o?"

"Do!" the girls echoed, while Grace hugged her mother with vigor. The
eyes of the girls followed her gratefully as Mrs. Ford started off on
her work of rescue--at least, that is the way the hungry girls regarded
it.

"You know, I have a better appetite than I've had in weeks," announced
Mollie, as she dug her toes into the warm sand. "I haven't been eating
much lately."

"I hadn't noticed it," commented Grace dryly.

"Well, mother did," returned Mollie spiritedly. "She said she was glad I
was going away because she thought the change would do me good. I really
should have stayed at home, I suppose, and helped mother take care of
the twins," she added thoughtfully. "I never saw two children with such
an absolute genius for getting into mischief. But when they're caught,
they're so cunning and dear and say such quaint things that it is almost
impossible to get angry with them."

"They're adorable," agreed Betty, while all the girls smiled fondly at
thought of the twins.

"Just the same," remarked Grace, "although I love them, I'm glad I'm not
their sister, for I'd never be able to eat a candy in comfort," and the
girls laughed at her.

"It seems so wonderful and peaceful here," said Amy, after a short
pause, "and we seem so awfully far away from the rest of the world. It
almost makes one believe that the war 'over there' is a dream--"

"Or a nightmare," interpolated Mollie.

"Well, it isn't," said Grace, adding, as she dug her toes more deeply
into the yielding sand: "And if we don't hear more news of Will pretty
soon, I'll just die, that's all. I can't stand it!"

"There's your mother," cried Betty suddenly, glad of an excuse to change
the subject. "I think she's calling us, too. Come on, let's go."

Nothing loath, they got to their feet, shook the sand from their suits,
and hurried to the bluff where Mrs. Ford stood awaiting them.

As they clambered up toward her they noticed that she looked excited and
was holding a yellow envelope in her hand.

"The trunks have come," she said, as they ran up to her. "A big
lumbering red-haired fellow brought them from the station a few minutes
ago. He also brought this," indicating the envelope in her hand.

"What is it?" they cried, a strange premonition of evil tightening about
their hearts.

"A telegram for Mollie!"

Mollie turned a little pale under her tan and took the yellow envelope
gingerly, as though it had been poisoned, or contained some T. N. T.