“New London will be interesting this summer, with the naval station so near,” remarked Margaret May. “You and Ada are lucky to have summer places there.” Margaret spoke a little enviously. Her own home was in a small town in Vermont, and her hopes of an exciting summer were not high.
“I dare say we shall see a good deal of the officers,” Molly said. “My cousin Stephen Cranston is stationed at New London, and I suppose he will bring some of the boys up to our house. I don’t believe we shall be allowed to go near the naval station, though; they are so afraid of spies.”
“Wouldn’t it be exciting to catch a spy?” said Geraldine, to whom war still seemed like an exciting game. “Jerry and I used to play spy games when we were kids. I always loved reading stories about them, didn’t you, Gretel?”
“Yes,” said Gretel, “when they were only stories, but now when it’s real!” She gave a little involuntary shudder.
“I hope every spy will be caught and shot,” remarked Ada, the belligerent.
“German spies, you mean,” corrected Kitty. “Our boys have to be spies sometimes, too, you know. All spies are not wicked. There were André and Nathan Hale, for instance.”
Before Ada could reply, somebody announced that the bus was in sight, and in another moment it had rattled up to the door. Miss Minton and Miss Laura came hurrying out to say good-bye, and there was a great deal of chattering and laughter, as the twelve girls and their belongings were packed into the big stage. They were to be accompanied to New York by Madame and Miss Brown, the physical-culture teacher, there to be met by friends or relatives.
“School isn’t such a bad place, after all,” said Angel, wiping her eyes, as the bus turned out of Miss Minton’s gate into the village street. “I never knew how much I liked Miss Minton until I was saying good-bye to her, and we have had some jolly times, even if the teachers were strict, and the lessons hard.”
“People always talk like that on ‘Breaking-Up’ day,” said Ada, with a superior smile. “You’ll feel differently when September comes. I thought I never could bear to come back the second year, but Mother insisted, and I’m not sorry I came now the term is over.”