"Oh, behave, Happy!" cried Lucy, making an ineffectual grab in his direction. "You certainly picked out the bad one to give us, Julia, or else William brings him up badly. Two mittens and a glove of Father's have gone this week."
"I'll take him, Lucy," said William, rushing to the rescue, in terror as usual when the puppies were together, of getting them mixed up beyond recognition, since they grew too fast to make the wearing of collars possible. "This one's mine," he declared, seizing his puppy and carrying him off, a squirming, indignant armful.
"Poor little Mac always gets the worst of it," said Julia laughing. "He isn't the fighting kind. Let's let William get ahead a little before we go, so as to keep the peace."
"You and Anne come to our house and we'll go over the first-aid lesson for to-morrow now. It's much easier when we do it together," suggested Lucy, as they walked back across the parade.
"All right, we will," said Julia. "Stop with me, Anne, while I get my book, and then we'll come right over. I bet Marian is in a hurry to get home out of the cold."
Marian laughed, but she willingly joined Lucy in running over to General's Row, when they came within sight of the Gordons' house.
"Cousin James came home early to-day," she said, as they went up the steps, for she had spied Major Gordon's tall figure walking quickly from Headquarters as they crossed the parade.
"Did he?" asked Lucy, opening the door. "I hope he doesn't have to go off somewhere to-night."
Then, as she entered the sitting-room, her heart gave a dreadful throb, and she stood speechless on the threshold. Her mother was standing by the window. Her face was ashy pale, and tears were running down her cheeks, while she listened with motionless intensity to her husband's words. Major Gordon, still wearing his overcoat, was speaking low and earnestly. His face was turned from the door, but his head was bent and one of his hands gripped hard on the chair behind him.
"Mother! Father! What is it? Is it Bob?" cried Lucy, all her courage forgotten and a dreadful fear clutching at her heart that made her voice break and her strength almost fail her. She seized her father's arm and looked with terrified questioning into his face.