hers. And if you just act as
though you wanted more than anything else in the world to learn all
about the Leavitts, she'll just love it and she'll tell you everything
you _have_ to know!"

"It's the most _thrilling_ romance," sighed Claire, enviously.

"Sounds more to _me_ like a conspiracy, and can't they put people in
jail for doing things like that?" demanded Nancy.

"Oh, Nancy, you're _so_ literal--as if she would, way up there on an
island next to nowhere! And anyway, think of the boys who perjured
themselves to get into the service. Wasn't that justified?"

Nancy, being in an unpleasant mood, started to ask what _that_ had to
do with _her_ pretending to be an Anne Leavitt who she wasn't, when Big
Anne went on in a hurt tone:

"Well, we won't talk about it any more! I'll have to give up going to
Russia and my whole life will be spoiled. And I _am_ disappointed--I
thought our friendship meant something to you, Nancy."

"_Anne_! There isn't a _thing_ I wouldn't do for you! You're next
dearest to Dad. For you I'll go to--Freedom or any old place. I'll do
my best to be you to the dot and I'll pay homage to your forefathers
and will ask not a penny of the legacy--if you get it! It shall all be
for the cause!"

Anne read no irony in her tone. Her dignity flown, she caught her
friend in a strangling hug. "Oh, Nancy, you _darling_, will you? I'll
never forget it! We'll write to her right away--or you will. From
this _very_ minute you are Anne Leavitt!"

"I wish I could go, too," put in Claire. "Perhaps I can coax Barry to
motor up that way."

"Don't you _dare_!" cried Nancy in consternation. "It would spoil it
all. I'll write to you every day every thing that happens. Goodness,
if I'm as scared when I face your Aunt Sa-something as I am right now
when I think about it, she'll know at a glance that I'm just an
everyday Leavitt and not the child of her forefathers!"

"Hark!" Claire lifted a silencing finger. "The seniors are singing."

The lines they loved drifted to them.

"Lift the chorus, speed it onward,
Loud her praises tell!"

"Let's join them." Suddenly Claire caught a hand of each. "_Girls_,
think of it--what it _means_--it's the last time--_it's all over_!"
Her pretty face was tragic.

Big Anne, with a vision of Russia in her heart, set her lips resolutely.

"Don't look _back_--look _ahead_!" she cried, grandly.

But in Nancy's mind as, her arms linked with her chums