in this crowd, and you may not care for picnics in the snow, and such strenuous tramps."
Oh, yes, I do!" Edna assured her. "I think they're great fun. Of course I'll come along. Naturally!" Now that she was one of the Bartlett party, surely she must fall in with its program; surely she must not so soon prove to be that mean and contemptible creature, a quitter. "Oh, I'll come!" she nodded, and smiled.
"And she will, too!" complained Ollie to her husband that night, after doors were closed. "She just will. You can count on that. But don't ask me to unhook her from the barbed wire fences, and tighten her straps. I've had one day of it. I don't know how Bord Mathewson will stand it."
At the start Edna had eagerly chosen the last place in the line as her position. Several of the men, studiously courteous, were inclined to stay behind with her at first. But with gentle persistence she succeeded, at last, in sending them all forward. She wanted to be free to hold on to her throbbing throat with both hands when she stopped for breath; she wanted to be able to close her eyes tight and lean her head against a tree; she wanted the opportunity to moan out loud a little, just as during some of those long nights
