“Well, it’s a comfort anyway,” said Mollie, as they turned and went into the house, “to know that he’s as bad as we thought he was.  And perhaps,” she added hopefully, “Sergeant Mullins will be able to help us.”

It was more than a week later when the first eagerly looked for letters began to arrive from overseas.  It was one day when the promised rush of soldiers into the camp had been fulfilled and the girls were particularly busy entertaining and finding comfortable quarters for their relatives and friends that Mollie whispered the joyful news into Betty’s ear.

“Letters!” she cried.  “Letters, honey!  Here are yours, two of them, and each one of us others got one apiece.  We’ve decided not to open them until to-night, when we’ll have time to read them in comfort.  If you’ll wait, too—­”

“Of course,” promised Betty, eagerly accepting her portion of the precious correspondence.  “And they’re thick ones, Mollie, and—­”

“Both from Allen,” Mollie finished mischievously, looking back over her shoulder to enjoy Betty’s blush.

And that night, when they should have been tired out with the day’s unusually hard work, the girls assembled in their one big room, feeling more wide awake than ever before in all their lives.

“Oh, hasn’t it been perfectly awful,” cried Mollie, facing them with shining eyes, “to have to go around calmly for hours and hours as if nothing had happened?”

“With a letter just begging to be read, too!” put in Betty, two fever spots of excitement on her cheeks.  “I don’t think I could ever do it again.”

“Well, it’s all over now,” said Amy, taking her own thick and promising looking letter from her silk blouse where it had rustled and crackled betrayingly all day.  “I don’t know about you girls, but I just can’t wait another second.”

“Oh, please wait just a moment until I get my shoes off,” begged Grace, sinking down on the edge of the bed and removing the shoes from her aching feet.  “Oh dear,” she moaned, “I know I’ll have to get a size larger next time, and if I do I’ll be ashamed to be seen in the street.”

“Well, even my patient and much-tried pedal extremities feel a little the worse for wear to-night,” admitted Mollie, as she flung a shoe vindictively to the farthest corner of the room.

“And mine,” agreed Betty, taking up the plaint.  “I tell you what,” she added.  “Let’s all just get undressed and tumble into the big bed and—­enjoy ourselves.”

The suggestion was unanimously accepted, and thereafter various soft and filmy garments flew thick and fast as the girls got ready for the treat which had been postponed all through the long, long day,—­almost the longest they had ever known.

“Come on, Gracie,” called Mollie, as barely five minutes later three figures sat propped up in the bed, waiting impatiently for the fourth.  “What’s the use of primping to-night?  Nobody’s going to see you.”