ourse. He stood off and surveyed it. Then he ascended the
steps and rang the bell. They must have been waiting for him. The door
was opened by a large amiable-looking, middle-aged man who said, "Well,
well! Come in, come in, my boy!" a great deal as the folks in Chippewa,
Wisconsin, might have said it. The stout old party also said he was glad
to see him and Buzz believed it. They went upstairs, much to Buzz's
surprise. In Buzz's experience upstairs always meant bedrooms. But in
this case it meant a great bright sitting room, with books in it, and a
fireplace, very cheerful. There were not a lot of people in the room.
Just a middle-aged woman in a soft kind of dress, who came to him
without any fuss and the first thing he knew he felt acquainted. Within
the next fifteen minutes or so some other members of the family seemed
to ooze in, unnoticeably. First thing you knew, there they were. They
didn't pay such an awful lot of attention to you. Just took you for
granted. A couple of young kids, a girl of fourteen, and a boy of
sixteen who asked you easy questions about the army till you found
yourself patronising him. And a tall black-haired girl who made you
think of the vamps in the movies, only her eyes were different. And
then, with a little rush, a girl about his own age, or maybe younger--he
couldn't tell--who came right up to him, and put out her hand, and gave
him a grip with her hard little fist, just like a boy, and said, "I'm
Joyce Ladd."

"Pleased to meetcha," mumbled Buzz. And then he found himself talking to
her quite easily. She knew a surprising lot about the army.

"I've two brothers over there," she said. "And all my friends, of
course." He found out later, quite by accident, that this boyish, but
strangely appealing person belonged to some sort of Motor Service
League, and drove an automobile, every day, from eight to six, up and
down and round and about New York, working like a man in the service of
the country. He never would have believed that the world held that kind
of girl.

Then four other men in uniform came in, and it turned out that three of
them were privates like himself, and the other a sergeant. Their awkward
entrance made him feel more than ever at ease, and ten minutes later
they were all talking like mad, and laughing and joking as if they had
known these people for years. They all went in to dinner. Buzz got
panicky when he thought of the knives and forks, but that turned out all
righ