MOLLY BROWN'S COLLEGE FRIENDS

Contents


I. NANCE OLDHAM 7

II. BY THE FIRELIGHT 21

III. THE WOULD-BE'S 37

IV. FAIRY GODMOTHERS WANTED 43

V. THE CRITICS 67

VI. "I HAD A LITTLE HUSBAND NO BIGGER THAN MY THUMB" 75

VII. NANCE PACKS HER TRUNK 93

VIII. A DAMP COAT 102

IX. PLANS 115

X. ALL THE OLD GIRLS 122

XI. AN INTERESTING COUPLE 139

XII. AN OLD-TIME PARTY 150

XIII. ADVENTURE 162

XIV. AS SEEN FROM THE SUMMER-HOUSE 172

XV. THE PROFESSOR AT A KIMONO PARTY 177

XVI. WAR RELIEF 187

XVII. TILL DEATH DOTH US PART 201

XVIII. THE PUNISHMENT OF MILDRED 216

XIX. A DEATH 222

XX. GERMS 234

XXI. HER FATHER'S OWN DAUGHTER 244

XXII. THE ARREST 260

XXIII. THEY ALSO SERVE 272

XXIV. THE TRENCHES 284




Molly Brown's College Friends




CHAPTER I

NANCE OLDHAM


"I am so afraid Nance will be changed," sighed Molly as she put the
finishing touches to the room her old friend was to occupy.

"I'll wager anything she is the same old Nance Oldham," insisted
Professor Green, obediently mounting the ladder to hang the last snowy
curtain at the broad, deep window in the guest chamber overlooking the
campus. "I think she is the kind of girl who will always be the same.
Is that straight?"

"A little bit lower at this end--there! What a comfort you are, Edwin!"
and Molly viewed the effect approvingly.

"Pretty good general houseworker, eh?" and the dignified professor of
English at Wellington College ran nimbly down the ladder and hugged his
wife. She submitted with very good grace to his embraces in spite of the
fact that the fresh bureau scarves and table covers with which she was
preparing to decorate her old friend's room were included in the
demonstration of affection.

Professor Edwin Green always declared that he never expected to catch
up on all the years he had loved Molly Brown and had been forced to let
"concealment like a worm in the bud feed on his damask cheek." He and
Molly had been married almost four years on that day in March when he
was assisting in the imposing rite of hanging curtains in the guest
chamber, and she was still as wonderful to him as she had been on that
day they had walked through the Forest of Fontainebleau and he had
confessed his love. She was the same charming girl who had lingered too
long in the cloisters and been locked in to be rescued by him on her
first day at college, now so many years ago.

Indeed, Molly Brown has changed very little since last we saw her.
Little Mildred is walking and talking and singing little tunes and
saying Mother Goose rhymes. She even knows her letters upside down and
no other way, having learned them from blocks, presumably standing on
her curly head as she acquired the knowledge.

There is another baby in the nursery now: little Dodo, whose real name
is George, a remarkably satisfactory infant who sleeps when he should
and wakes in a good humor, taking the proper nourishment at the proper
hours and going back to sleep. Molly had learned the great secret of
young motherhood from her first born: not to take parenthood too
solemnly and seriously, and to realize that Mother Nature is the very
best mother of all and babies thrive most when left as much as possible
to her all-wise and tender care.

Nance Oldham, Molly's old friend and roommate at college, was coming at
last to make her long promised visit to the Greens. Little wonder that
Molly feared she would be changed! Nance's path in life had not been
strewn with roses. No doubt my readers will remember that Mrs. Oldham,
her mother, was a clever woman, lecturer, suffrage agitator, anything
but a homemaker.