“Oh, it’s lovely!” exclaimed Winona next morning when she ran downstairs. She flung herself on Tom bodily and hugged him hard as she spoke.
“What’s lovely?” asked Tom, detaching himself, or trying to. “Go easy, Winnie; it was just sheer luck that you didn’t break any ribs or my collar-bone or something. Affection’s all right in its place, but——”
“But its place isn’t on you, you mean?” retorted Winona, unwinding herself cheerfully from her brother. “Why, I mean the dance, of course.”
“Oh, that!” said Tom. “That’s nothing! It ought to be pretty good fun, though, don’t you think so?”
“Oh, I know it will!” cried Winona fervently. “Are the boys going to wear their uniforms?”
“Well,” said Tom doubtfully, “we don’t know. You see, we’ve hiked in ’em, and rolled around on the grass in ’em wrestling, and done about everything to those poor old uniforms that you can do to clothes, and they really aren’t fit for civilized society.”
“Meaning ours?” said Winona. “Thanks for the compliment! Why don’t you have them cleaned? I suppose even khaki cleans!”
“I don’t know,” said her brother, “I’ll ask mother. Maybe we can manage it. But—oh, say, Winnie, there’s something I wanted to speak to you about. You know, there are new people moved in next door. They’re Southerners, here for the mother’s health or something. There’s a boy about my age, and a girl somewhere around yours. I don’t know much about the girl, but Billy Lee’s an awfully decent fellow, and we’ve got him in the Scouts. Now what do you think about taking his sister into your Camp Fire? She’d just about fit in as far as age goes, and it would be nice and neighborly. We’ll have to ask her for the dance anyway, because there aren’t enough of you Camp Firers yet to go around. The girl must need something to do, because Billy seems to worry about her rather. Stands to reason it isn’t natural for a fellow to fret about his sister having a good time unless she needs it pretty badly.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Winona. “When you come to a strange place things are bound to be stupid till you get to know people. We’ve lived here always, you know. But I’ll go over and see her as soon as I’ve done the breakfast dishes.”