“Aren’t you glad you’re here, Gretel?” exclaimed Geraldine, drawing in a long breath of the delicious salt breeze, as she joined her friend at the window a few minutes later. “It reminds me a little bit of Old Point, doesn’t it you?” “A little, but not very much. Geraldine, do you suppose the men on that ship out there really want to give their lives for their country?” “I don’t know, but I suppose a good many of them do. How plainly we can see them. It’s very interesting, but if we were Germans I don’t suppose we would be allowed to come here. We might find out things, you know. I read in the paper the other day that the Germans are to be debarred from all water-fronts.” Gretel was silent, but stood gazing out over the water to the opposite shore. It was all very lovely and peaceful, but those men on the battle-ship--were they going to kill and be killed? Involuntarily she gave a little shudder. “What’s the matter?” Geraldine inquired in surprise. “Nothing, only--Geraldine, I’m afraid I’m a dreadful coward.” “Nonsense,” laughed Geraldine. “Jerry wouldn’t have any use for a coward, and he thinks you the nicest girl he knows. What ever put such a silly idea into your head?” “I don’t know. I hope I should be brave when the time came, but if I had a father or brother going to the war, I don’t believe I could bear it. Why, even saying good-bye to Peter Grubb made me terribly unhappy. I don’t like even to think of those strange sailors out there going to fight. I’ve been a coward all my life about everything. Why, don’t you remember when I was a little girl, and found out that I had taken Barbara’s opera ticket, I was afraid to confess, but wrote a silly letter, and tried to run away.” “You were only a kid then,” said Geraldine. “A kid might do anything silly. You may think you’re a coward, and perhaps you aren’t very brave in little things, but if anything really big ever happened, and you had to show courage, I am perfectly certain you’d be all right. Here comes the express wagon with our trunks. I’m so glad, for now we shall be able to change our dresses before dinner.” CHAPTER VI AT THE CHESTERS’ The Chester family were all gathered on the broad piazza when Gretel and Geraldine came down-stairs dressed for dinner. Jerry had also reappeared and was deeply absorbed in conversation with Paul and Frank on the subject of various kinds of fish bait. Molly was the eldest of the four children, the boys came next, and the youngest, Daisy, was a pretty golden-haired child of five, who, at the present moment, was comfortably settled on her father’s knee, listening entranced to a story about a princess and a dwarf. “Father always tells her a story before bedtime,” Molly told her friends. “I’m afraid we all spoil her dreadfully, but she is so much younger than the rest of us, and it was such a joy to have a baby in the house again.”