Molly Brown's College Friends   By: Nell Speed (1878-1913)

by

NELL SPEED

Author of "The Tucker Twins Series," "The Carter Girls Series," etc.

[Illustration]

A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York Printed in U. S. A.

Copyright, 1921 By Hurst & Company

Printed in the U. S. A.

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.