"Now what are you talking about?" asked Grace, without looking up from her knitting. "I know you want somebody to ask it, so I'll be--as you would say in vulgar slang--the goat." "That's right! Blame it all, even the slang, on us," said Allen plaintively. "That's the way the girls----" "Goodness, you can't tell us anything about ourselves we don't know," said Mollie impatiently. "We want to know what you told the boys." "Oh, about the needles," said Allen, stretching out his long legs, and locking his fingers behind his head. "I just happened to remark that while we were killing each other off with bayonets in the trenches, the women and girls would be knitting themselves to death at home, so there would probably be an equal number of both sexes when the war was over." "Oh, dear, there you go, joking about it again," sighed Amy. "And you made me lose a stitch too. Oh, dear, that's the first one in the whole sweater." "Hand it over," said Betty patiently. "I may be able to catch it for you, so you won't have to rip out too much. Oh, Allen, what do you suppose we are going to do?" "What?" queried Allen, gazing admiringly from the busy deft fingers to the pretty bent head. "We're going to give a lawn party," she answered. "It's going to be as elaborate an affair as possible, and we're going to charge a dollar admission." "Whew," said Allen, sitting up and regarding each one of the flushed conspirators in turn. "What's this--a get-rich-quick-scheme?" "I should say not!" said Mollie hotly. "Isn't that just exactly like a man? _Everything_ we do isn't selfish." "Well, what _is_ the idea?" asked poor Allen patiently. "If you'd just tell a fellow----" "It's for the Red Cross," Betty explained, "I'm afraid that stitch is too far down to get back, Amy dear. You'll have to rip out a little. You see we want to raise a lot of money," she went on, raising her pretty head and speaking quickly. "When we decided to join the Red Cross, as you know we have, we didn't mean to go into it half way. It didn't seem to us enough, just to give our time and labor--we wanted to raise actual cash. And this seemed the best way to do it." "I think it's a mighty fine idea," said Allen heartily. "And as I don't think there's a more patriotic town on the map than little old Deepdale, I should think you ought to be able to raise quite a considerable pile. I'll help all I can." "Oh, Allen, will you?" cried Betty excitedly. "Oh, if you boys will only help, we'll be _sure_ to make it a success. I can't wait to begin." "Well, why do we have to wait?" asked Mollie practically. "Why can't we start in planning and rehearsing to-night?" "There's no reason in the world why we can't," cried Betty, putting away her knitting definitely, and beginning to pace up and down the porch as she always did when thinking things out. "Allen, do you think you can round up the boys, and do you think they'll all be willing to help us?"