"And it isn't that they don't think of it, either," she went on, her face
flushing with enthusiasm, "or realize what it means. Just the other night
Will was talking to me, Gracie--you know he's always been almost as much
my brother as yours--and he said, 'I tell you what, Betty, it isn't often
I let the grim side of this war business get to me, and it's the same with
the other fellows. Of course we know it's there, but we're willing to take
the bad with the good for the sake of doing what we're pretty darn sure is
the only thing to do. Only,' he added, slowly, 'we're none of us
pretending to say that we enjoy the idea of being maimed or perhaps
crippled for life. There's not one of us but who's praying that if we have
to go, it will be a good swift bullet that will do the business.
"'But,' he added, with a smile--and I could have hugged him for that
smile, girls. 'But, of course, as I said before, we're not thinking of
that side of it. It's enough to know that if it comes, we'll know how to
meet it.'"
"And th-that's my brother," cried Grace, half tearful, yet radiant with
pride in him. "Those horrible old Huns won't have even half a chance when
he gets at them."
"And Frank and Allen and Roy," added Mollie loyally. "You can't leave any
one of our boys out, Gracie. They're all built on the same plan--as far as
bravery is concerned."
"Of course, I know that," said Grace, her eyes softening with the picture
of Roy as he had said good-bye--so youthfully gay, yet so strangely
self-reliant.
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