The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House; Or, Doing Their Best for the Soldiers

her wrinkled old face, and the girls, with the tears o

suggested gently, "if

dow and let it rest on the sweet, sympa

hadn't been for this war I suppose I should have gone right on not telling anybody for the rest of my life. Of course the Yates and Baldwins and all the folks that lived aroun

ted in anything as they were in the secret sorrow of this gentle old lady, the sorrow that broug

," thought Mollie resentfully, "to have run

es from the window and fixed them

tand," she went on, "and yet perhaps you'll be interested more

rus, at which the old woman's face lighted

-died when my little boy was only four years old. I wasn't so young any more, for Willie was the youngest-the others had all died when they wa

' on the farm week days and Sundays, we managed to get along pretty well. An' I was savin' pennies-" H

hat came to them sounded flat and inappropriate, they kept a sympathet

side for the boy. You see, it had been his father's wish that Willie should be given the chance neither of us had ever had to get some s

girls' hearts, "they was only dreams. But I don't see as there was any harm in them, seein's

round the house, I used to draw Willie up to the big, open fireplace we had in the kitche

ain the voice broke and trailed off into silence while the girls sat and waited as before, only wit

oy would reach up and pat my cheek, just like his father used to do, and seems lik

ry. I'll do all those things, jest like pa said, an' then we'll go an' live

h from workin' in the field and rub his soft little

ting cross-legged on the floor, while the other girls

en a darling!" crie

suppose"-again her eyes sought the parade ground-"if I was to meet him now I maybe wouldn't

ie, rubbing her eyes furiously with her

abruptly. "If he hadn't had such a high spirit he never

y wild lot an' they always had a grudge against my bo

to sit and dream and read books you'd thought a little fellow like

e him 'cause he was different, an' they was alwa

hat as long as he knew he didn't do it and I knew it, what othe

oo far an' begun callin' my boy names-no names that a boy with any pride in him would stand for-I heard them-they was jest around the back o' the hou

he'd found, an' it was some time before just what those ragamuffins was sa

to that chin o' his, just like his pa, he

bully o' the crowd that was at least two or three years older than h

n' Willie listened without turnin

zin' black out o' his white face and his little hands that seemed to me scarce

he

Mollie excitedly. "Oh

g with the memory. "That was the day my boy showed what was in h

loud erased the glow from her face, "that di

ame over to accuse my Willie of havin' started the fire, bringin' with him two or

in'-an' there never was truer word spoken-that Willie

le loss to him, an' so much blame had been laid at Willie's door by the

o' yours if he can go round settin' folks' barns on fire an' not get come up with! I'll give him a taste

innin' imps that was makin' all the trouble followin'

looked pityfully old and weary. Betty reached over an

e'd left a note for me-full o' love-but sayin' that he couldn't bear to bring disgrace on me an' so he'd gone away. W

is, I've never heard a w

hing! I should think he could have written. But

lie, clenching her hands belligerently. "And those

after Willie ran away that they found out that tramps started the fire

Betty hopefully, springing to her

lady shook h

my Willie boy had been alive I'm sure he would hav

drafted into the army and who was struggling valiantly and conscientiously to learn English, Grace to write a letter for a Southern mountain boy who had never learned to read and write