briefly a few of the exciting and interesting adventures they have had
up to the time of this present narrative.

There were four of them, Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the
girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for
knowing just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was
eighteen, dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and
more than her share of sense and good judgment-- all of which went
toward making her what she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale.

Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as
Betty, but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things
she had in common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford,
was a lawyer, and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady
who spent a good deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the
society of Deepdale. However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked
with an untiring enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her
many more friends than her social popularity could ever have done.

Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was
seventeen, French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that
made more trouble for herself than for any one else. She and Betty
were alike in their splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as
she was sometimes called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed
mother and an extremely mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and
Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), who were twins and six. Although the twins
were pretty nearly always in trouble, they were really adorable
children, whom everybody loved.

Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had