“Rosa,”—Norma put an arm about her—“I think that’s wonderful! But Rosa, your mother did not say ‘Read a prayer in bed.’”
“No, she did not say that.”
“Rosa, we are forbidden a light in the barracks after nine-thirty, so why don’t you come down here to read your prayer?”
“Thank you! Thank you so very much. I shall do that.” Instantly Rosa was away after her book.
Long after Rosa had read her prayer and left the room, Norma sat staring at the fire. In that fire she read many questions. Would she be asked to drill a company? Should she ask for the privilege of entering officers’ training? Had Rosa told the truth? And Lena? What of Lena and the strange girl in the beauty parlor?
CHAPTER VI
A STARTLING ADVENTURE
At Fort Des Moines the WACs are on their own from Saturday noon until Sunday night. Needless to say, over at the mess hall, in the barracks, and on the field there was much talk among the new recruits about how these hours were to be spent.
“What do you do?” Norma asked a tall, slender girl from Massachusetts who had been in training for three weeks.
“Well,” the girl drawled, “the first week I went dashing off to Des Moines, rented a room at a nice hotel, ate oysters on the half-shell, Boston baked beans, brown bread and all the things I wanted, and had a grand time all by myself. But now,” she added, “I just get some books from the library, settle down in a big chair at the Service Club and loaf.”