ny longer she'd have thrust talons into me."

"Oh, it's too bad! And you'd promised to take me to have tea at a cafe."

"So I did. I meant to give you a regular blow-out, so far as the
rationing order would allow us. Look here, old sport, I'm ever so sorry.
If I'd only foreseen this I'd have brought some cakes and sweets for
you. I'm afraid I've nothing in my pockets except cigarettes and a cough
lozenge. Cheer oh! It's Christmas holidays next week, and you'll be
tucking into turkey before long."

"How do you like the camp, Larry?" asked Marjorie.

"First-rate. We have a wooden hut to sleep in. There are thirty of us;
we each have three planks on trestles for a bed, and a palliasse to put
on it at night, and a straw pillow. We get four blankets apiece. I make
my own bed every night--double one blanket underneath, and roll the
others round me, and have my greatcoat on top if I'm cold. Aunt Ellinor
has lent me an air-cushion, and it's a great boon, because the straw
pillow is as hard as a brick. We do route marches and trench-digging,
and yesterday I was on scout duty, and three of us captured a sentry. If
we'd been at the front, instead of only training, he'd have shot me
certain."

"Do you have to learn to be a soldier?" asked Dona.

"Why, of course, you little innocent. That's what the training-camp is
for--to teach us how to scout, and dig trenches, and all the rest of
it."

"Oh! I thought you just went to the front and fought."

"It would be a queer war if we did."

"Are you coming home for Christmas?"

"No, I can't get leave; I only wish I could."

"Cave!" called Ailsa Donald, the nearest in the line of girls who had
undertaken to keep guard. "Miss Robinson is coming across the field this
way."

"We must go, or we shall be caught," said Marjorie. "It's too bad to
have to see you like this."

"But it's better than nothing," added Dona. "You can send me those
sweets you talked about for Christmas, if you like."

"All right, old Bunting! I won't back out of my promise."

The girls dropped from the palings, and dived into the plantation just
before Miss Robinson, on her way to the kitchen garden, passed the spot.
If she had looked through a crack in the boards she would have seen
Larry walking away, but happily her suspicions were not aroused.
Marjorie and Dona strolled leisurely towards the hockey field. The
latter was aggrieved, the former highly indignant.

"It's absurd," groused Marjorie, "if one