"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question," said Betty, sitting
up straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and
woodland greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen
so wonderful a day?"

"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on
two wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson,
you would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds
over there in the east."

"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at
the sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for
clouds when the boys are coming home?"

Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the
joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness
that was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy.

"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing."

"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean-- guessing? The
war is over, isn't it?"

"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But
that doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away----"

"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet
happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can
wait patiently, now that we know they are safe."