"I—I was ju-just thinking of how fun-funny I must ha-have looked in a hat I had on since I saw you girls!" Ruth was hysterical.
"Well! I never!" gasped Jennie.
"Dear me, Ruth," Helen said, admonishingly. "I wonder you are so light-minded at such a time as this. You are laughing when those horrid guns may be throwing shells right among our poor boys. Dear, dear! I wish they would stop."
Ruth gazed at Helen with a far-away look in her eyes.
"I'm not laughing," she said slowly. "Far from it!"
"Yes, but you did laugh!" burst out Jennie.
"If I did, I didn't know it," answered Ruth. "I was thinking of something else. Oh, girls, not now—to-morrow, perhaps—you may know about it. Now I'm tired, so tired!"
The two girls, at last realizing that something out of the ordinary had occurred and seeing how near the end of her strength Ruth really was, petted her, made her as comfortable as possible, and finally left her to rest, telling her they would still take charge of the supply room, so that the girl of the Red Mill need not take up at once her duties in the hospital.
THE END