all," added Amy, with a chuckle, "the
girls I've seen around the town really aren't calculated to steal their
hearts away."

"In that case, haven't we still got Sergeant Mullins?" chuckled Betty.

They laughed, and Mollie added, as they started to dress for the
afternoon:

"I wonder if the boys really expected that we wouldn't go to this special
bayonet drill to-morrow--especially when we've been longing to see one for
ages--just because Sergeant Mullins invited us?"

"I'm sure I don't know," said Betty carelessly. "But it really doesn't
matter since we're going anyway!"

CHAPTER IX

THE BAYONET DRILL

It was a beautiful sunshiny day, and the girls felt their spirits soaring
happily as they ran down the steps of the Hostess House and started across
the parade.

Also the, what appeared to them, foolish objections of the boys to their
attending the bayonet drill lent spice to the adventure, and they hurried
on gaily over the parade.

Sergeant Mullins, who had unwittingly caused all the excitement, was, as
the girls had said, a tall, splendidly built fellow, good looking to an
unusual degree, but very silent and reserved.

He had seemed immensely attracted from the first by the girls from the
Hostess House, and had made overtures in a half-shy, half-humorous manner
that the girls themselves had found very attractive.

But to them he had been only one of many interesting soldier boys who had
come and gone and whose meetings and partings with dear ones they had
watched with swelling throats and tears in their own eyes.

But Sergeant Mullins was an expert with the bayonet and had been attached
to Camp Liberty for the purpose of giving the boys special drills in that
work.

He had proved so wonderfully successful that, much to his secret
chagrin--for Sergeant Mullins, like all the rest of our brave boys, had
dreamed of the great things he would do "over there"--the Government had
decided to keep him at Camp Liberty indefinitely.

Then, one day, he had invited the girls, in return for the many little
kindnesses they had done him, to attend one of his special, exhibition
drills.

They had accepted eagerly, little dreaming of the storm their acceptance
would evoke. And it is very doubtful whether, even if they had known, it
would have made any difference, for they had long desired just this thing
and knew that in years to come they would look back upon it as one of the
biggest experiences in their live