"Oh," cried Betty, pityingly, "what a terrible thing! I should think he
could have written. But maybe he did, and his letters never reached you."

"That old Abner must have been a beast," cried Mollie, clenching her hands
belligerently. "And those boys! Wouldn't I like to put them behind the
bars?"

"You see," the old lady went on tonelessly, "it was only a little while
after Willie ran away that they found out that tramps started the fire. Of
course Abner was sorry then, but it was too late. My boy was gone."

"But you'll find him yet," cried Betty hopefully, springing to her feet.
"I'm quite sure you will."

But the old lady shook her head sadly.

"I don't think so, my dear," she said slowly. "If my Willie boy had been
alive I'm sure he would have come to me. He's--he's--almost certain--to
be--dead."

The girls tried to comfort the little old woman for a few minutes more,
then had to hurry away to various duties about the Hostess House--Mollie
to help a young Polish boy who had been 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, and Amy and Betty to help a timid and somewhat helpless mother
through the long hours of waiting before she could have a brief visit with
her son during his time of relief from duty.

CHAPTER V

FUN AND SOLDIERS

"I wish we could do something for Mrs. Sanderson," Betty remarked with a
sigh. "I haven't slept a wink for two nights just trying to think out some
way of finding that boy of hers."

"He must have been a darling," Grace added thoughtfully. "I can't
understand how a boy like that could run away from home and stay away for
years without even trying to get in touch with his mother."

"Maybe that charge changed his character," Mollie suggested dramatically.
"I've heard of such things."

"I've read of 'em," sniffed Grace. "But I must say I never believed it.
Give a boy the right sort of character to start with--"

"I don't see where you get that," Mollie interrupted hotly. "Why, half the
criminals in the world are made up of boys who were good enough to start
with, but because of some temptation, or their environment, went wrong--"

"But Mrs. Sanderson's Willie wasn't a criminal," suggested Amy mildly.

"But he was accused of being one and threatened with jail," retorted
Mollie. "And how do you know that wasn't just what he nee