"Well, I have heard of people wearing their hearts on their sleeves," said Betty, twinkling. "But I've never tried it myself."
"It's wonderful," said Amy softly, "what a comfortable, warm feeling it gives you to find people—some of them you never knew before—who are really working side by side with you for the same thing, ready to hold out a helping hand when you need it."
"Yes," agreed Betty, her eyes fixed dreamily on the horizon, "it makes you feel as if there weren't any strangers in the world, as if we were all just friends, working for the common good of everybody."
"Betty, how pretty," cried Grace, and there was a thrill in her voice as she repeated softly; "all just friends, working for the common good of everybody."
"I'll never forget one thing that happened to me," said Amy, and they looked at her lovingly. Amy was such a dear—but then everybody was that to-night! "It was only a little thing, and yet it made me think."
"Then it couldn't have been very little," Mollie, the irrepressible, murmured.
"You know," Amy went on, so deep in her own thoughts, she scarcely noticed the interruption, "I never did talk much—I always felt as if people were cold and unfriendly—and so kept to myself, except for my really good friends, of course. Then, one morning, I saw that it was all my own fault.
"I just happened to be walking along the street, not noticing anybody particularly, when an old woman dropped her nickel car fare and it rolled out into the middle of the street. I ran after it and gave it back to her, and she smiled at me. Somehow, that smile changed everything for me."
"How, dear?" asked Betty, putting a sympathetic arm about her.
"Why," said Amy, blushing in her enthusiasm, "it just made me feel as if everybody was ready to smile if you only gave them half a chance. And I've found out it was true," she finished decidedly. "Because I've tried it ever so many times since, and it's never once failed!"