“Just the same, he did look mighty grim as he turned away,” she finished, with a little smile at the memory, “and he said something about not being surprised if he got mad at the last minute and hitched on the rear platform, anyway.”

“It’s wonderful how eager they all are,” said Betty, her eyes shining and a little catch in her voice.  “I suppose there are slackers, lots of them, but so far I haven’t met a boy who wasn’t desperate at being given a ’safe berth’ away from the firing line and danger.

“It never seems to enter their minds to be thankful that they don’t have to run the risk of having their arms and legs shot off, or perhaps being blinded for life.

“And it isn’t that they don’t think of it, either,” she went on, her face flushing with enthusiasm, “or realize what it means.  Just the other night Will was talking to me, Gracie—­you know he’s always been almost as much my brother as yours—­and he said, ’I tell you what, Betty, it isn’t often I let the grim side of this war business get to me, and it’s the same with the other fellows.  Of course we know it’s there, but we’re willing to take the bad with the good for the sake of doing what we’re pretty darn sure is the only thing to do.  Only,’ he added, slowly, ’we’re none of us pretending to say that we enjoy the idea of being maimed or perhaps crippled for life.  There’s not one of us but who’s praying that if we have to go, it will be a good swift bullet that will do the business.

“‘But,’ he added, with a smile—­and I could have hugged him for that smile, girls.  ’But, of course, as I said before, we’re not thinking of that side of it.  It’s enough to know that if it comes, we’ll know how to meet it.’”

“And th-that’s my brother,” cried Grace, half tearful, yet radiant with pride in him.  “Those horrible old Huns won’t have even half a chance when he gets at them.”

“And Frank and Allen and Roy,” added Mollie loyally.  “You can’t leave any one of our boys out, Gracie.  They’re all built on the same plan—­as far as bravery is concerned.”

“Of course, I know that,” said Grace, her eyes softening with the picture of Roy as he had said good-bye—­so youthfully gay, yet so strangely self-reliant.

And Mollie’s eyes that could flash so wrathfully at times, were also soft with memory, and Amy, thinking of those last words that were almost, yes, so very near, a promise, flushed hotly and wondered if after all she ought—­so soon—­

“It’s no wonder that we’re proud of them—­our boys,” said Betty softly.

CHAPTER XIX

REAL TRAGEDY

A day or two went by during which the girls tried pluckily to go on with their duties about the Hostess House with bright and smiling faces.  It was hard, though, to keep their thoughts from wandering to the four boys who were now on their way to face all the realities and all the horrors of the terrible war, and perhaps it was well that the leaving of so many made their duties lighter than usual.