The girls were all crying and Mollie impatiently shook a tear from the tip of her nose. "Betty, you never told us that before. If his mother could only know about it."
"She probably does," said Betty, wiping her eyes and taking up her knitting again. "Somehow, most mothers know those things by instinct."
"And to think boys like that," cried Mollie, knitting fast to keep time with her feelings, "to think boys like that have to go over to the other side, and be mowed down by the thousands. Oh, I can't believe it!"
"I guess we've all sort of closed our eyes to it, till now," said Grace, so unlike her usual self that she had completely forgotten to eat candy for fifteen minutes. "But we can't go on like that forever. When it comes right down to us and we lose somebody we care for--" her voice broke and the girls went on knitting faster than ever, fearing a general breakdown.
"We've just got to work so hard we can't think," said Mollie with decision, adding, a little hysterically: "It never used to be hard before."
"What, to keep from thinking?" asked Amy, while the other girls smiled a little and felt better.
"Who's that coming up the walk, Betty?" Grace asked, a moment later. "The glimpse I got looked like a uniform."
"It's Allen," Betty answered, waving to the splendid specimen of manhood who was coming up the porch two steps at a time. "He looks as if he had some good news for us. You let him in, will you, Amy? You're nearest the door."
So Amy, opening the door, admitted a six-foot cyclone, who swept her before him into the parlor, where she sank into a chair to get her breath.
"Well, what in the world?" asked Mollie, round eyes on his face, as he mopped his face and lowered himself into a seat.
"Talk about good luck," he began, beaming round upon them. "I guess the fellows were right when they said I was falling into it lately."
"Good news, Allen?" asked Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "I knew you had something wonderful to tell us the moment I saw you."
"Well, in the first place," said Allen, modestly putting himself last, "Frank has been promoted to the rank of corporal."
"Oh, isn't that wonderful!" they cried together, and thereafter arose a very babel of questions as to where, when and how the promotion had occurred, which Allen answered one after another with equal enthusiasm.