“It isn’t a dream, Amy dear,” she said, very steadily.  “I don’t think we were ever more fully or terribly awake than we are now.  Not even that day when we heard of the sinking of the Lusitania, did we realize just what this war was going to mean to us.  It’s only by some sacrifice—­some personal sacrifice—­” but the brave voice broke and died into silence while she listened with almost straining intensity to that regular beat of marching feet, coming nearer, ever nearer—­

And in the distance came the long, warning whistle of the train—­the train that was going to take them away!

“Oh, keep still,” cried Mollie, turning with sudden, unreasoning fury toward the oncoming locomotive with the smudge of smoke in its wake, her hands clenched passionately and her black eyes smoldering.  “We know you’re coming for them—­Roy and Allen and Will and Frank and—­and—­all the others.  But that’s no reason why you have to rub it in, is it?”

At any other time, the rather unreasoning attack upon the train would have seemed funny to the girls, and even in their trouble a faint gleam of humor came to them, but no one laughed, no one even smiled.

“I—­I wonder,” said Grace, nervously patting a stray lock of hair into place beneath the smart little hat which, under the spell of excitement, had gotten slightly awry, “if we’ll be able to pick our boys out from all that crowd.  Oh, girls,” taking a quick little survey over the top of her own particular packing case, “they’re almost here!  Swarms, just swarms of them!”

“Goodness, that sounds like locusts—­or mosquitoes,” cried Betty hysterically, scarcely knowing what she was saying.  “Squeeze in tight, Amy, or you’ll get your toes stepped on.  Grace, look again.  How far away are they?”

“Just around the corner,” reported Grace.  “Goodness,” she cried in sudden panic, “I almost wish we’d stayed in the automobile.  I’d feel s-safer—­”

“Safer?” cried Mollie scornfully, “I’d like to know what there is to be afraid of.  Oh, there you go again,” shaking an impotent little fist as the great train rumbled into the station with a screaming of brakes and a shrieking of whistles.

And then the flood broke.  Down the station platform came hundreds upon hundreds of khaki-clad figures, talking, gesticulating, faces eagerly flushed, eyes brilliant as they prophetically looked into the future.

“Oh, we’ll never be able to pick them out of the crowd,” cried Grace despairingly.  “I’m getting cross-eyed as it is.  Oh, there’s Corporal Harris!  Yes, and there goes James McDonald!  Oh, oh—­”

And indeed there were scores of familiar faces among the boys that were passing perhaps forever out of their lives.  Some saw the girls and saluted them gaily, but most of them were too intent upon boarding the train and embarking upon the glorious adventure with as little delay as possible to look either to the right or the left.