“She said she was very sure she could manage it,” Betty answered.  “She seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us girls again.”

“It will be great fun for all of us,” said Amy happily.  “I’ll never forget the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys.”

“Yes—­ and the boys,” Betty repeated a little wistfully.  She was thinking of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that never-to-be-forgotten summer—­ before the war had come to separate them and make their hearts ache.  Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have the boys back again—­ Will, Roy, Frank and—­ her Allen.  The old crowd together once more.  She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen into a thoughtful mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy smile that was peculiarly Betty’s own.

“Oh, cheer up, everybody,” she cried gayly.  “How do we know but what the boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge?  Then think of the fun!”

“Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!” they cried.

“Well,” said the Little Captain stoutly, “you never can tell.  Stranger things have happened, you know.”

“But nothing so joyful,” added Mollie.

CHAPTER V

 Betty takes A dare

It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the girls’ occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their natty little motor boat.

But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably returned to one of two subjects—­ the return of the boys and the good time they would have at Moonlight Falls.

They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey.  They took a real interest in the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys.

“It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or whatever you call it in the woods,” Amy said one day as she and the girls sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored.  “And he said he hardly ever had company.”

“Goodness, I should think he would go crazy,” Mollie commented.  “Why, I go almost mad when I don’t have any one to talk to for an hour.”

“I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war,” said Betty thoughtfully.  They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon it.  “If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him.  It makes me shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son——­”

“Oh, Betty,” cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the picture Betty had drawn, “what a dreadful thing to think of!”