"We've just got to work so hard we can't think," said Mollie with decision, adding, a little hysterically: "It never used to be hard before." "What, to keep from thinking?" asked Amy, while the other girls smiled a little and felt better. "Who's that coming up the walk, Betty?" Grace asked, a moment later. "The glimpse I got looked like a uniform." "It's Allen," Betty answered, waving to the splendid specimen of manhood who was coming up the porch two steps at a time. "He looks as if he had some good news for us. You let him in, will you, Amy? You're nearest the door." So Amy, opening the door, admitted a six-foot cyclone, who swept her before him into the parlor, where she sank into a chair to get her breath. "Well, what in the world?" asked Mollie, round eyes on his face, as he mopped his face and lowered himself into a seat. "Talk about good luck," he began, beaming round upon them. "I guess the fellows were right when they said I was falling into it lately." "Good news, Allen?" asked Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "I knew you had something wonderful to tell us the moment I saw you." "Well, in the first place," said Allen, modestly putting himself last, "Frank has been promoted to the rank of corporal." "Oh, isn't that wonderful!" they cried together, and thereafter arose a very babel of questions as to where, when and how the promotion had occurred, which Allen answered one after another with equal enthusiasm. "Frank's taken hold and worked with all his heart," he finished, "and he simply got what's coming to him, that's all." "But, Allen," Betty broke in, struck by a sudden thought, "you said something about _your_ having run into good luck. Was it something that happened to you personally, or was it just the good luck of being the friend of a corporal?" "Since I've been a corporal myself from the start," said Allen with dignity, "I don't see why----" "Yes, yes, go on," said Mollie impatiently. "Well," said Allen, throwing the news like a bomb into their midst, "I've been promoted to a sergeant." "What?" the girls cried, hardly knowing whether to believe him or not. "Are you really in earnest?" "You're not very complimentary," he grumbled, though his eyes twinkled. "You don't suppose I'd come here and tell you a thing like that if it weren't so, do you?" Then arose a second babel, louder and more prolonged than the first, and it was a long time before they quieted down enough to talk coherently. "You see," Allen explained, "there's a chance for promotion now that there never was before. New men are coming in by the hundreds, and those men have to have officers. There's really no end to the chances if you just stick to the big game and do your level best. You're sure to win something good in the end." "And hasn't Roy been promoted?" asked Grace. "Hasn't he been 'on the job,' as you say?"