"Please listen a minute, girls," she begged. "You know we've got a
reputation, deserved or not, of being respectable--"
"Oh, what a mistake," interpolated Mollie.
"I said it might be a mistake," Betty continued patiently, although her
eyes twinkled. "Anyway, we've got to live up to it--Goodness! just look
at the boys. I guess the whole camp must be in the drill."
"Yes, I guess Sergeant Mullins was right when he said it was to be an
exhibition drill," agreed Mollie, all fun temporarily swallowed up in a
very real admiration of the spectacle before them.
"It's no wonder that Sergeant Mullins is considered a very important
personage around here," added Amy.
"Oh, look!" cried Grace, as they sat down upon a convenient bench.
"They've started. Oh, girls, I'm glad I came!"
Mutely the girls echoed the sentiment, and for the next hour they sat
motionless, eyes and attention glued upon the magnificent spectacle of a
thousand men, running, advancing, retreating, attacking, all in obedience
to one great plan.
They forgot it was only a sham attack, an imitation battle, an exhibition
drill. For the moment a curtain had been lifted and they were permitted to
see something of the glory, the passion, the horror of democracy's
struggle against the armed autocracy of the world.
When it was over they sighed and came back to the present almost with a
shock; so greatly had they been engrossed in the scene.
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