The girl gave an amused but sympathetic laugh before she answered.  Then she said: 

“Mollie and I have been trying to keep the hearts of three of those recruits that came in yesterday from breaking outright.  Poor boys, they’re awfully young—­I believe they fibbed about their ages—­and look like cherubs.  None of them has ever been away from home before, and they are pathetically homesick.  But they have told us about their homes and their mothers and fathers and the little brothers and sisters, and Mollie has joked with them and—­Well, anyway, Allen, I believe we have made them feel that they are not wholly friendless.”

“I’m sure you have, Betty dear.”

“Poor boys,” went on Betty.  “I presume it will get easier as they get used to it.”

“Grace has been writing letters for some of the boys who find it hard to do that.  Grace is awfully good at that.  And Amy, I believe, has been showing some girls who came down to see their brother, about the place and trying to keep them interested during the long waits between the times they can see the boy, who, like his sisters, is almost too timid to look out for himself.”

Admiration shone in Allen Washburn’s eyes as he looked at the Little Captain and remarked: 

“What lucky people those Y.W.C.A. officials were to get you girls down here for this Hostess House!  But come, Betty, the others are beckoning to us.”

CHAPTER VI

PLANNING CAPTURE

The spot they had chosen for the picnic was quite a distance away from Camp Liberty, and by the time the party finally reached it, both boys and girls were wondering if the generous contents of the hampers would serve even to take the edge off their appetites.

“I don’t see why we didn’t take your car, Mollie,” Grace complained, as they covered the last stretch of dusty road.  “We would have been on the picnic grounds and had our lunch eaten by this time.”

“But just think what’s in store for us,” Betty reminded her cheerily.  “We need a good appetite to eat up all this lunch.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Grace grumbled back.  “It seems to me I had a good enough appetite for two lunches, each twice as big as this, when we started.”

“Heavens!” cried Frank Haley, who was walking in front with Mollie, “I see my chances of a square meal dwindling.”

“I’m beginning to agree with Grace,” grinned Roy Anderson, “that we made a big mistake in not taking the car.”

“Oh, you’re all just lazy,” was Mollie’s accusation.  “We haven’t been walking more than an hour and there’s the spot, just around that turn in the road.”

“Say,” and Will, who had not yet spoken, turned suddenly to Betty, “isn’t this the road where the accident happened that introduced that nice little old woman—­what’s her name—­”

“Mrs. Sanderson,” Betty supplied.

“Yes, that’s it.  Isn’t this about the place where you found her?”