The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House | Page 2

wheel. "That's all I wanted to know--"
"Just a minute, Mollie, dearest," Betty's laughing voice broke in. "You
know I'm not worrying about the chocolates at all, but I'm not
particularly anxious to spoil my perfectly good shoes with crushed
chocolate or, on the other hand, frump my perfectly good nose in a vain
attempt to pick them--"
"Which, candy or shoes?" Mollie broke in impishly.
"Candy," answered Betty soberly. "As I was saying, neither of these
alternatives appeal to me, so, with your kind permission, I would beg
you to hold your horses--"
"As the vulgar herd would say," again murmured Mollie.
"Exactly--as the vulgar herd would say," agreed Betty, dimpling
adorably, "--until we have a chance to collect the scattered sweets."
"You win," Mollie capitulated, speaking in a tone reserved for the
"Little Captain." "Only please make Grace hurry or the afternoon will
be over before she begins."
"Goodness, listen to it--" Grace was beginning, straightening
indignantly from her stooping posture and preparing once more to enter
the fray. "When it's all her fault, anyway--" But Betty upset both speech
and dignity by unceremoniously pulling her down again.
"Come on! Hurry, Gracie!" she commanded. "And don't overlook any,

because there's nothing so messy as a chocolate--"
"As if there were any chance of Grace's overlooking a chocolate!"
scoffed Mollie. "Why, all she has to do is whistle to 'em and they come
rolling up obediently."
"Goodness, who'd want them anyway, after they've rolled around and
picked up all the dust and millions of germs from the bottom of the
car?" grumbled Grace, cross at having to exert herself to even so small
an extent. Grace, as my old readers doubtless remember, had been born
with an ease-loving disposition that not even close association with the
other Outdoor Girls had served to change. Perhaps, as Mollie had once
remarked, that was why the girls were so fond of her--because she was
"so different."
"Well, if you don't want 'em," Mollie replied practically, "why didn't
you agree to my proposition? I promised to eat them for you, germs and
all, and all I got for my sacrifice was one withering glance--"
"At that you're lucky," Grace retorted, straightening up from a spirited
chase of the last elusive chocolate, red of face and fierce of eye. "Some
time I'll come to the end of my patience, and then, Mollie Billette,
you'd better look out."
"My!" chuckled Betty, "isn't she fierce? Never mind, honey, Roy will
give you another box, if you ask him very prettily."
"Goodness, if he can't do it without being asked," retorted Grace
crossly, "he can keep his old candies."
"If I thought you meant that, I'd say you ought to be ashamed of
yourself," put in Amy, with unaccustomed spirit, as Mollie threw in the
clutch and the big car started off again. "Anybody that had been as
good to you as Roy has been--"
"Well, I don't know that you've been particularly neglected," retorted
Grace, meaningly, while Amy reddened. "I never thought that Will
could be such a perfect Romeo."

"Oh, dear," murmured Betty protestingly. "Can't we have just one good
time, without bringing the boys into it?"
"Now, see who's talking," chuckled Mollie delightedly, changing into
high and driving with wild, care-free recklessness along the smooth
road. "Oh, Betty darling, much as I love you, there do come times when
you make me laugh."
"Well, it's good to know I'm bringing happiness into some dark life,"
retorted Betty good-naturedly. "At least I have not lived in vain."
"And they were just mad," Mollie continued, as though talking to
herself, "when they found we were going off this afternoon without
them."
"Yes, and isn't it funny?" agreed Grace lazily. "They think they're so
important."
"Well, they are," announced Amy suddenly, and even Mollie turned an
amazed eye upon her.
"I think they're the most important people in the world," Amy
continued stoutly. "I guess if we were going to give up our lives for
somebody else we might think we were important, too."
"Oh, I didn't mean that way," Mollie returned, her eyes once more
turning to the ribbon of road ahead while the girls' bright faces sobered
thoughtfully. "Because when it comes to a thing like giving up their
lives--well, I think they're the bravest--" Her voice broke, and in an
effort to hide her emotion she nearly sent the car over the side of the
road and into a six-foot ditch.
"Brave," repeated Betty, turning her eyes to the far horizon to hide the
mist that suddenly gathered in them. "I don't think that's any word for
our boys at all--"
"They don't seem to realize what they're going into," Amy broke in
eagerly. "Or, if they do, they won't talk about it, or let any