to go and will if he gets half a chance."

"Then I guess it's all right," said Ferd, leaning back with a sigh of
relief. "Gee, I was afraid you were going to say he couldn't go, and so
spoil everything. Say, can't you see the good times we're going to have
with you girls at Three Towers Hall and we fellows such a little way off
that we can see each other every once in a while? I can't make up my
mind that it's real yet--" And so on and on, rapturously, while
Billie's heart sank lower and lower and Violet's own warm one ached for
her friend.

Then just as Ferd started to go he spied Chet coming up the street and
hailed him joyfully.

"Just the fellow I wanted to see," he declared fervently. "Come on up
here, old man, and hear the glad news."

Billie groaned inwardly and seemed about to speak, but Violet stopped her
with a hand on her arm.

"Might as well get it over with," she whispered. "Chet is sure to hear
of it later if he doesn't now."

So Billie waited, but her heart ached as she watched Chet march up
smilingly to hear "the glad news."

"We're going to Boxton Military Academy." Ferd fairly shouted it at him.
"How about it, old timer, are you going with us, or are you going to
leave us in the lurch?"