When the final lurch came and Vag stepped down from the train he heard the feminine hum before he saw what it came from. Watching his step as he climbed down, he pictured Smith, lined up, waiting. When he looked up he saw they were WAVES. Blue coats and white hats and all the same. They all pushed and surged past him, getting into the train, and he looked for his date. A healthy-looking blonde pushed through the blue waves and he said hello, tripping over one of the sailorettes on the way. Then they walked uptown, and he learned that those funny blue and white hats are Mainbocher.

When they got to the campus (they did call it a campus), he saw some girls in another uniformplaid shirts, too long, and blue jeans, too short. He said, knowing, "Oh, WAACS, huh?" and she said, "No, Smith girls." She was wearing a skirt, and there was one other couple and the girl was wearing a skirt, but all the other girls wore the uniform.

"Let's go to the Tavern," he said.

"Oh, no, the WAVES have it," she said.

So they went somewhere else to eat and waited while a Navy lietuenant and a WAVE finished at the table. They wanted to go canoeing but all the boats were taken; the Waves had liberty that afternoon. Vag began to think how nice it would be to get back to Harvard, where there were, after all, only about 2000 servicemen, mostly localized.

She took his arm and pulled him to what she called Paradise Pond. Provided by the administration, she said, for the aid and encouragement of the girls. "Hup two three four, hup two three" plopped out from the path, and there was Company J on a hike. "The've taken over a lot of the grounds," he said as she walked him back up the hill.

Too bad they couldn't cut those blue coats better, Vag thought. War was all very well, but a woman's a woman. Ought to be. Hall, they'd better pass the 18 year draft, even, if this was what they were using for sailors. "Well at least you'll be here in college a while, eating and getting letters," he said.

"Yes, till next spring," she said, "I'm going to be an Army nurse after that--you know, those bio courses helped."

Going back on the train Vag remembered that the WAVES were going to be a t Radcliffe, too. Come January, he thought with horror, they'd be all over. He might not be able to crowd through to his usual position at the pinball machine.