrs. Irving?" queried Betty, smiling up at their chaperon,
who was the same who had shared their adventures, during that other
eventful summer on Pine Island. "You know you love canoeing as
much as the rest of us."
"Of course we'll all go," Mrs. Irving assented readily. "Only we've had
a long day, and mustn't stay out too late."

"I speak for Mrs. Irving in my canoe!" called out Betty.
"No, mine!" "Ours!" were other cries.
Merrily the girls ran into the house to pick up the wraps which were
always necessary on the water at night, and in another minute they had
rejoined the boys.
"Are you glad I enlisted, Betty?" queried Allen, laying a hand on
Betty's arm, and holding her back.
"Glad?" answered Betty, looking up at him with eyes that shone in the
starlight. "Yes, I'm glad that you knew the only right thing to do, and
I'm glad that you did it so promptly. But, Allen--"
"Yes?" he queried, finding her little hand and holding it tight.
"I--I'm like George Washington, I guess," she evaded, looking up at
him with a crooked little smile.
"I don't want you to tell a lie," he countered very softly. "I want the
truth, little Betty. What were you going to say?"
Betty's eyes drooped, and they walked along in silence for a minute.
"Well?" he queried at last, studying her averted profile. "You're not
afraid to tell me, Betty?"
"N-no," she answered, still with her head turned away. "I was only
going to say, that while I'm glad--oh, very glad in one way, I--I'm not
so very glad in another."
"What other?" he asked, leaning over her. "Betty, Betty, tell me, dear."
Betty hesitated for another moment, then threw up her head defiantly.
"Well," she said, "if you must know--I don't want you to go. I--I'll
be--lonesome--"

"Betty," he cried imploringly, his heart beating like a trip-hammer,
"Betty--wait--"
But she had slipped from him, and had run ahead to join the others, so
that he had no other course but to follow her. His head was in the
clouds--his feet scarcely seemed to touch the ground.
"Well, it's about time you realized you were with us," Mollie remarked
as Betty, breathless with the run and the beating of her heart, joined
them. "We began to think you had eloped for fair this time."
Betty laughed happily.
"I'm sure I don't know where we'd elope to," she remarked, stepping
one dainty foot exactly in the center of the unstable craft. "We'd either
have to swim or wait for the ferry, and I don't exactly know which
would be the more uncomfortable."
"I'd prefer the swim," said Roy, arranging the pillows carefully behind
Mollie's straight little back. To quote the latter: She would much rather
do things for herself--boys were so clumsy--but they always looked so
funny and downhearted when she told them about it, that, just in the
interest of ordinary kindness, she had to humor them!
"Well," said Allen, as he dipped his paddle into the still water, guiding
the light craft from the shore, "where shall we go?"
"'Where do we go from here, boys, where