enjoy themselves remarkably well."

A brief silence followed, broken only by the rustle of paper as one of
the girls turned a page. Then, so suddenly that Mollie jumped nervously
and Grace almost upset a box of chocolates at her elbow, Amy threw down
her book and sprang to her feet.

"I can't stand it another minute!" she exclaimed desperately. "Girls, I
must get out and do something--this loafing is getting on my nerves."

"Goodness, the child's mad," declared Mollie, looking at her chum with a
mixture of amusement and sympathy in her eyes. "What do you want to do,
Amy, start a fight, or set the town on fire? Whatever it is, I'm for
you, as Roy would say."

"Oh, I guess I must be crazy," said Amy, subsiding and seeming a little
ashamed of her outburst. "Only, after so much band music and parades and
bugle calls--everything in Deepdale seems so quiet."

"Well, if all you want is noise, we'll easily fix that," said Mollie
briskly, running to the piano and gathering in Grace and Amy on the way.
"Sing," she commanded, "and I'll make as much noise as I can on the
piano."

Half laughing, half protesting, the girls obeyed while Mollie
conscientiously made good her threat with the piano, and it was into
this uproar that Betty Nelson stepped a moment later.

"Have mercy!" she screamed above the noise, both hands clapped over her
ears while she laughed at them. "I thought they had turned the house
into a lunatic asylum or something."

The music, if such it can be called, stopped so suddenly that Betty's
last words rang out with absurd distinctness.

"Or something," Mollie mimicked, whirling around and catching the
newcomer in a bear's embrace. "Come over to the couch, Betty Nelson, and
explain yourself. Where have you been and why did you keep us waiting?"

Laughingly the Little Captain, as she was often called by the girls
because of her talent for leadership, permitted herself to be dragged
over to the couch by the impulsive Mollie, while Amy and Grace seated
themselves on the arms.

"What would you?" protested Betty, looking from one accusing face to
another. "I said I would meet you here at two-thirty, and it is only
quarter past now."

"Only quarter past!" exclaimed Amy.

"Oh, is that all?" asked Mollie, in astonishment, adding, as Betty
lifted her wrist watch for inspection: "Goodness, I thought we had been
waiting ages."

"I'm glad you wanted to see me so much," chuckled the Little Captain,
adding, with