tronizing pity she had felt. Luckily, Laura hadn't seemed to
notice it. And Laura was quick to see things, too. Elliott realized,
with a little stab of chagrin, that Laura wouldn't understand why her
cousin had pitied her, even if some one should be at pains to explain
the fact to her.

But Elliott couldn't let herself pass as an intentional slacker.

"We girls did canteening at home; surgical dressings and knitting,
too, of course, but canteening was the most fun."

"That must have been fine." Laura was interested at once.

Elliott's spirit revived. After all, Laura was a country girl. "Do you
have a canteen here?"

"Oh, no, Highboro isn't big enough. No trains stop here for more than
a minute. We're not on the direct line to any of the camps, either."

"Ours was a regular canteen," said Elliott. "They would telephone us
when soldiers were going through, and we would go down, with Mrs.
Royce or Aunt Margaret or some other chaperon, and distribute
post-cards and cigarettes and sweet chocolate; and ice-cream cones, if
the weather was hot. It was such fun to talk to the men!"

"Ice-cream and cigarettes!" laughed Laura. "I should think they'd have
liked something nourishing."

"Oh, they got the nourishing things, if it was time. The Government
had an arrangement with a restaurant just around the corner to serve
soldiers' meals. We didn't have to do that."

"You supplied the frills."

"Yes." Somehow Elliott did not quite like the words.

Laura was quick to notice her discomfiture. "I imagine they needed the
frills and the jollying, poor lonesome boys! They're so young, many of
them, and not used to being away from home; and the life is strange,
however well they may like it."

"Yes," said Elliott. "More than one bunch told us they hadn't seen
anything to equal what we did for them this side of New York. Our
uniforms were so becoming, too; even a plain girl looked cute in those
caps. Why, Laura, you might have a uniform, mightn't you, if it's war
work?"

"What should I want of a uniform?"

"People who saw you would know what you're doing."

"They know now, if they open their eyes."

"They'd know why, I mean--that it's war work."

"Mercy! Nobody around here needs to be told why a person hoes potatoes
these days. They're all doing it."

"Do you hoe potatoes?" Elliott had no notion how comically her
consternation sat on her pretty features.

Laura laughed at the amazed face of her cousin. "Of course I do