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diff --git a/37432-8.txt b/37432-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..438eeb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/37432-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6927 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Short Stories of the New America, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Short Stories of the New America + Interpreting the America of this age to high school boys and girls + +Author: Various + +Editor: Mary A. Laselle + +Release Date: September 15, 2011 [EBook #37432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORIES OF THE NEW AMERICA *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from images made available by the HathiTrust +Digital Library.) + + + + + + + SHORT STORIES OF THE + NEW AMERICA + + INTERPRETING THE AMERICA OF THIS AGE TO + HIGH SCHOOL BOYS AND GIRLS + + SELECTED AND EDITED BY + + MARY A. LASELLE + OF THE NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, HIGH SCHOOLS + + NEW YORK + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + 1919 + + + + + Copyright, 1919 + BY + HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY + + + + + PREFACE + +The purpose of this book of short stories of modern American life is +twofold. + +First, these narratives give an interpretation of certain great forces +and movements in the life of this age. All the authors represented are +especially qualified to describe with force and feeling some phase of +contemporary life. + +Thinking people everywhere realize that it is not enough to place before +the pupils in the schools the bare facts in regard to community and +national life. The heart must be warmed, the feelings must be stirred, +before the will can be aroused to noble action in any great movement. + +President Wilson has urged school officers to increase materially the +time and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly upon the +problems of community and national life. This was not a plea for the +temporary enlargement of the school programme, appropriate merely to the +period of the war, but a plea for the realization in public education of +the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy. + +The first aim of this book, then, is to help to place clearly before +young people the ideals of America through the medium of literature that +will grip the attention and quicken the will to action. + +Second, librarians have stated that there are very few compilations of +modern short stories of interest and significance with which to meet the +needs of young people who turn to the libraries for help in reading. + +It is hoped that this book may be of real value in the schools, by +clothing the dry bones of civics with significant and interesting +material, and that it may also supply a need of the libraries and the +homes for a book of live and valuable short stories. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. A Little Kansas Leaven.--_Canfield_ 1 + II. The Survivors.--_Singmaster_ 43 + III. The Wildcat.--_Terhune_ 55 + IV. The Citizen.--_Dwyer_ 85 + V. The Indian of the Reservation.--_Coolidge_ 109 + VI. The Night Attack.--_Pier_ 119 + VII. The Path of Glory.--_Pulver_ 133 + VIII. Sergt. Warren Comes Back from France.--_Ames_ 171 + IX. The Coward.--_Empey_ 181 + X. Château-Thierry.--_Bartlett_ 199 + + + + + SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND THE STORIES + +Dorothy Canfield (Dorothea Frances Canfield Fisher), the author of _Home +Fires in France_ from which "A Little Kansas Leaven" was taken, is one +of the most convincing and brilliant writers of the times. She always +writes with a purpose, but as all of her work is characterized by +originality, clearness, and the vital quality of human sympathy, there +is not a dull line in any of her fiction or her educational writings. + +_Home Fires in France_ is a truthful record of Mrs. Fisher's impressions +of life in tragic, devastated France during the Great War. During much +of this period the author was working for the relief of those made blind +by war. The tremendous appeal to America made by this book testifies to +the sincerity and the genius of the author. + +Dorothy Canfield was born in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1879. She obtained +degrees from Ohio State University and from Columbia and studied and +traveled abroad extensively, becoming an accomplished linguist. She is +the author, under the name of Dorothy Canfield, of some of the most +brilliant fiction of the day, _The Squirrel-Cage_, _The Bent Twig_, and +other novels, and under her married name, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, of +some valuable educational works, _The Montessori Mother_, _Mothers and +Children_, and other books of progressive ideas in education. Mrs. +Fisher is now in France (1918) carrying on her work of mercy for the +French soldiers and their families. + + * * * * * + +Elsie Singmaster (Mrs. Harold Lewars) lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, +and has written most entertaining stories of that historic region and +also of the life of the descendants of the Dutch settlers of +Pennsylvania. Among her many stories are _When Sarah Saved the Day_, +_The Christmas Angel_, _The Flag of Eliphalet_, and _Stories of the Red +Harvest and the Aftermath_. This author is a frequent contributor to +magazines. In _The Survivors_ we watch the conflict in the breast of +stubborn old Adam Foust and rejoice with tears in our eyes when in the +time of his friend's need, love conquers, and Adam and Henry march +arm-in-arm down the village street. The story is told with the realism +and beauty that characterize all of this author's work, much of which +describes the everyday happenings of commonplace people with absolute +fidelity. + + * * * * * + +Albert Payson Terhune (1872- ) wrote his first book in collaboration +with his distinguished mother, "Marion Harland," a well-known name in +American homes. Mr. Terhune has written both novels and short stories +and is especially successful in the latter form. Among his best stories +are _Caritas_, _Night of_ _the Dub_, _Quiet_, and _The Wildcat_. In _The +Wildcat_ we watch with deepest interest the actions of a Southern +mountaineer, who, torn from his backwoods home by the draft, was forced +to adopt habits and manners and to submit to a discipline to which he +was utterly foreign. The mental gropings of this young American and the +manner in which he found his soul and his country make a fascinating +story. + + * * * * * + +James Francis Dwyer is an Australian by birth. Mr. Dwyer has traveled +extensively as a newspaper correspondent in Australia, the South Seas, +and South Africa. He came to America in 1907. He is the author of _The +White Waterfall_, _The Bust of Lincoln_, _The Spotted Panther_, _Breath +of the Jungle_, and _Land of the Pilgrim's Pride_. + +In _The Citizen_ we have a beautiful picture of the vision of freedom +that came to Big Ivan in downtrodden Russia, and we see him and the +gentle Anna as they follow the beckoning finger of hope across Europe +and the broad ocean until, in the words of Ivan, they found a home in a +land "where a muzhik is as good as a prince of the blood." + + * * * * * + +Grace Coolidge is the wife of an Arapahoe Indian and has spent many +years upon the Indian Reservations. She has told of her observations +during these years in a charming little volume called _Teepee +Neighbors_. We feel that the stories are true and they are filled with +the pathos of life in the Reservations. + + * * * * * + +Arthur Stanwood Pier is a distinguished writer of stories for young +people and since 1896 one of the editors of _The Youth's Companion_. +Among Mr. Pier's books are _The Boys of St. Timothy_, _The Jester of St. +Timothy_, _Grannis of the Fifth_, _Jerry_, _The Plattsburgers_, _The +Pedagogues_, and _The Women We Marry_. In _A Night Attack_ we are given +a vivid picture of the life of the soldier in training and of the +sympathetic relations of officers and men. + + * * * * * + +Mary Brecht Pulver has in _The Path of Glory_ written one of the finest +stories of the war. The manner in which a poor and humble family of +mountaineers secured distinction and very real happiness, though it was +tinged with sadness, makes a story of gripping interest and one that +cannot fail to make every reader kinder and more humane in his +intercourse with those less favored than himself. + + * * * * * + +Fisher Ames, Jr., is a well-known author of stories for boys. Mr. Ames +has been appointed the official historian of the Red Cross Society and +has gone to Europe (1918) as a commissioned officer in the United States +Army. + +In _Sergt. Warren Comes Back from France_ the author makes us see very +clearly the heroic figure of the blind soldier, and we realize that +under the spell of such a personality the voters would unanimously +decide to spend their money in France and relinquish the idea of making +their town more beautiful. In the words of one of the villagers, "Sergt. +Warren can see straight even if he is blind," and the crowd will always +respond to such leadership. + + * * * * * + +Arthur Guy Empey is an American and a soldier of the Great War, who +after a life at the Front in which he did all that a brave man can do +for the cause of humanity and survive, has written of some of his +adventures in _Over the Top_, one of the best-known books of the war. In +the chapter which we have called "The Coward" he shows the splendid +regeneration of a despicable man. + +The "hero" in this story is an Englishman, as Mr. Empey fought in the +British army before America entered the war, but the phase of human +nature portrayed in "The Coward" must have been observable in all the +belligerent armies. + +The cowardice of the few, however, was entirely concealed and atoned for +by the splendid bravery of the many, and considerable numbers of men, +who, when drafted, might have been designated as cowards, are leaving +the army with a record of brave action in times of great danger. + + * * * * * + +Frederick Orin Bartlett, the author of _Chateau Thierry_, was born in +Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1876 and was educated in the public schools +of that city, in a private school abroad, at Procter Academy, Andover, +New Hampshire, and at Harvard. He has been connected with several Boston +newspapers and is a well-known writer of short stories. + +In _Chateau Thierry_ he has portrayed very clearly a certain type of +easy-going, prosperous American,--the American who was aroused to the +knowledge of higher ideals and to the exigencies of a world at war by +the shock and the thrill that followed upon the active participation of +the American forces in the great conflict. + + + + + ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + +Thanks are due to the following authors and publishers for permission to +use the selections contained in this book: + + Henry Holt and Company and Mrs. Dorothy Canfield (Fisher) for "A + Little Kansas Leaven" from _Home Fires in France_. (Copyright, 1918, + by Henry Holt and Company.) + + The Outlook Company and Elsie Singmaster Lewars for "The Survivors." + (Copyright, 1915, by The Outlook Company; copyright, 1916, by Elsie + Singmaster Lewars.) + + Mr. Albert Payson Terhune for "The Wild Cat." (Copyright, 1918, by + The Curtis Publishing Company.) + + P. F. Collier and Son and James Francis Dwyer for "The Citizen." + (Copyright, 1915, by P. F. Collier and Son; copyright, 1916, by + James Francis Dwyer.) + + The Four Seas Publishing Company and Grace Coolidge for "The Indian + of the Reservation." (Copyright, 1917, by The Four Seas Company.) + + _The Youth's Companion_ and Arthur Stanwood Pier for "A Night + Attack." (Copyright, 1918, by _The Youth's Companion_.) + + The Curtis Publishing Company and Mary Brecht Pulver for "The Path + of Glory." (Copyright, 1917, by The Curtis Publishing Company; + copyright, 1918, by Mary Brecht Pulver.) + + To _The Youth's Companion_ and Fisher Ames, Jr., for "Sergt. Warren + Comes Back from France." (Copyright, 1918, by _The Youth's + Companion_. + + G. P. Putnam's Sons and Arthur Guy Empey for "The Coward" from _Over + the Top_. (Copyright, 1917, by G. P. Putnam's Sons.) + + Mr. Frederick Orin Bartlett for "Chateau Thierry." (Copyright, 1918, + by The Curtis Publishing Company.) + +Grateful acknowledgment is made also to Miss Alice M. Jordan of the +Boston Public Library, and Miss Gladys M. Bigelow of the Newton +Technical High School Library for suggestions and help. + + + + +SHORT STORIES OF THE NEW AMERICA + + + + +I--A LITTLE KANSAS LEAVEN + + +Between 1620 and 1630 Giles Boardman, an honest, sober, well-to-do +English master-builder found himself hindered in the exercise of his +religion. He prayed a great deal and groaned a great deal more (which +was perhaps the Puritan equivalent of swearing), but in the end he left +his old home and his prosperous business and took his wife and young +children the long, difficult, dangerous ocean voyage to the New World. +There, to the end of his homesick days, he fought a hand-to-hand battle +with wild nature to wring a living from the soil. He died at fifty-four, +an exhausted old man, but his last words were, "Praise God that I was +allowed to escape out of the pit digged for me." + +His family and descendants, condemned irrevocably to an obscure struggle +for existence, did little more than keep themselves alive for about a +hundred and thirty years, during which time Giles' spirit slept. + +In 1775 one of his great-great-grandsons, Elmer Boardman by name, +learned that the British soldiers were coming to take by force a stock +of gunpowder concealed in a barn for the use of the barely beginning +American army. He went very white, but he kissed his wife and little boy +good-bye, took down from its pegs his musket, and went out to join his +neighbors in repelling the well-disciplined English forces. He lost a +leg that day and clumped about on a wooden substitute all his +hard-working life; but, although he was never anything more than a poor +farmer, he always stood very straight with a smile on his plain face +whenever the new flag of the new country was carried past him on the +Fourth of July. He died, and his spirit slept. + +In 1854 one of his grandsons, Peter Boardman, had managed to pull +himself up from the family tradition of hard-working poverty, and was a +prosperous grocer in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The struggle for the +possession of Kansas between the Slave States and the North announced +itself. It became known in Massachusetts that sufficiently numerous +settlements of Northerners voting for a Free State would carry the day +against slavery in the new Territory. For about a month Peter Boardman +looked very sick and yellow, had repeated violent attacks of +indigestion, and lost more than fifteen pounds. At the end of that time +he sold out his grocery (at the usual loss when a business is sold out) +and took his family by the slow, laborious caravan route out to the +little new, raw settlement on the banks of the Kaw, which was called +Lawrence for the city in the East which so many of its inhabitants had +left. Here he recovered his health rapidly, and the look of distress +left his face; indeed, he had a singular expression of secret happiness. +He was caught by the Quantrell raid and was one of those hiding in the +cornfield when Quantrell's men rode in and cut them down like rabbits. +He died there of his wounds. And his spirit slept. + +His granddaughter, Ellen, plain, rather sallow, very serious, was a sort +of office manager in the firm of Walker and Pennypacker, the big +wholesale hardware merchants of Marshallton, Kansas. She had passed +through the public schools, had graduated from the High School, and had +planned to go to the State University; but the death of the uncle who +had brought her up after the death of her parents made that plan +impossible. She learned as quickly as possible the trade which would +bring in the most money immediately, became a good stenographer, though +never a rapid one, and at eighteen entered the employ of the hardware +firm. + +She was still there at twenty-seven, on the day in August, 1914, when +she opened the paper and saw that Belgium had been invaded by the +Germans. She read with attention what was printed about the treaty +obligation involved, although she found it hard to understand. At noon +she stopped before the desk of Mr. Pennypacker, the senior member of the +firm, for whom she had a great respect, and asked him if she had made +out correctly the import of the editorial. "_Had_ the Germans promised +they wouldn't ever go into Belgium in war?" + +"Looks that way," said Mr. Pennypacker, nodding, and searching for a +lost paper. The moment after, he had forgotten the question and the +questioner. + +Ellen had always rather regretted not having been able to "go on with +her education," and this gave her certain little habits of mind which +differentiated her somewhat from the other stenographers and typewriters +in the office with her, and from her cousin, with whom she shared the +small bedroom in Mrs. Wilson's boarding-house. For instance, she looked +up words in the dictionary when she did not understand them, and she had +kept all her old schoolbooks on the shelf of the boarding-house bedroom. +Finding that she had only a dim recollection of where Belgium was, she +took down her old geography and located it. This was in the wait for +lunch, which meal was always late at Mrs. Wilson's. The relation between +the size of the little country and the bulk of Germany made an +impression on her. "My! it looks as though they could just make one +mouthful of it," she remarked. "It's _awfully_ little." + +"Who?" asked Maggie. "What?" + +"Belgium and Germany." + +Maggie was blank for a moment. Then she remembered. "Oh, the war. Yes, I +know. Mr. Wentworth's fine sermon was about it yesterday. War is the +wickedest thing in the world. Anything is better than to go killing each +other. They ought to settle it by arbitration. Mr. Wentworth said so." + +"They oughtn't to have done it if they'd promised not to," said Ellen. +The bell rang for the belated lunch and she went down to the dining-room +even more serious than was her habit. + +She read the paper very closely for the next few days, and one morning +surprised Maggie by the loudness of her exclamation as she glanced at +the headlines. + +"What's the matter?" asked her cousin. "Have they found the man who +killed that old woman?" She herself was deeply interested in a murder +case in Chicago. + +Ellen did not hear her. "Well, thank _goodness!_" she exclaimed. +"England is going to help France and Belgium!" + +Maggie looked over her shoulder disapprovingly. "Oh, I think it's awful! +Another country going to war! England a Christian nation, too! I don't +see how Christians _can_ go to war. And I don't see what call the +Belgians had, anyhow, to fight Germany. They might have known they +couldn't stand up against such a big country. All the Germans wanted to +do was just to walk along the roads. They wouldn't have done any harm. +Mr. Schnitzler was explaining it to me down at the office. + +"They'd promised they wouldn't," repeated Ellen. "And the Belgians had +promised everybody that they wouldn't let anybody go across their land +to pick on France that way. They kept their promise and the Germans +didn't. It makes me _mad!_ I wish to goodness our country would help +them!" + +Maggie was horrified. "_Ellen Boardman_, would you want _Americans_ to +commit murder? You'd better go to church with me next Sunday and hear +Mr. Wentworth preach one of his fine sermons." + +Ellen did this, and heard a sermon on passive resistance as the best +answer to violence. She was accustomed to accepting without question any +statement she found in a printed book, or what any speaker said in any +lecture. Also her mind, having been uniquely devoted for many years to +the problems of office administration, moved with more readiness among +letter-files and card-catalogues of customers than among the abstract +ideas where now, rather to her dismay, she began to find her thoughts +centering. More than a week passed after hearing that sermon before she +said, one night as she was brushing her hair: "About the Belgians--if a +robber wanted us to let him go through this room so he could get into +Mrs. Wilson's room and take all her money and maybe kill her, would you +feel all right just to snuggle down in bed and let him? Especially if +you had told Mrs. Wilson that she needn't ever lock the door that leads +into our room, because you'd see to it that nobody came through?" + +"Oh, but," said Maggie, "Mr. Wentworth says it is only the German +_Government_ that wanted to invade Belgium, that the German soldiers +just hated to do it. If you could fight the German Kaiser, it'd be all +right." + +Ellen jumped at this admission. "Oh, Mr. Wentworth does think there are +_some_ cases where it isn't enough just to stand by, and say you don't +like it?" + +Maggie ignored this. "He says the people who really get killed are only +the poor soldiers that aren't to blame." + +Ellen stood for a moment by the gas, her hair up in curl-papers, the +light full on her plain, serious face, sallow above the crude white of +her straight, unornamented nightgown. She said, and to her own surprise +her voice shook as she spoke: "Well, suppose the real robber stayed down +in the street and only sent up here to rob and kill Mrs. Wilson some men +who just hated to do it, but were too afraid of him not to. Would you +think it was all right for us to open our door and let them go through +without trying to stop them?" + +Maggie did not follow this reasoning, but she received a disagreeable, +rather daunting impression from the eyes which looked at her so hard, +from the stern, quivering voice. She flounced back on her pillow, saying +impatiently: "I don't know what's got into you, Ellen Boardman. You look +actually _queer_, these days! What do _you_ care so much about the +Belgians for? You never heard of them before all this began! And +everybody knows how immoral French people are." + +Ellen turned out the gas and got into bed silently. + +Maggie felt uncomfortable and aggrieved. The next time she saw Mr. +Wentworth she repeated the conversation to him. She hoped and expected +that the young minister would immediately furnish her with a crushing +argument to lay Ellen low, but instead he was silent for a moment, and +then said: "That's rather an interesting illustration, about the +burglars going through your room. Where does she get such ideas?" + +Maggie disavowed with some heat any knowledge of the source of her +cousin's eccentricities. "I don't _know_ where! She's a stenographer +downtown." + +Mr. Wentworth looked thoughtful and walked away, evidently having +forgotten Maggie. + +In the days which followed, the office-manager of the wholesale hardware +house more and more justified the accusation of looking "queer." It came +to be so noticeable that one day her employer, Mr. Pennypacker, asked +her if she didn't feel well. "You've been looking sort of under the +weather," he said. + +She answered, "I'm just sick because the United States won't do anything +to help Belgium and France." + +Mr. Pennypacker had never received a more violent shock of pure +astonishment. "Great Scotland!" he ejaculated, "what's that to you?" + +"Well, I live in the United States," she advanced, as though it were an +argument. + +Mr. Pennypacker looked at her hard. It was the same plain, serious, +rather sallow face he had seen for years bent over his typewriter and +his letter-files. But the eyes were different--anxious, troubled. + +"It makes me sick," she repeated, "to see a great big nation picking on +a little one that was only keeping its promise." + +Her employer cast about for a conceivable reason for the aberration. +"Any of your folks come here from there?" he ventured. + +"Gracious, _no!_" cried Ellen, almost as much shocked as Maggie would +have been at the idea that there might be "foreigners" in her family. +She added: "But you don't have to be related to a little boy, do you, to +get mad at a man that's beating him up, especially if the boy hasn't +done anything he oughtn't to?" + +Mr. Pennypacker stared. "I don't know that I ever looked at it that +way." He added: "I've been so taken up with that lost shipment of nails, +to tell the truth, that I haven't read much about the war. There's +always _some_ sort of a war going on over there in Europe, seems to me." +He stared for a moment into space, and came back with a jerk to the +letter he was dictating. + +That evening, over the supper-table, he repeated to his wife what his +stenographer had said. His wife asked, "That little sallow Miss Boardman +that never has a word to say for herself?" and upon being told that it +was the same, said wonderingly, "Well, what ever started _her_ up, I +wonder?" After a time she said: "_Is_ Germany so much bigger than +Belgium as all that? Pete, go get your geography." She and her husband +and their High School son gazed at the map. "It looks that way," said +the father. "Gee! They must have had their nerve with them! Gimme the +paper." He read with care the war-news and the editorial which he had +skipped in the morning, and as he read he looked very grave, and rather +cross. When he laid the paper down he said, impatiently: "Oh, damn the +war! Damn Europe, anyhow!" His wife took the paper out of his hand and +read in her turn the news of the advance into Northern France. + +Just before they fell asleep his wife remarked out of the darkness, "Mr. +Scheidemann, down at the grocery, said to-day the war was because the +other nations were jealous of Germany." + +"Well, I don't know," said Mr. Pennypacker heavily, "that I'd have any +call to take an ax to a man because I thought he was jealous of me." + +"That's so," admitted his wife. + +During that autumn Ellen read the papers, and from time to time broke +her silence and unburdened her mind to the people in the boarding-house. +They considered her unbalanced on the subject. The young reporter on the +Marshallton _Herald_ liked to lead her on to "get her going," as he +said--but the others dodged whenever the war was mentioned and looked +apprehensively in her direction. + +The law of association of ideas works, naturally enough, in Marshallton, +Kansas, quite as much at its ease as in any psychological laboratory. In +fact Marshallton was a psychological laboratory with Ellen Boardman, an +undefined element of transmutation. Without knowing why, scarcely +realizing that the little drab figure had crossed his field of vision, +Mr. Pennypacker found the war recurring to his thoughts every time he +saw her. He did not at all enjoy this, and each time that it happened he +thrust the disagreeable subject out of his mind with impatience. The +constant recurrence of the necessity for this effort brought upon his +usually alert, good-humored face an occasional clouded expression like +that which darkened his stenographer's eyes. When Ellen came into the +dining-room of the boarding-house, even though she did not say a word, +every one there was aware of an unpleasant interruption to the habitual, +pleasant current of their thoughts directed upon their own affairs. In +self-defense some of the women took to knitting polo-caps for Belgian +children. With those in their hands they could listen, with more +reassuring certainty that she was "queer," to Miss Boardman's comments +on what she read in the newspaper. Every time Mr. Wentworth, preaching +one of his excellent, civic-minded sermons on caring for the babies of +the poor, or organizing a playground for the children of the factory +workers, or extending the work of the Ladies' Guild to neighborhood +visits, caught sight of that plain, very serious face looking up at him +searchingly, expectantly, he wondered if he had been right in announcing +that he would not speak on the war because it would certainly cause +dissension among his congregation. + +One day, in the middle of winter, he found Miss Boardman waiting for him +in the church vestibule after every one else had gone. She said, with +her usual directness: "Mr. Wentworth, do you think the French ought to +have just let the Germans walk right in and take Paris? Would you let +them walk right in and take Washington?" + +The minister was a young man, with a good deal of natural heat in his +composition, and he found himself answering this bald question with a +simplicity as bald: "No, I wouldn't." + +"Well, if they did right, why don't we help them?" Ellen's homely, +monosyllabic words had a ring of despairing sincerity. + +Mr. Wentworth dodged them hastily. "We _are_ helping them. The +charitable effort of the United States in the war is something +astounding. The statistics show that we have helped...." He was going on +to repeat some statistics of American war-relief just then current, when +Mr. Scheidemann, the prosperous German grocer, a most influential member +of the First Congregational Church, came back into the vestibule to look +for his umbrella, which he had forgotten after the service. By a reflex +action beyond his control, the minister stopped talking about the war. +He and Miss Boardman had, for just long enough so that he realized it, +the appearance of people "caught" discussing something they ought not to +mention. The instant after, when Ellen had turned away, he felt the +liveliest astonishment and annoyance at having done this. He feared that +Miss Boardman might have the preposterous notion that he was _afraid_ to +talk about the war before a German. This idea nettled him intolerably. +Just before he fell asleep that night he had a most disagreeable moment, +half awake, half asleep, when he himself entertained the preposterous +idea which he had attributed to Miss Boardman. It woke him up, broad +awake, and very much vexed. The little wound he had inflicted on his own +vanity smarted. Thereafter at any mention of the war he straightened his +back to a conscious stiffness, and raised his voice if a German were +within hearing. And every time he saw that plain, dull face of the +stenographer, he winced. + +On the 8th of May, 1915, when Ellen went down to breakfast, the +boarding-house dining-room was excited. Ellen heard the sinking of the +_Lusitania_ read out aloud by the young reporter. To every one's +surprise, she added nothing to the exclamations of horror with which the +others greeted the news. She looked very white and left the room without +touching her breakfast. She went directly down to the office and when +Mr. Pennypacker came in at nine o'clock she asked him for a leave of +absence, "maybe three months, maybe more," depending on how long her +money held out. She explained that she had in the savings-bank five +hundred dollars, the entire savings of a lifetime, which she intended to +use now. + +It was the first time in eleven years that she had ever asked for more +than her regular yearly fortnight, but Mr. Pennypacker was not +surprised. "You've been looking awfully run-down lately. It'll do you +good to get a real rest. But it won't cost you all _that!_ Where are you +going? To Battle Creek?" + +"I'm not going to rest," said Miss Boardman, in a queer voice. "I'm +going to work, in France." + +The first among the clashing and violent ideas which this announcement +aroused in Mr. Pennypacker's mind was the instant certainty that she +could not have seen the morning paper. "Great Scotland--not much you're +not! This is no time to be taking ocean trips. The submarines have just +got one of the big ocean ships, hundreds of women and children drowned." + +"I heard about that," she said, looking at him very earnestly, with a +dumb emotion struggling in her eyes. "That's why I'm going." + +Something about the look in her eyes silenced the business man for a +moment. He thought uneasily that she had certainly gone a little dippy +over the war. Then he drew a long breath and started in confidently to +dissuade her. + +At ten o'clock, informed that if she went she need not expect to come +back, she went out to the savings-bank, drew out her five hundred +dollars, went down to the station and bought a ticket to Washington, one +of Mr. Pennypacker's arguments having been the great difficulty of +getting a passport. + +Then she went back to the boarding-house and began to pack two-thirds of +her things into her trunk, and put the other third into her satchel, all +she intended to take with her. + +At noon Maggie came back from her work, found her thus, and burst into +shocked and horrified tears. At two o'clock Maggie went to find the +young reporter, and, her eyes swollen, her face between anger and alarm, +she begged him to come and "talk to Ellen. She's gone off her head." + +The reporter asked what form her mania took. + +"She's going to France to work for the French and Belgians as long as +her money holds out ... all the money she's saved in all her life!" + +The first among the clashing ideas which this awakened in the reporter's +mind was the most heartfelt and gorgeous amusement. The idea of that +dumb, backwoods, pie-faced stenographer carrying her valuable services +to the war in Europe seemed to him the richest thing that had happened +in years! He burst into laughter. "Yes, sure I'll come and talk to her," +he agreed. He found her lifting a tray into her trunk. "See here, Miss +Boardman," he remarked reasonably, "do you know what you need? You need +a sense of humor! You take things too much in dead earnest. The sense of +humor keeps you from doing ridiculous things, don't you know it does?" + +Ellen faced him, seriously considering this. "Do you think all +ridiculous things are bad?" she asked him, not as an argument, but as a +genuine question. + +He evaded this and went on. "Just look at yourself now ... just look at +what you're planning to do. Here is the biggest war in the history of +the world; all the great nations involved; millions and millions of +dollars being poured out; the United States sending hundreds and +thousands of packages and hospital supplies by the million; and nurses +and doctors and Lord knows how many trained people ... and, look! who +comes here?--a stenographer from Walker and Pennypacker's, in +Marshallton, Kansas, setting out to the war!" + +Ellen looked long at this picture of herself, and while she considered +it the young man looked long at her. As he looked, he stopped laughing. +She said finally, very simply, in a declarative sentence devoid of any +but its obvious meaning, "No, I can't see that that is so very funny." + +At six o'clock that evening she was boarding the train for Washington, +her cousin Maggie weeping by her side, Mrs. Wilson herself escorting +her, very much excited by the momentousness of the event taking place +under her roof, her satchel carried by none other than the young +reporter, who, oddly enough, was not laughing at all. He bought her a +box of chocolates and a magazine, and shook hands with her vigorously as +the train started to pull out of the station. He heard himself saying, +"Say, Miss Boardman, if you see anything for me to do over there, you +might let me know," and found that he must run to get himself off the +train before it carried him away from Marshallton altogether. + +A fortnight from that day (passports were not so difficult to get in +those distant days when war-relief work was the eccentricity of only an +occasional individual) she was lying in her second-class cabin, as the +steamer rolled in the Atlantic swells beyond Sandy Hook. She was +horribly seasick, but her plans were all quite clear. Of course she +belonged to the Young Women's Christian Association in Marshallton, so +she knew all about it. At Washington she had found shelter at the Y. W. +C. A. quarters. In New York she had done the same thing, and when she +arrived in Paris (if she ever did) she could of course go there to stay. +Her roommate, a very sophisticated, much-traveled art student, was +immensely amused by the artlessness of this plan. "I've got the _dernier +cri_ in greenhorns in my cabin," she told her group on deck. "She's +expecting to find a Y. W. C. A. in _Paris!_" + +But the wisdom of the simple was justified once more. There was a Y. W. +C. A. in Paris, run by an energetic, well-informed American spinster. +Ellen crawled into the rather hard bed in the very small room (the +cheapest offered her) and slept twelve hours at a stretch, utterly worn +out with the devastating excitement of her first travels in a foreign +land. Then she rose up, comparatively refreshed, and with her foolish, +ignorant simplicity inquired where in Paris her services could be of +use. The energetic woman managing the Y. W. C. A. looked at her very +dubiously. + +"Well, there might be something for you over on the rue Pharaon, number +27. I hear there's a bunch of society dames trying to get up a +_vestiaire_ for refugees, there." + +As Ellen noted down the address she said warningly, her eyes running +over Ellen's worn blue serge suit: "They don't pay anything. It's work +for volunteers, you know." + +Ellen was astonished that any one should think of getting pay for work +done in France. "Oh, gracious, no!" she said, turning away. + +The directress of the Y. W. C. A. murmured to herself: "Well, you +certainly never can tell by _looks!_" + +At the rue Pharaon, number 27, Ellen was motioned across a stony gray +courtyard littered with wooden packing-cases, into an immense, draughty +dark room, that looked as though it might have been originally the coach +and harness-room of a big stable. This also was strewed and heaped with +packing-cases in indescribable confusion, some opened and disgorging +innumerable garments of all colors and materials, others still tightly +nailed up. A couple of elderly workmen in blouses were opening one of +these. Before others knelt or stood distracted-looking, elegantly +dressed women, their arms full of parti-colored bundles, their eyes full +of confusion. In one corner, on a bench, sat a row of wretchedly poor +women and white-faced, silent children, the latter shod more miserably +than the poorest negro child in Marshallton. Against a packing-case near +the entrance leaned a beautifully dressed, handsome, middle-aged woman, +a hammer in one hand. Before her at ease stood a pretty girl, the +fineness of whose tightly drawn silk stockings, the perfection of whose +gleaming coiffure, the exquisite hang and fit of whose silken dress +filled Ellen Boardman with awe. In an instant her own stout cotton hose +hung wrinkled about her ankles, she felt on her neck every stringy wisp +of her badly dressed hair, the dip of her skirt at the back was a +physical discomfort. The older woman was speaking. Ellen could not help +overhearing. She said forcibly: "No, Miss Parton, you will not come in +contact with a single heroic poilu here. We have nothing to offer you +but hard, uninteresting work for the benefit of ungrateful, +uninteresting refugee women, many of whom will try to cheat and get +double their share. You will not lay your hand on a single fevered +masculine brow...." She broke off, made an effort for self-control and +went on with a resolutely reasonable air: "You'd better go out to the +hospital at Neuilly. You can wear a uniform there from the first day, +and be in contact with the men. I wouldn't have bothered you to come +here, except that you wrote from Detroit that you would be willing to do +_any_thing, scrub floors or wash dishes." + +The other received all this with the indestructible good humor of a girl +who knows herself very pretty and as well dressed as any one in the +world. "I know I did, Mrs. Putnam," she said, amused at her own +absurdity. "But now I'm here I'd be _too_ disappointed to go back if I +hadn't been working for the soldiers. All the girls expect me to have +stories about the work, you know. And I can't stay very long, only four +months, because my coming-out party is in October. I guess I _will_ go +to Neuilly. They take you for three months there, you know." She smiled +pleasantly, turned with athletic grace and picked her way among the +packing-cases back to the door. + +Ellen advanced in her turn. + +"Well?" said the middle-aged woman, rather grimly. Her intelligent eyes +took in relentlessly every detail of Ellen's costume and Ellen felt them +at their work. + +"I came to see if I couldn't help," said Ellen. + +"Don't you want direct contact with the wounded soldiers?" asked the +older woman ironically. + +"No," said Ellen with her habitual simplicity. "I wouldn't know how to +do anything for them. I'm not a nurse." + +"You don't suppose _that's_ any obstacle!" ejaculated the other woman. + +"But I never had _any_thing to do with sick people," said Ellen. "I'm +the office-manager of a big hardware firm in Kansas." + +Mrs. Putnam gasped like a drowning person coming to the surface. "You +_are!_" she cried. "You don't happen to know shorthand, do you?" + +"Gracious! of course I know shorthand!" said Ellen, her astonishment +proving her competence. + +Mrs. Putnam laid down her hammer and drew another long breath. "How much +time can you give us?" she asked. "Two afternoons a week? Three?" + +"Oh, _my!_" said Ellen, "I can give you all my time, from eight in the +morning till six at night. That's what I came for." + +Mrs. Putnam looked at her a moment as though to assure herself that she +was not dreaming, and then, seizing her by the arm, she propelled her +rapidly towards the back of the room, and through a small door into a +dingy little room with two desks in it. Among the heaped-up papers on +one of these a blond young woman with inky fingers sought wildly +something which she did not find. She said without looking up: "Oh, Aunt +Maria, I've just discovered that that shipment of clothes from +Louisville got acknowledged to the people in Seattle! And I can't find +that letter from the woman in Indianapolis who offered to send +children's shirts from her husband's factory. You said you laid it on +your desk, last night, but I _cannot_ find it. And do you remember what +you wrote Mrs. Worthington? Did you say anything about the shoes?" + +Ellen heard this but dimly, her gaze fixed on the confusion of the desks +which made her physically dizzy to contemplate. Never had she dreamed +that papers, sacred records of fact, could be so maltreated. In a reflex +response to the last question of the lovely, distressed young lady she +said: "Why don't you look at the carbon copy of the letter to Mrs. +Worthington?" + +"_Copy!_" cried the young lady, aghast. "Why, we don't begin to have +time to write the letters _once_, let alone _copy_ them!" + +Ellen gazed horrified into an abyss of ignorance which went beyond her +utmost imaginings. She said feebly, "If you kept your letters in a +letter-file, you wouldn't ever lose them." + +"There," said Mrs. Putnam, in the tone of one unexpectedly upheld in a +rather bizarre opinion, "I've been saying all the time we ought to have +a letter-file. But do you suppose you could _buy_ one in Paris?" She +spoke dubiously from the point of view of one who had bought nothing but +gloves and laces and old prints in Paris. + +Ellen answered with the certainty of one who had found the Y. W. C. A. +in Paris: "I'm sure you can. Why, they could not do business a _minute_ +without letter-files." + +Mrs. Putnam sank into a chair with a sigh of bewilderment and fatigue, +and showed herself to be as truly a superior person as she looked by +making the following speech to the newcomer: "The truth is, Miss...." + +"Boardman," supplied Ellen. + +"Miss Boardman, the fact is that we are trying to do something which is +beyond us, something we ought never to have undertaken. But we didn't +know we were undertaking it, you see. And now that it is begun, it must +not fail. All the wonderful American good-will which has materialized in +that room full of packing-cases must not be wasted, must get to the +people who need it so direly. It began this way. We had no notion that +we would have so great an affair to direct. My niece and I were living +here when the war broke out. Of course we gave all our own clothes we +could spare and all the money we could for the refugees. Then we wrote +home to our American friends. One of my letters was published by chance +in a New York paper and copied in a number of others. Everybody who +happened to know my name"--(Ellen heard afterwards that she was of the +holy of holies of New England families)--"began sending me money and +boxes of clothing. It all arrived so suddenly, so unexpectedly. We had +to rent this place to put the things in. The refugees came in swarms. We +found ourselves overwhelmed. It is impossible to find an +English-speaking stenographer who is not already more than overworked. +The only help we get is from volunteers, a good many of them American +society girls like that one you...." she paused to invent a sufficiently +savage characterization and hesitated to pronounce it. "Well, most of +them are not quite so absurd as that. But none of them know any more +than we do about keeping accounts, letters...." + +Ellen broke in: "How do you keep your accounts, anyhow? Bound ledger, or +the loose-leaf system?" + +They stared. "I have been careful to set down everything I could +_remember_ in a little note-book," said Mrs. Putnam. + +Ellen looked about for a chair and sat down on it hastily. When she +could speak again, after a moment of silent collecting of her forces she +said: "Well, I guess the first thing to do is to get a letter-file. I +don't know any French, so I probably couldn't get it. If one of you +could go...." + +The pretty young lady sprang for her hat. "I'll go! I'll go, Auntie." + +"And," continued Ellen, "you can't do anything till you keep copies of +your letters and you can't make copies unless you have a typewriter. +Don't you suppose you could rent one?" + +"I'll rent one before I come back," said Eleanor, who evidently lacked +neither energy nor good-will. She said to Mrs. Putnam: "I'm going, +instead of you, so that you can superintend opening those boxes. They +are making a most horrible mess of it, I know." + +"Before a single one is opened, you ought to take down the name and +address of the sender, and then note the contents," said Ellen, speaking +with authority. "A card-catalogue would be a good system for keeping +that record, I should think, with dates of the arrival of the cases. And +why couldn't you keep track of your refugees that way, too? A card for +each family, with a record on it of the number in the family and of +everything given. You could refer to it in a moment, and carry it out to +the room where the refugees are received." + +They gazed at her plain, sallow countenance in rapt admiration. + +"Eleanor," said Mrs. Putnam, "bring back cards for a card-catalogue, +hundreds of cards, thousands of cards." She addressed Ellen with a +respect which did honor to her native intelligence. "Miss Boardman, +wouldn't you better take off your hat? Couldn't you work more at your +ease? You could hang your things here." With one sweep of her white, +well-cared-for hand she snatched her own Parisian habiliments from the +hanger and hook, and installed there the Marshallton wraps of Ellen +Boardman. She set her down in front of the desk; she put in her hands +the ridiculous little Russia leather-covered note-book of the +"accounts"; she opened drawer after drawer crammed with letters; and +with a happy sigh she went out to the room of the packing-cases, closing +the door gently behind her, that she might not disturb the +high-priestess of business-management who already bent over those +abominably misused records, her eyes gleaming with the sacred fire of +system. + +There is practically nothing more to record about the four months spent +by Ellen Boardman as far as her work at the _vestiaire_ was concerned. +Every day she arrived at number 27 rue Pharaon at eight o'clock and put +in a good hour of quiet work before any of the more or less irregular +volunteer ladies appeared. She worked there till noon, returned to the +Y. W. C. A., lunched, was in the office again by one o'clock, had +another hour of forceful concentration before any of the cosmopolitan +great ladies finished their lengthy _déjeuners_, and she stayed there +until six in the evening, when every one else had gone. She realized +that her effort must be not only to create a rational system of records +and accounts and correspondence which she herself could manage, but a +fool-proof one which could be left in the hands of the elegant ladies +who would remain in Paris after she had returned to Kansas. + +And yet, not so fool-proof as she had thought at first. She was +agreeably surprised to find both Mrs. Putnam and her pretty niece +perfectly capable of understanding a system once it was invented, set in +working order, and explained to them. She came to understand that what, +on her first encounter with them, she had naturally enough taken for +congenital imbecility, was merely the result of an ignorance and an +inexperience which remained to the end astounding to her. Their +good-will was as great as their native capacity. Eleanor set herself +resolutely, if very awkwardly, to learn the use of the typewriter. Mrs. +Putnam even developed the greatest interest in the ingenious methods of +corraling and marshaling information and facts which were second nature +to the business-woman. "I never saw anything more fascinating!" she +cried the day when Ellen explained to her the workings of a system for +cross-indexing the card-catalogues of refugees already aided. "How _do_ +you think of such things?" + +Ellen did not explain that she generally thought of them in the two or +three extra hours of work she put in every day, while Mrs. Putnam ate +elaborate food. + +It soon became apparent that there had been much "repeating" among the +refugees. The number possible to clothe grew rapidly, far beyond what +the "office force" could manage to investigate. Ellen set her face +against miscellaneous giving without knowledge of conditions. She +devised a system of visiting inspectors which kept track of all the +families in their rapidly growing list. She even made out a sort of +time-card for the visiting ladies which enabled the office to keep some +track of what they did, and yet did not ruffle their leisure-class +dignity ... and this was really an achievement. She suggested, made out, +and had printed an orderly report of what they had done, what money had +come in, how it had been spent, what clothes had been given and how +distributed, the number of people aided, the most pressing needs. This +she had put in every letter sent to America. The result was enough to +justify Mrs. Putnam's naïve astonishment and admiration of her brilliant +idea. Packing-cases and checks flowed in by every American steamer. + +Ellen's various accounting systems and card-catalogues responded with +elastic ease to the increased volume of facts, as she of course expected +them to; but Mrs. Putnam could never be done marveling at the cool +certainty with which all this immense increase was handled. She had a +shudder as she thought of what would have happened if Miss Boardman had +not dropped down from heaven upon them. Dining out, of an evening, she +spent much time expatiating on the astonishing virtues of one of her +volunteers. + +Ellen conceived a considerable regard for Mrs. Putnam, but she did not +talk of her in dining out, because she never dined anywhere. She left +the "office" at six o'clock and proceeded to a nearby bakery where she +bought four sizable rolls. An apple cart supplied a couple of apples, +and even her ignorance of French was not too great an obstacle to the +purchase of some cakes of sweet chocolate. With these decently hidden in +a small black hand-bag, she proceeded to the waiting-room of the Gare de +l'Est where, like any traveler waiting for his train she ate her frugal +meal; ate as much of it, that is, as a painful tightness in her throat +would let her. For the Gare de l'Est was where the majority of French +soldiers took their trains to go back to the front after their +occasional week's furlough with their families. + +No words of mine can convey any impression of what she saw there. No one +who has not seen the Gare de l'Est night after night can ever imagine +the sum of stifled human sorrow which filled it thickly, like a dreadful +incense of pain going up before some cruel god. It was there that the +mothers, the wives, the sweethearts, the sisters, the children brought +their priceless all and once more laid it on the altar. It was there +that those horrible silent farewells were said, the more unendurable +because they were repeated and repeated till human nature reeled under +the burden laid on it by the will. The great court outside, the noisy +echoing waiting-room, the inner platform which was the uttermost limit +for those accompanying the soldiers returning to hell,--they were not +only always filled with living hearts broken on the wheel, but they were +thronged with ghosts, ghosts of those whose farewell kiss had really +been the last, with ghosts of those who had watched the dear face out of +sight and who were never to see it again. Those last straining, wordless +embraces, those last, hot, silent kisses, the last touch of the little +child's hand on the father's cheek which it was never to touch again ... +the nightmare place reeked of them! + +The stenographer from Kansas had found it as simply as she had done +everything else. "Which station do the families go to, to say good-bye +to their soldiers?" she had asked, explaining apologetically that she +thought maybe if she went there too she could help sometimes; there +might be a heavy baby to carry, or somebody who had lost his ticket, or +somebody who hadn't any lunch for the train. + +After the first evening spent there, she had shivered and wept all night +in her bed; but she had gone back the next evening, with the money she +saved by eating bread and apples for her dinner; for of course the sweet +chocolate was for the soldiers. She sat there, armed with nothing but +her immense ignorance, her immense sympathy. On that second evening she +summoned enough courage to give some chocolate to an elderly shabby +soldier, taking the train sadly, quite alone; and again to a white-faced +young lad accompanied by his bent, poorly dressed grandmother. What +happened in both those cases sent her back to the Y. W. C. A. to make up +laboriously from her little pocket French dictionary and to learn by +heart this sentence: "I am sorry that I cannot understand French. I am +an American." Thereafter the surprised and extremely articulate Gallic +gratitude which greeted her timid overtures, did not leave her so +helplessly swamped in confusion. She stammered out her little phrase +with a shy, embarrassed smile and withdrew as soon as possible from the +hearty handshake which was nearly always the substitute offered for the +unintelligible thanks. How many such handshakes she had! Sometimes as +she watched her right hand, tapping on the typewriter, she thought: +"Those hands which it has touched, they may be dead now. They were +heroes' hands." She looked at her own with awe, because it had touched +them. + +Once her little phrase brought out an unexpected response from a +rough-looking man who sat beside her on the bench waiting for his train, +his eyes fixed gloomily on his great soldier's shoes. She offered him, +shamefacedly, a little sewing-kit which she herself had manufactured, a +pad of writing-paper and some envelopes. He started, came out of his +bitter brooding, looked at her astonished, and, as they all did without +exception, read in her plain, earnest face what she was. He touched his +battered trench helmet in a sketched salute and thanked her. She +answered as usual that she was sorry she could not understand French, +being an American. To her amazement he answered in fluent English, with +an unmistakable New York twang: "Oh, you are, are you? Well, so'm I. +Brought up there from the time I was a kid. But all my folks are French +and my wife's French and I couldn't give the old country the go-by when +trouble came." + +In the conversation which followed Ellen learned that his wife was +expecting their first child in a few weeks ... "that's why she didn't +come to see me off. She said it would just about kill her to watch me +getting on the train.... Maybe you think it's easy to leave her all +alone ... the poor kid!" The tears rose frankly to his eyes. He blew his +nose. + +"Maybe I could do something for her," suggested Ellen, her heart beating +fast at the idea. + +"Gee! Yes! If you'd go to see her! She talks a little English!" he +cried. He gave her the name and address, and when that poilu went back +to the front it was Ellen Boardman from Marshallton, Kansas, who walked +with him to the gate, who shook hands with him, who waved him a last +salute as he boarded his train. + +The next night she did not go to the station. She went to see the wife. +The night after that she was sewing on a baby's wrapper as she sat in +the Gare de l'Est, turning her eyes away in shame from the intolerable +sorrow of those with families, watching for those occasional solitary or +very poor ones whom alone she ventured to approach with her timidly +proffered tokens of sympathy. + +At the Y. W. C. A. opinions varied about her. She was patently to every +eye respectable to her last drop of pale blood. And yet _was_ it quite +respectable to go offering chocolate and writing-paper to soldiers you'd +never seen before? Everybody knew what soldiers were! Some one finally +decided smartly that her hat was a sufficient protection. It is true +that her hat was not becoming, but I do not think it was what saved her +from misunderstanding. + +She did not always go to the Gare de l'Est every evening now. Sometimes +she spent them in the little dormer-windowed room where the wife of the +New York poilu waited for her baby. Several evenings she spent chasing +elusive information from the American Ambulance Corps as to exactly the +conditions in which a young man without money could come to drive an +ambulance in France ... the young man without money being of course the +reporter on the Marshallton _Herald_. + +It chanced to be on one of the evenings when she was with the young wife +that the need came. She sat on the stairs outside till nearly morning. +When it was quiet, she took the little new citizen of the Republic in +her arms, tears of mingled thanksgiving and dreadful fear raining down +her face, because another man-child had been born into the world. Would +_he_ grow up only to say farewell at the Gare de l'Est? Oh, she was not +sorry that she had come to France to help in that war. She understood +now, she understood. + +It was Ellen who wrote to the father the letter announcing the birth of +a child which gave him the right to another precious short furlough. It +was Ellen who went down to the Gare de l'Est, this time to the joyful +wait on the muddy street outside the side door from which the returning +_permissionnaires_ issued forth, caked with mud to their eyes. It was +Ellen who had never before "been kissed by a man" who was caught in a +pair of dingy, horizon-blue arms and soundly saluted on each sallow +cheek by the exultant father. It was Ellen who was made as much of a +godmother as her Protestant affiliations permitted ... and oh, it was +Ellen who made the fourth at the end of the furlough when (the first +time the new mother had left her room) they went back to the Gare de +l'Est. At the last it was Ellen who held the sleeping baby when the +husband took his wife in that long, bitter embrace; it was Ellen who was +not surprised or hurt that he turned away without a word to her ... she +understood that ... it was Ellen whose arm was around the trembling +young wife as they stood, their faces pressed against the barrier to see +him for the last time; it was Ellen who went back with her to the silent +desolation of the little room, who put the baby into the slackly hanging +arms, and watched, her eyes burning with unshed tears, those arms close +about the little new inheritor of humanity's woes.... + +Four months from the time she landed in Paris her money was almost gone +and she was quitting the city with barely enough in her pocket to take +her back to Marshallton. As simply as she had come to Paris, she now +went home. She _belonged_ to Marshallton. It was a very good thing for +Marshallton that she did. + +She gave fifty dollars to the mother of baby Jacques (that was why she +had so very little left) and she promised to send her ten dollars every +month as soon as she herself should be again a wage-earner. Mrs. Putnam +and her niece, inconsolable at her loss, went down to the Gare du Quai +d'Orsay to see her off, looking more in keeping with the elegant +travelers starting for the Midi, than Ellen did. Her place, after all, +had been at the Gare de l'Est. As they shook hands warmly with her, they +gave her a beautiful bouquet, the evident cost of which stabbed her to +the heart. What she could have done with that money! + +"You have simply transformed the _vestiaire_, Miss Boardman," said Mrs. +Putnam with generous but by no means exaggerating ardor. "It would +certainly have sunk under the waves if you hadn't come to the rescue. I +wish you _could_ have stayed, but thanks to your teaching we'll be able +to manage anything now." + +After the train had moved off, Mrs. Putnam said to her niece in a +shocked voice: "Third class! That long trip to Bordeaux! She'll die of +fatigue. You don't suppose she is going back because she didn't have +_money_ enough to stay! Why, I would have paid anything to keep her." +The belated nature of this reflection shows that Ellen's teachings had +never gone more than skin deep and that there was still something +lacking in Mrs. Putnam's grasp on the realities of contemporary life. + +Ellen was again too horribly seasick to suffer much apprehension about +submarines. This time she had as cabin-mate in the unventilated +second-class cabin the "companion" of a great lady traveling of course +in a suite in first-class. This great personage, when informed by her +satellites' nimble and malicious tongues of Ellen's personality and +recent errand in France, remarked with authority to the group of people +about her at dinner, embarking upon the game which was the seventh +course of the meal: "I disapprove wholly of these foolish American +volunteers ... ignorant, awkward, provincial boors, for the most part, +knowing nothing of all the exquisite old traditions of France, who +thrust themselves forward. They make America a laughing-stock." + +Luckily, Ellen, pecking feebly at the chilly, boiled potato brought her +by an impatient stewardess, could not know this characterization. + +She arrived in Marshallton, and was astonished to find herself a +personage. Her departure had made her much more a figure in the town +life than she had ever been when she was still walking its streets. The +day after her departure the young reporter had written her up in the +_Herald_ in a lengthy paragraph, and not a humorous one either. The +Sunday which she passed on the ocean after she left New York, Mr. +Wentworth in one of his prayers implored the Divine blessing on "one of +our number who has left home and safety to fulfil a high moral +obligation and who even now is risking death in the pursuance of her +duty as she conceives it." Every one knew that he meant Ellen Boardman, +about whom they had all read in the _Herald_. Mr. Pennypacker took, then +and there, a decision which inexplicably lightened his heart. Being a +good businessman, he did not keep it to himself, but allowed it to leak +out the next time the reporter from the _Herald_ dropped around for +chance items of news. The reporter made the most of it, and Marshallton, +already spending much of its time in discussing Ellen, read that "Mr. +John S. Pennypacker, in view of the high humanitarian principles +animating Miss Boardman in quitting his employ, has decided not to fill +her position but to keep it open for her on her return from her errand +of mercy to those in foreign parts stricken by the awful war now +devastating Europe." + +Then Ellen's letters began to arrive, mostly to Maggie, who read them +aloud to the deeply interested boarding-house circle. The members of +this, basking in reflected importance, repeated their contents to every +one who would listen. In addition the young reporter published extracts +from them in the _Herald_, editing them artfully, choosing the rare +plums of anecdote or description in Ellen's arid epistolary style. When +her letter to him came, he was plunged into despair because she had +learned that he would have to pay part of his expenses if he drove an +ambulance on the French front. By that time his sense of humor was in +such total eclipse that he saw nothing ridiculous in the fact that he +could not breathe freely another hour in the easy good-cheer of his +care-free life. He revolved one scheme after another for getting money; +and in the meantime let no week go by without giving some news from +their "heroic fellow-townswoman in France." Highland Springs, the +traditional rival and enemy of Marshallton, felt outraged by the tone of +proprietorship with which Marshallton people bragged of their delegate +in France. + +So it happened that when Ellen, fearfully tired, fearfully dusty after +the long ride in the day-coach, and fearfully shabby in exactly the same +clothes she had worn away, stepped wearily off the train at the +well-remembered little wooden station, she found not only Maggie, to +whom she had telegraphed from New York, but a large group of other +people advancing upon her with outstretched hands, crowding around her +with more respectful consideration than she had ever dreamed of seeing +addressed to her obscure person. She was too tired, too deeply moved to +find herself at home again, too confused, to recognize them all. Indeed +a number of them knew her only by her fame since her departure. Ellen +made out Maggie, who embraced her, weeping as loudly as when she had +gone away; she saw Mrs. Wilson who kissed her very hard and said she was +proud to know her; she saw with astonishment that Mr. Pennypacker +himself had left business in office hours! He shook her hand with energy +and said: "Well, Miss Boardman, very glad to see you safe back. We'll be +expecting you back at the old stand just as soon as you've rested up +from the trip." The intention of the poilu who had taken her in his arms +and kissed her, had not been more cordial. Ellen knew this and was +touched to tears. + +There was the reporter from the _Herald_, too, she saw him dimly through +the mist before her eyes, as he carried the satchel, the same he had +carried five months before with the same things in it. And as they put +her in the "hack" (she had never ridden in the hack before) there was +Mr. Wentworth, the young minister, who leaned through the window and +said earnestly: "I am counting on you to speak to our people in the +church parlors. You must tell us about things over there." + +Well, she did speak to them! She was not the same person, you see, she +had been before she had spent those evenings in the Gare de l'Est. She +wanted them to know about what she had seen, and because there was no +one else to tell them, she rose up in her shabby suit and told them +herself. The first thing that came into her mind as she stood before +them, her heart suffocating her, her knees shaking under her, was the +strangeness of seeing so many able-bodied men not in uniform, and so +many women not in mourning. She told them this as a beginning and got +their startled attention at once, the men vaguely uneasy, the women +divining with frightened sympathy what it meant to see all women in +black. + +Then she went on to tell them about the work for the refugees ... not +for nothing had she made out the card-catalogue accounts of those +life-histories. "There was one old woman we helped ... she looked some +like Mrs. Wilson's mother. She had lost three sons and two sons-in-law +in the war. Both of her daughters, widows, had been sent off into +Germany to do forced labor. One of them had been a music-teacher and the +other a dressmaker. She had three of the grandchildren with her. Two of +them had disappeared ... just lost somewhere. She didn't have a cent +left, the Germans had taken everything. She was sixty-seven years old +and she was earning the children's living by doing scrubwoman's work in +a slaughter-house. She had been a school-teacher when she was young. + +"There were five little children in one family. The mother was sort of +out of her mind, though the doctors said maybe she would get over it. +They had been under shell-fire for five days, and she had seen three +members of her family die there. After that they wandered around in the +woods for ten days, living on grass and roots. The youngest child died +then. The oldest girl was only ten years old, but she took care of them +all somehow and used to get up nights when her mother got crazy thinking +the shells were falling again." + +Ellen spoke badly, awkwardly, haltingly. She told nothing which they +might not have read, perhaps had read in some American magazine. But it +was a different matter to hear such stories from the lips of Ellen +Boardman, born and brought up among them. Ellen Boardman had _seen_ +those people, and through her eyes Marshallton looked aghast and for the +first time believed that what it saw was real, that such things were +happening to real men and women like themselves. + +When she began to tell them about the Gare de l'Est she began helplessly +to cry, but she would not stop for that. She smeared away the tears with +her handkerchief wadded into a ball, she was obliged to stop frequently +to blow her nose and catch her breath, but she had so much to say that +she struggled on, saying it in a shaking, uncertain voice, quite out of +her control. Standing there before those well-fed, well-meaning, +prosperous, _safe_ countrymen of hers, it all rose before her with +burning vividness, and burningly she strove to set it before them. It +had all been said far better than she said it, eloquently described in +many highly paid newspaper articles, but it had never before been said +so that Marshallton understood it. Ellen Boardman, graceless, +stammering, inarticulate, yet spoke to them with the tongues of men and +angels because she spoke their own language. In the very real, very +literal and wholly miraculous sense of the words, she brought the +war--_home_--to them. + +When she sat down no one applauded. The women were pale. Some of them +had been crying. The men's faces were set and inexpressive. Mr. +Wentworth stood up and cleared his throat. He said that a young citizen +of their town (he named him, the young reporter) desired greatly to go +to the French front as an ambulance driver, but being obliged to earn +his living, he could not go unless helped out on his expenses. Miss +Boardman had been able to get exact information about that. Four hundred +dollars would keep him at the front for a year. He proposed that a +contribution should be taken up to that end. + +He himself went among them, gathering the contributions which were given +in silence. While he counted them afterwards, the young reporter, +waiting with an anxious face, swallowed repeatedly and crossed and +uncrossed his legs a great many times. Before he had finished counting +the minister stopped, reached over and gave the other young man a +handclasp. "I envy you," he said. + +He turned to the audience and announced that he had counted almost +enough for their purpose when he had come upon a note from Mr. +Pennypacker saying that he would make up any deficit. Hence they could +consider the matter settled. "Very soon, therefore, our town will again +be represented on the French front." + +The audience stirred, drew a long breath, and broke into applause. + +Whatever the rest of the Union might decide to do, Marshallton, Kansas, +had come into the war. + + --Dorothy Canfield. + + + + +II--THE SURVIVORS + + +_A Memorial Day Story_ + +In the year 1868, when Memorial Day was instituted, Fosterville had +thirty-five men in its parade. Fosterville was a border town; in it +enthusiasm had run high, and many more men had enlisted than those +required by the draft. All the men were on the same side but Adam Foust, +who, slipping away, joined himself to the troops of his mother's +Southern State. It could not have been any great trial for Adam to fight +against most of his companions in Fosterville, for there was only one of +them with whom he did not quarrel. That one was his cousin Henry, from +whom he was inseparable, and of whose friendship for any other boys he +was intensely jealous. Henry was a frank, open-hearted lad who would +have lived on good terms with the whole world if Adam had allowed him +to. + +Adam did not return to Fosterville until the morning of the first +Memorial Day, of whose establishment he was unaware. He had been ill for +months, and it was only now that he had earned enough to make his way +home. He was slightly lame, and he had lost two fingers of his left +hand. He got down from the train at the station, and found himself at +once in a great crowd. He knew no one, and no one seemed to know him. +Without asking any questions, he started up the street. He meant to go, +first of all, to the house of his cousin Henry, and then to set about +making arrangements to resume his long-interrupted business, that of a +saddler, which he could still follow in spite of his injury. + +As he hurried along he heard the sound of band music, and realized that +some sort of a procession was advancing. With the throng about him he +pressed to the curb. The tune was one which he hated; the colors he +hated also; the marchers, all but one, he had never liked. There was +Newton Towne, with a sergeant's stripe on his blue sleeve; there was +Edward Green, a captain; there was Peter Allinson, a color-bearer. At +their head, taller, handsomer, dearer than ever to Adam's jealous eyes, +walked Henry Foust. In an instant of forgetfulness Adam waved his hand. +But Henry did not see; Adam chose to think that he saw and would not +answer. The veterans passed, and Adam drew back and was lost in the +crowd. + +But Adam had a parade of his own. In the evening, when the music and the +speeches were over and the half-dozen graves of those of Fosterville's +young men who had been brought home had been heaped with flowers, and +Fosterville sat on doorsteps and porches talking about the day, Adam put +on a gray uniform and walked from one end of the village to the other. +These were people who had known him always; the word flew from step to +step. Many persons spoke to him, some laughed, and a few jeered. To no +one did Adam pay any heed. Past the house of Newton Towne, past the +store of Ed Green, past the wide lawn of Henry Foust, walked Adam, his +hands clasped behind his back, as though to make more perpendicular than +perpendicularity itself that stiff backbone. Henry Foust ran down the +steps and out to the gate. + +"Oh, Adam!" cried he. + +Adam stopped, stock-still. He could see Peter Allinson and Newton Towne, +and even Ed Green, on Henry's porch. They were all having ice-cream and +cake together. + +"Well, what?" said he, roughly. + +"Won't you shake hands with me?" + +"No," said Adam. + +"Won't you come in?" + +"Never." + +Still Henry persisted. + +"Some one might do you harm, Adam." + +"Let them!" said Adam. + +Then Adam walked on alone. Adam walked alone for forty years. + +Not only on Memorial Day did he don his gray uniform and make the rounds +of the village. When the Fosterville Grand Army Post met on Friday +evenings in the post room, Adam managed to meet most of the members +either going or returning. He and his gray suit became gradually so +familiar to the village that no one turned his head or glanced up from +book or paper to see him go by. He had from time to time a new suit, and +he ordered from somewhere in the South a succession of gray, +broad-brimmed military hats. The farther the war sank into the past, the +straighter grew old Adam's back, the prouder his head. Sometimes, early +in the forty years, the acquaintances of his childhood, especially the +women, remonstrated with him. + +"The war's over, Adam," they would say. "Can't you forget it?" + +"Those G. A. R. fellows don't forget it," Adam would answer. "They +haven't changed their principles. Why should I change mine?" + +"But you might make up with Henry." + +"That's nobody's business but my own." + +"But when you were children you were never separated. Make up, Adam." + +"When Henry needs me, I'll help him," said Adam. + +"Henry will never need you. Look at all he's got!" + +"Well, then, I don't need him," declared Adam, as he walked away. He +went back to his saddler shop, where he sat all day stitching. He had +ample time to think of Henry and the past. + +"Brought up like twins!" he would say. "Sharing like brothers! Now he +has a fine business and a fine house and fine children, and I have +nothing. But I have my principles. I ain't never truckled to him. Some +day he'll need me, you'll see!" + +As Adam grew older, it became more and more certain that Henry would +never need him for anything. Henry tried again and again to make +friends, but Adam would have none of him. He talked more and more to +himself as he sat at his work. + +"Used to help him over the brook and bait his hook for him. Even built +corn-cob houses for him to knock down, that much littler he was than me. +Stepped out of the race when I found he wanted Annie. He might ask me +for _something!_" Adam seemed often to be growing childish. + +By the year 1875 fifteen of Fosterville's thirty-five veterans had died. +The men who survived the war were, for the most part, not strong men, +and weaknesses established in prisons and on long marches asserted +themselves. Fifteen times the Fosterville Post paraded to the cemetery +and read its committal service and fired its salute. For these parades +Adam did not put on his gray uniform. + +During the next twenty years deaths were fewer. Fosterville prospered as +never before; it built factories and an electric car line. Of all its +enterprises Henry Foust was at the head. He enlarged his house and +bought farms and grew handsomer as he grew older. Everybody loved him; +all Fosterville, except Adam, sought his company. It seemed sometimes as +though Adam would almost die from loneliness and jealousy. + +"Henry Foust sittin' with Ed Green!" said Adam to himself, as though he +could never accustom his eyes to this phenomenon. "Henry consortin' with +Newt Towne!" + +The Grand Army Post also grew in importance. It paraded each year with +more ceremony; it imported fine music and great speakers for Memorial +Day. + +Presently the sad procession to the cemetery began once more. There was +a long, cold winter, with many cases of pneumonia, and three veterans +succumbed; there was an intensely hot summer, and twice in one month the +post read its committal service and fired its salute. A few years more, +and the post numbered but three. Past them still on post evenings walked +Adam, head in air, hands clasped behind his back. There was Edward +Green, round, fat, who puffed and panted; there was Newton Towne, who +walked, in spite of palsy, as though he had won the battle of +Gettysburg; there was, last of all, Henry Foust, who at seventy-five was +hale and strong. Usually a tall son walked beside him, or a grandchild +clung to his hand. He was almost never alone; it was as though every one +who knew him tried to have as much as possible of his company. Past him +with a grave nod walked Adam. Adam was two years older than Henry; it +required more and more stretching of arms behind his back to keep his +shoulders straight. + +In April Newton Towne was taken ill and died. Edward Green was +terrified, though he considered himself, in spite of his shortness of +breath, a strong man. + +"Don't let anything happen to you, Henry," he would say. "Don't let +anything get you, Henry. I can't march alone." + +"I'll be there," Henry would reassure him. Only one look at Henry, and +the most alarmed would have been comforted. + +"It would kill me to march alone," said Edward Green. + +As if Fosterville realized that it could not continue long to show its +devotion to its veterans, it made this year special preparations for +Memorial Day. The Fosterville Band practiced elaborate music, the +children were drilled in marching. The children were to precede the +veterans to the cemetery and were to scatter flowers over the graves. +Houses were gayly decorated, flags and banners floating in the pleasant +spring breeze. Early in the morning carriages and wagons began to bring +in the country folk. + +Adam Foust realized as well as Fosterville that the parades of veterans +were drawing to their close. + +"This may be the last time I can show my principles," said he, with grim +setting of his lips. "I will put on my gray coat early in the morning." + +Though the two veterans were to march to the cemetery, carriages were +provided to bring them home. Fosterville meant to be as careful as +possible of its treasures. + +"I don't need any carriage to ride in, like Ed Green," said Adam +proudly. "I could march out and back. Perhaps Ed Green will have to ride +out as well as back." + +But Edward Green neither rode nor walked. The day turned suddenly warm, +the heat and excitement accelerated his already rapid breathing, and the +doctor forbade his setting foot to the ground. + +"But I will!" cried Edward, in whom the spirit of war still lived. + +"No," said the doctor. + +"Then I will ride." + +"You will stay in bed," said the doctor. + +So without Edward Green the parade was formed. Before the court-house +waited the band, and the long line of school-children, and the burgess, +and the fire company, and the distinguished stranger who was to make the +address, until Henry Foust appeared, in his blue suit, with his flag on +his breast and his bouquet in his hand. On each side of him walked a +tall, middle-aged son, who seemed to hand him over reluctantly to the +marshal, who was to escort him to his place. Smilingly he spoke to the +marshal, but he was the only one who smiled or spoke. For an instant men +and women broke off in the middle of their sentences, a husky something +in their throats; children looked up at him with awe. Even his own +grandchildren did not dare to wave or call from their places in the +ranks. Then the storm of cheers broke. + +Round the next corner Adam Foust waited. He was clad in his gray +uniform--those who looked at him closely saw with astonishment that it +was a new uniform; his brows met in a frown, his gray moustache seemed +to bristle. + +"How he hates them!" said one citizen of Fosterville to another. "Just +look at poor Adam!" + +"Used to bait his hook for him," Adam was saying. "Used to carry him +pick-a-back! Used to go halves with him on everything. Now he walks with +Ed Green!" + +Adam pressed forward to the curb. The band was playing "Marching Through +Georgia," which he hated; everybody was cheering. The volume of sound +was deafening. + +"Cheering Ed Green!" said Adam. "Fat! Lazy! Didn't have a wound. Dare +say he hid behind a tree! Dare say----" + +The band was in sight now, the back of the drum-major appeared, then all +the musicians swung round the corner. After them came the little +children with their flowers and their shining faces. + +"Him and Ed Green next," said old Adam. + +But Henry walked alone. Adam's whole body jerked in his astonishment. He +heard some one say that Edward Green was sick, that the doctor had +forbidden him to march, or even to ride. As he pressed nearer the curb +he heard the admiring comments of the crowd. + +"Isn't he magnificent!" + +"See his beautiful flowers! His grandchildren always send him his +flowers." + +"He's our first citizen." + +"He's mine!" Adam wanted to cry out. "He's mine!" + +Never had Adam felt so miserable, so jealous, so heartsick. His eyes +were filled with the great figure. Henry was, in truth, magnificent, not +only in himself, but in what he represented. He seemed symbolic of a +great era of the past, and at the same time of a new age which was +advancing. Old Adam understood all his glory. + +"He's mine!" said old Adam again, foolishly. + +Then Adam leaned forward with startled, staring eyes. Henry had bowed +and smiled in answer to the cheers. Across the street his own house was +a mass of color--red, white, and blue over windows and doors, gay +dresses on the porch. On each side the pavement was crowded with a +shouting multitude. Surely no hero had ever had a more glorious passage +through the streets of his birthplace! + +But old Adam saw that Henry's face blanched, that there appeared +suddenly upon it an expression of intolerable pain. For an instant +Henry's step faltered and grew uncertain. + +Then old Adam began to behave like a wild man. He pushed himself through +the crowd, he flung himself upon the rope as though to tear it down, he +called out, "Wait! wait!" Frightened women, fearful of some sinister +purpose, tried to grasp and hold him. No man was immediately at hand, or +Adam would have been seized and taken away. As for the feeble +women--Adam shook them off and laughed at them. + +"Let me go, you geese!" said he. + +A mounted marshal saw him and rode down upon him; men started from under +the ropes to pursue him. But Adam eluded them or outdistanced them. He +strode across an open space with a surety which gave no hint of the +terrible beating of his heart, until he reached the side of Henry. Him +he greeted, breathlessly and with terrible eagerness. + +"Henry," said he, gasping, "Henry, do you want me to walk along?" + +Henry saw the alarmed crowds, he saw the marshal's hand stretched to +seize Adam, he saw most clearly of all the tearful eyes under the +beetling brows. Henry's voice shook, but he made himself clear. + +"It's all right," said he to the marshal. "Let him be." + +"I saw you were alone," said Adam. "I said, 'Henry needs me.' I know +what it is to be alone. I----" + +But Adam did not finish his sentence. He found a hand on his, a blue arm +linked tightly in his gray arm, he felt himself moved along amid +thunderous roars of sound. + +"Of course I need you!" said Henry. "I've needed you all along." + +Then, old but young, their lives almost ended, but themselves immortal, +united, to be divided no more, amid an ever-thickening sound of cheers, +the two marched down the street. + + --Elsie Singmaster. + + + + +III--THE WILDCAT + + +When Cassius Wyble came down from his mountains to the 2OOO-population +metropolis of Clayburg on his half-yearly trip for supplies he thought +the old custom of Muster Day had been revived. + +No fewer than eleven men in khaki were lounging round the station +platform or sitting on the steps of the North America general store. +Enlistment posters, too, flared from windows and walls. + +These posters--except for their pretty pictures--meant nothing at all to +Cash Wyble. For, as with his parents and grandparents, his knowledge of +the written or printed word was purely a matter of hearsay. + +Yet the sight of the eleven men in newfangled uniform--so like in color +to his own butternut homespuns--interested Cash. + +"What's all the boys doin'--togged up thataway?" he demanded of the +North America's proprietor. "Waitin' for the band?" + +"Waiting to be shipped to Camp Lee," answered the local merchant prince; +adding, as Cash's burnt-leather face grew blanker: "Camp Lee, down in +V'ginia, you know. Training camp for the war." + +"War?" queried Cash, preparing to grin, at prospect of a joke. "What +war?" + +"What war?" echoed the dumfounded storekeeper. + +"Why, _the_ war, of course! Where in blazes have you been keeping +yourself?" + +"I been up home, where I b'long," said Cash sulkily. "What with the +hawgs, an' crops an' skins an' sich, a busy man's got no time traipsin' +off to the city every minute. Twice a year does me pretty nice. An' now +s'pose you tell me what war you're blattin' about." + +The storekeeper told him. He told him in the simplest possible language. +Yet half--and more than half--of the explanation went miles above the +listening mountaineer's head. Cash gathered, however, that the United +States was fighting Germany. + +Germany he knew by repute for a country or a town on the far side of the +world. Some of its citizens had even invaded his West Virginia +mountains, where their odd diction and porcelain pipes roused much +derision among the cultured hillfolk. + +"Germany?" mused Cash when the narrative was ended. "We're to war with +Germany, hey? Sakes, but I wisht I'd knowed that yesterday! A couple of +Germans went right past my shack. I could 'a' shot 'em as easy as toad +pie." + +The North America's proprietor valued Cash Wyble's sparse trade, as he +valued that of other mountaineers who made Clayburg their semiannual +port of call. If on Cash's report these rustics should begin a guerilla +warfare upon their German neighbors, more of them would presently be +lodged in jail than the North America could well afford to spare from +its meager customer list. + +Wherefore the proprietor did some more explaining. Knowing the +mountaineer brain, he made no effort to point out the difference between +armed Germans and noncombatants. He merely said that the Government had +threatened to lock up any West Virginian who should kill a German--this +side of Europe. It was a new law, he continued, and one that the revenue +officers were bent on enforcing. + +Cash sighed and reluctantly bade farewell to an alluring dream that had +begun to shape itself in his simple brain--a dream of "laying out" in +cliff-top brush, waiting with true elephant patience until a German +neighbor should stroll, unsuspecting, along the trail below and should +move slowly within range of the antique Wyble rifle. + +It was a sweet fantasy, and hard to banish. For Cash certainly could +shoot. There was scarce a man in the Cumberlands or the Appalachians who +could outshoot him. Shooting and a native knack at moon-shining were +Cash's only real accomplishments. Whether stalking a shy old stag or +potting a revenue officer on the sky line, the man's aim was uncannily +true. In a region of born marksmen his skill stood forth supreme. + +He felt not the remotest hatred for any of these local Germans. In an +impersonal way he rather liked one or two of them. Yet, if the law had +really been off---- + +The zest of the man hunt tingled pleasantly in the marksman's blood. And +he resented this unfair new revenue ruling, which permitted and even +encouraged larger than Clayburg--which he knew to be the biggest +metropolis in America--Cash set out to nail the lie by a personal +inspection of Petersburg. He neglected to apply for leave, so was held +up by the first sentinel he met. + +Cash explained very politely his reason for quitting camp. But the +pig-headed sentinel still refused to let him pass. Two minutes later a +fast-summoned corporal and two men were using all their strength to pry +Wyble loose from the luckless sentry. And again the guardhouse had Cash +as a transient and blasphemous guest. + +He was learning much more of kitchen-police work than of guard mount. At +the latter task he was a failure. The first night he was assigned to +beat pacing, the relief found him restfully snoring, on his back, his +rifle stuck up in front of him by means of its bayonet thrust into the +ground. Cash had seen no good reason why he should walk to and fro for +hours when there was nothing exciting to watch for and when he had been +awake since early morning. Therefore he had gone to sleep. And his +subsequent guardhouse stay filled him with uncomprehending fury. + +The salute, too, struck him as the height of absurdity--as a bit of +tomfoolery in which he would have no part. Not that he was exclusive, +but what was the use of touching one's forelock to some officer one had +never before met? He was willing to nod pleasantly and even to say +"Howdy, Cap?" when his company captain passed by him for the first time +in the morning. But he saw no use in repeating that or any other form of +salutation when the same captain chanced to meet him a bare fifteen +minutes later. + +Cash Wyble's case was not in any way unique among Camp Lee's thirty +thousand new soldiers. Hundreds of mountaineers were in still worse +mental plight. And the tact as well as the skill of their officers was +strained well-nigh to the breaking point in shaping the amorphous +backwoods rabble into trim soldiers. + +Not all members of the mountain draft were so fiercely resentful as was +Cash. But many others of them were like unbroken colts. The strange +frequency of washing and of shaving, and the wearing of underclothes +were their chief puzzles. + +The company captain labored with Cash again and again, pointing out the +need of neat cleanliness, of promptitude, of vigilance; trying to make +him understand that a salute is not a sign of servility; seeking to +imbue him with the spirit of patriotism and of discipline. But to Cash +the whole thing was infinitely worse and more bewildering than had been +the six months he had once spent in Clayburg jail for mayhem. + +Three things alone mitigated his misery at Camp Lee: The first was the +shooting; the second was his monthly pay--which represented more real +money than he ever had had in his pocket at any one time; the third was +the food--amazing in its abundance and luxurious variety, to the +always-hungry mountaineer. + +But presently the target shooting palled. As soon as he had mastered +carefully the intricacies of the queer new rifle they gave him, the +hours at the range were no more inspiring to him than would be, to +Paderewski, the eternal playing of the scale of C with one finger. + +To Cash the target shooting was child's play. Once he grasped the rules +as to sights and elevations and became used to the feel of the army +rifle, the rest was drearily simple. + +He could outshoot practically every man at Camp Lee. This gave him no +pride. He made himself popular with men who complimented him on it by +assuring them modestly that he outshot them not because he was such a +dead shot but because they shot so badly. + +The headiest colt in time will learn the lesson of the breaking pen. And +Cash Wyble gradually became a soldier. At least he learned the drill and +the regulations and how to keep out of the guardhouse--except just after +pay day; and his lank figure took on a certain military spruceness. But +under the surface he was still Cash Wyble. He behaved, because there was +no incentive at the camp that made disobedience worth while. + +Then after an endless winter came the journey to the seaboard and the +embarkation for France; and the awesome sight of a tossing gray ocean a +hundred times wider and rougher than Clayburg River in freshet time. +Followed a week of agonized terror, mingled with an acute longing to +die. Then ensued a week of calm water, during which one might refill the +oft-emptied inner man. + +A few days later Cash was bumping along a newly repaired French railway +in a car whose announced capacity was forty men or eight horses. And +thence to billet in a half-wrecked village, where his regiment was +drilled and redrilled in the things they had toiled so hard at Camp Lee +to master, and in much that was novel to the men. + +Cash next came to a halt in a network of trenches overlooking a stretch +of country that had been tortured into hideousness--a region that looked +like a Doré nightmare. It was a waste of hillocks and gullies and shell +holes and blasted big trees and frayed copses and split bowlders and +seared vegetation. When Cash heard it was called No Man's Land he was +not surprised. He well understood why no man--not even an ignorant +foreigner--cared to buy such a tract. + +He was far more interested in hearing that a tangle of trenches, +somewhat like his regiment's own, lay three miles northeastward, at the +limit of No Man's Land, and that those trenches were infested with +Germans. + +Germans were the people Cash Wyble had come all the way to France to +kill. And once more the thrill of the man hunt swept pleasantly through +his blood. He had no desire to risk prison. So he had made very certain +by repeated inquiry that this particular section of France was in +Europe; and that no part of it was within the boundaries or the +jurisdiction of the sovereign state of West Virginia. Here, therefore, +the law was off on Germans, and he could not get into the slightest +trouble with the hated revenue officers by shooting as many of the foe +as he could go out and find. + +Cash enjoyed the picture he conjured up--a picture of a whole bevy of +Germans seated at ease in a trench, smoking porcelain pipes and +conversing with one another in comically broken English; of himself +stealing toward them, and from the shelter of one of those hillock +bowlders opening a mortal fire on the unsuspecting foreigners. + +It was a quaint thought, and one that Cash loved to play with. + +Also it had an advantage that most of Cash's vivid mind pictures had +not. For, in part, it came true. + +The Germans, on the thither side of No Man's Land, seemed bent on +jarring the repose and wrenching the nerve of their lately arrived +Yankee neighbors. Not only were those veteran official entertainers, +Minnie and Bertha, and their equally vocal artillery sisters called into +service for the purpose, but a dense swarm of snipers were also +impressed into the task. + +Now this especial reach of No Man's Land was a veritable snipers' +paradise. There was cover--plenty of it--everywhere. A hundred +sharpshooters of any scouting prowess at all could deploy at will amid +the tumble of bowlders and knolls and twisted tree trunks and battered +foliage and craters. + +The long spell of wet weather had precluded the burning away of +undergrowth. There were tree tops and hill summits whence a splendid +shot could be taken at unwary Americans in the lower front-line trenches +and along the rising ground at the rear of the Yankee lines. Yes, it was +a stretch of ground laid out for the joy of snipers. And the German +sharpshooters took due advantage of this bit of luck. The whine of a +high-power bullet was certain to follow the momentary exposure of any +portion of khaki anatomy above or behind the parapets. And in +disgustingly many instances the bullet did not whine in vain. All of +which kept the newcomers from getting any excess joy out of trench life. + +To mitigate the annoyance there was a call for volunteer sharpshooters +to scout cautiously through No Man's Land and seek to render the boche +sniping a less safe and exhilarating sport than thus far it had been. +The job was full of peril, of course. For there was a more than even +chance of the Yankee snipers' being sniped by the rival sharpshooters, +who were better acquainted with the ground. + +Yet at the first call there was a clamorous throng of volunteers. Many +of these volunteers admitted under pressure that they knew nothing of +scout work and that they had not so much as qualified in marksmanship. +But they craved a chance at the boche. And grouchily did they resent the +swift weeding-out process that left their services uncalled for. + +Cash Wyble was the first man accepted for the dangerous detail. And for +the first time since the draft had caught him his burnt-leather face +expanded into a grin that could not have been wider unless his flaring +ears had been set back. + +With two days' rations and a goodly store of cartridges he fared forth +that night into No Man's Land. Dawn was not yet fully gray when the +first crack of his rifle was wafted back to the trenches. + +Then the artillery firing, which was part of the day's work, set in. And +its racket drowned the noise of any shooting that Cash might be at. + +Forty-eight hours passed. At dawn of the third day Cash came back to +camp. He was tired and horribly thirsty; but his lantern-jawed visage +was one unmarred mask of bliss. + +"Twelve," he reported tersely to his captain. "At least," he continued +in greater detail, "twelve that I'm dead sure of. Nice big ones, too, +some of 'em." + +"Nice big ones!" repeated the captain in admiring disgust. "You talk as +if you'd been after wild turkeys!" + +"A heap better'n wild-turkey shootin'!" grinned Cash. "An' I got twelve +that I'm sure of. There was one, though, I couldn't get. A he-one, at +that. He's sure some German, that feller! He's as crafty as they make +'em. I couldn't ever come up to him or get a line on him. I'll bet I +throwed away thutty ca'tridges on jes' that one Dutchy. An' by an' by he +found out what I was arter. Then there was fun, Cap! Him and I did have +one fine shootin' match! But I was as good at hidin' as he was. And +there couldn't neither one of us seem to git 'tother. Most of the rest +of 'em was as easy to git as a settin' hen. But not him. I'd 'a' laid +out there longer for a crack at him but I couldn't find no water. If +there'd been a spring or a water seep anywheres there I'd 'a' stayed +till doomsday but what I'd 'a' got him. Soon's I fill up with some water +I'm goin' back arter him. He's well wuth it. I'll bet that cuss don't +weigh an ounce under two hundred pound." + +Cash's smug joy in his exploit and his keen anticipation of a return +trip were dashed by the captain's reminder that war is not a hunting +jaunt; and that Wyble must return to his loathed trench duties until +such time as it should seem wise to those above him to send him forth +again. + +Cash could not make head or tail out of such a command. After months of +grinding routine he had at last found a form of recreation that not only +dulled his sharply constant homesickness but that made up for all he had +gone through. And now he was told he could go forth on such delightful +excursions only when he might chance to be sent! + +Red wrath boiled hot in the soul of Cash Wyble. Experience had taught +him the costly folly of venting such rage on a commissioned officer. So +he hunted up Top Sergeant Mahan of his own company and laid his griefs +before that patient veteran. + +Top Sergeant Mahan--formerly of the Regular Army--listened with true +sympathy to the complaint; and listened with open enthusiasm to the tale +of the two days of forest skulking. But he could offer no help in the +matter of returning to the _battue_. + +"The cap'n was right," declared Mahan. "They wanted to throw a little +lesson into those boche snipers and make them ease up on their heckling. +And you gave them a man's-size dose of their own physic. There's not one +sniper out there to-day, to ten who were on deck three days ago. You've +done your job. And you've done it good and plenty. But it's done--for a +while anyhow. You weren't brought over here to spend your time in +prowling around No Man's Land on a still hunt for stray Germans. That +isn't Uncle Sam's way. Don't go grouching over it, man! You'll be +remembered, all right. And if they get pesky again you'll be the first +one sent out to abate them. You can count on it. Till then, go ahead +with your regular work and forget the sniper job." + +"But, Sarge!" pleaded Cash, "you don't git the idee. You don't git it at +all. Those Germans will be shyer'n scat, now that I've flushed 'em. An' +the longer the news has a chance to git round among 'em, the shyer +they're due to git. Why, even if I was to go out thar straight off it +ain't likely I'd be able to pot one where I potted three before. It's +the same difference as it is between the first flushin' of a wild-turkey +bunch an' the second. An' if I've got to wait long there'll be no +downin' _any_ of 'em. Tell that to the Cap. Make him see if he wants +them cusses he better let me git 'em while they're still gittable." + +In vain did Top Sergeant Mahan go over and over the same ground, trying +to make Cash see that the company captain and those above him were not +out for a record in the matter of ambushed Germans. + +Wyble had struck one idea he could understand, and he would not give it +up. + +"But, Sarge," he urged desperately, "I'm no durn good here foolin' +around with drill an' relief an' diggin' an' all that. Any mudback can +do them things if you folks is sot on havin' 'em done. But there ain't +another man in all this outfit who can shoot like I can; or has the +knack of 'layin' out'; or of stalkin'. Pop got the trick of it from +gran'ther. An' gran'ther got if off th' Injuns in th' old days. If you +folks is out to git Germans I'm the feller to git 'em fer you. Nice big +ones. If you're here jes' to play sojer, any poor fool c'n play it fer +you as good as me." + +"I've just told you," began the sergeant, "that we----" + +"'Nuther thing!" suggested Cash brightly. "These Germans must have +villages somew'eres. All folks do. Even Injuns. Some place where they +live when they ain't on the warpath. Get leave an' rations an' +ca'tridges for me--for a week, or maybe two--an' I'll gar'ntee to scout +till I find one of them villages. The Dutchies won't be expectin' me. +An' I c'n likely pot a whole mess of 'em before they c'n git to cover. + +"Say!" he went on eagerly, a bit of general information flashing into +his memory. "Did you know Germans was a kind of Confed'? The fightin' +Germans, I mean. Well, they are. The hull twelve I got was dressed in +gray Confed' uniform, same as pop used to wear. I got his old uniform to +home. Lord, but pop would sure lay into me if he knowed I was pepperin' +his old side partners like that! I'd figered that all Germans was +dressed like the ones back home. But they've got reg'lar uniforms. +Confed' uniforms, at that. I wonder does our gin'ral know about it?" + +Again the long-suffering Mahan tried to set him right; this time as to +the wide divergence between the gray-backed troops of Ludendorff and the +Confederacy's gallant soldiers. But Cash merely nodded cryptically, as +always he did when he thought his foreigner fellow soldiers were trying +to take advantage of his supposed ignorance. And he swung back to the +theme nearest his heart. + +"Now about that snipin' business," he pursued, "even if the Cap don't +want too many of 'em shot up, he sure won't be so cantankerous as to +keep me from tryin' to git that thirteenth feller! I mean the one that +kep' blazin' at me whiles I kep' blazin' at him; an' the both of us too +cute to show an inch of target to t'other or stay in the same patch of +cover after we'd fired. That Dutchy sure c'n scout grand! He's a born +woodsman. An' you-all don't want it to be said the Germans has got a +better sniper than what we've got, do you? Well, that's jes' what will +be said by everyone in this yer county unless you let me down him. Come +on, Sarge! Let me go back arter him! I been thinkin' up a trick +gran'ther got off'n th' Injuns. It oughter land him sure. Let me go try! +I b'lieve that feller can't weigh an ounce less'n two-twenty. Leave me +have one more go arter him; and I'll bring him in to prove it!" + +Top Sergeant Mahan's patience stopped fraying, and ripped from end to +end. + +"You seem to think this war is a cross between a mountain feud and a +deer hunt!" he growled. "Isn't there any way of hammering through your +ivory mine that we aren't here to pick off unsuspecting Germans and make +a tally of the kill? And we aren't here to brag about the size of the +men we shoot either. We're here, you and I, to obey orders and do our +work. You'll get plenty of shooting before you go home again, don't +worry. Only you'll do it the way you're told to. After all the time +you've spent in the hoosgow since you joined, I should think you'd know +that." + +But Cash Wyble did not know it. He said so--loudly, offensively, +blasphemously. He said many things--things that in any other army than +his own would have landed him against a blank wall facing a firing +squad. Then he slouched off by himself to grumble. + +As far as Cash Wyble was concerned the war was a failure--a total +failure. The one bright spot in its workaday monotony was blurred for +him by the orders of his stupid superiors. In his vivid imagination that +elusive German sniper gradually attained a weight not far from three +hundred pounds. + +In sour silence Cash sulked through the rest of the day's routine. In +his heart boiled black rebellion. He had learned his soldier trade, back +at Camp Lee, because it had been very strongly impressed upon him that +he would go to jail if he did not. For the same reason he had not tried +to desert. He had all the true mountaineer horror for prison. He had +toned down his native temper and stubbornness because failure to do so +always landed him in the guardhouse--a place that, to his mind, was +almost as terrible as jail. + +But out here in the wilderness there were no jails. At least Cash had +seen none. And he had it on the authority of Top Sergeant Mahan himself +that this part of France was not within the legal jurisdiction of West +Virginia--the only region, as far as Cash actually knew, where men are +put in prison for their misdeeds. Hence the rules governing Camp Lee +could not be supposed to obtain out here. All of which comforted Cash +not a little. + +To him "patriotism" was a word as meaningless as was "discipline." The +law of force he recognized--the law that had hog-tied him and flung him +into the Army. But the higher law which makes men risk their all, right +blithely, that their country and civilization may triumph--this was as +much a mystery to Cash Wyble as to any army mule. + +Just now he detested the country that had dragged him away from his lean +shack and forbade him to disport himself as he chose in No Man's Land. +He hated his country; he hated his Army; he hated his regiment. Most of +all he loathed his captain and Top Sergeant Mahan. + +At Camp Lee he had learned to comport himself more or less like a +civilized recruit because there was no breach of discipline worth the +penalty of the guardhouse. Out here it was different. + +That night Private Cassius Wyble got hold of two other men's emergency +rations, a bountiful supply of water and a stuffing pocketful of +cartridges. With these and his adored rifle he eluded the sentries--a +ridiculously easy feat for so skilled a woodsman--and went over the top +and on into No Man's Land. + +By daylight he had trailed and potted a German sniper. + +By sunrise he had located the man against whom he had sworn his strategy +feud--the German who had put him on his mettle two days before. + +Cash did not see his foe. And when from the edge of a rock he fired at a +puff of smoke in a clump of trees no resultant body came tumbling +earthward. And thirty seconds later a bullet from quite another part of +the clump spatted hotly against the rock edge five inches from his head. + +Cash smiled beatifically. He recognized the tactics of his former +opponent. And once more the merry game was on. + +To make perfectly certain of his rival's identity Cash wiggled low in +the undergrowth until he came to a jut of rock about seven feet long and +two feet high. Lying at full length behind this low barrier, and +parallel to it, Cash put his hat on the toe of his boot and cautiously +lifted his foot until the hat's sugar-loaf crown protruded a few inches +above the top of the rock. + +On the instant, from the tree clump, snapped the report of a rifle. The +bullet, ignoring the hat, nicked the rock comb precisely above Cash's +upturned face. He nodded approval, for it told him that his enemy was +not only a good forest fighter but that he recognized the same skill in +Wyble. + +Thus began two days of delightful pastime for the exiled mountaineer. +Thus, too, began a series of offensive and defensive maneuvers worthy of +Natty Bumppo and Old Sleuth combined. + +It was not until Cash abandoned the hunt long enough to find and shoot +another German sniper and appropriate the latter's uniform that he was +able, under cover of dusk, to get near enough to the tree clump for a +fair sight of his antagonist. At which juncture a snap shot from the hip +ended the duel. + +Cash's initial thrill of triumph, even then, was dampened. For the +sniper--to whom by this time he had credited the size of Goliath at the +very least--proved to be a wizened little fellow, not much more than +five feet tall. + +Still Cash had won. He had outgeneraled a mighty clever sharpshooter. He +had gotten what he came out for, and two other snipers, besides. It was +not a bad bag. As there was nothing else to stay there for, and as his +water was gone, as well as nearly all his cartridges, Cash shouldered +his rifle and plodded wearily back to camp for a night's rest. + +There to his amazed indignation he was not received as a hero, even when +he sought to recount his successful adventures. Instead, he was arrested +at once on a charge of technical desertion, and was lodged in the local +substitute for a regular guardhouse. + +Bewildered wrath smothered him. What had he done, to be arrested again? +True, he had left camp without leave. But had he not atoned for this +peccadillo fifty-fold by the results of his absence? Had he not killed +three men whose business it was to shoot Americans? Had he not killed +the very best sniper the Germans could hope to possess? + +Yet, they had not promoted him. They had not so much as thanked him. +Instead, they had stuck him here in the hoosgow. And Mahan had said +something about a court-martial. + +It was black ingratitude! That was what it was. That and more. Such +people did not deserve to have the services of a real fighter like +himself. + +Which started another train of thought. + +Apparently--except on special occasions--the Americans did not send men +out into the wilderness to take pot shots at the lurking foe. And +apparently that was just what the Germans always did. He had full proof, +indeed, of the German custom. For had he not found a number of the +graybacks thus happily engaged? Not for one occasion only, but as a +regular thing? + +Yes, the Germans had sense enough to appreciate a good fighter when they +had one. And they knew how to make use of him in a way to afford +innocent pleasure to himself and much harm to the enemy. That was the +ideal life for a soldier--"laying out" and sniping the foe. Not +kitchen-police work and endless drill and digging holes and taking +baths. Sniping was the job for a he-man, if one had to be away from home +at all. And in the German ranks alone was such happy employment to be +found. + +When Cash calmly and definitely made up his mind to desert to the +Germans he was troubled by no scruples at all. Even the dread of the +mysterious court-martial added little weight to his decision. The deed +seemed to him not a whit worse than was the leaving of one farmer's +employ, back home, to take service with another who offered more +congenial work. + +Wherefore he deserted. + +It was not at all difficult for him to escape from the elementary cell +in which he was confined. It was a mere matter of strategy and luck. So +was his escape to No Man's Land. + +Unteroffizier Otto Schrabstaetter an hour later conducted to his company +commander a lanky and leather-faced man in khaki uniform who had +accosted a sentry with the pacific plea that he be sworn in as a member +of the German Army. + +The sentry did not know English; nor did Unteroffizier Otto +Schrabstaetter. And though Cash addressed them both in a very fair +imitation of the guttural English he had heard used by the West Virginia +Germans--and which he fondly believed to be pure German--they did not +understand a word of his plea. So he was taken to the captain, a man who +had lived for five years in New York. + +With the Unteroffizier at his side and with two armed soldiers just +behind him Cash confronted the captain, and under the latter's volley of +barked questions told his story. Ten minutes afterward he was repeating +the same tale to a flint-faced man with a fox-brush mustache--Colonel +von Scheurer, commander of the regiment that held that section of the +first-line trench. + +A little to Cash's aggrieved surprise, neither the captain nor the +colonel seemed interested in his prowess as a sharpshooter or in his +ill-treatment at the hands of his own Army. Instead, they asked an +interminable series of questions that seemed to have no bearing at all +on his case. + +They wanted, for instance, to know the name of his regiment; its quota +of men; how long they had been in France; what sea route they had taken +in crossing the ocean; from what port they had sailed; and the +approximate size of the convoy. They wanted to know what regiments lay +to either side of Cash's in the American trenches; how many men per +month America was sending overseas and where they usually landed. They +wanted to know a thousand things more, of the same general nature. + +Cash saw no reason why he should not satisfy their silly curiosity. And +he proceeded to do so to the best of his ability. But as he did not know +so much as the name of the port whence he had shipped to France, and as +the rest of his tactical knowledge was on the same plane, the +fast-barked queries presently took on a tone of exasperation. + +This did not bother Cash. He was doing his best. If these people did not +like his answers that was no affair of his. He was here to fight, not to +talk. His attention wandered. + +Presently he interrupted the colonel's most searching questions to ask: +"You-all don't happen to be the Kaiser, do you? I s'pose not though. +I'll bet that old Kaiser must weigh----" + +A thundered oath brought him back to the subject in hand, and the +cross-questioning went on. But all the queries elicited nothing more +than a mass of misinformation, delivered with such palpable genuineness +of purpose that even Colonel von Scheurer could not doubt the man's good +faith. + +And at last the two officers began to have a very fair estimate of the +mountaineer's character and of the reasons that had brought him thither. + +Still it was the colonel's mission in life to suspect--to take nothing +for granted. And after all, this yokel and his queer story were no more +bizarre than was many a spy trick played by Germany upon her foes. Spies +were bound to be good actors. And this lantern-jawed fellow might +possibly be a character actor of high ability. Colonel von Scheurer sat +for a moment in silence, peering up at Cash from beneath a thatch of +stiff-haired brows. Then he ordered the captain and the others to leave +the dugout. + +Alone with Wyble the colonel still maintained his pose of majestic +surveillance. + +Then with no warning he spat forth the question: "_Wer bist du?_" + +Not the best character actor unhung could have simulated the owlish +ignorance in Cash's face. Not the shrewdest spy could have had time to +mask a knowledge of German. And, as Colonel von Scheurer well knew, no +spy who did not understand German would have been sent to enlist in the +German Army. + +The colonel at once was satisfied that the newcomer was not a spy. Yet +to make doubly certain of the recruit's willingness to serve against his +own country Von Scheurer sought another test. Pulling toward him a +scratch pad he picked up a pencil from the table before him and +proceeded to make a rapid sketch. When the sketch was complete he +detached the top sheet and showed it to Cash. On it was drawn a rough +likeness of the American flag. + +"What is that?" he demanded. + +"Old Glory," answered Cash after a leisurely survey of the picture; +adding in friendly patronage: "And not bad drawed, at that." + +"It is the United States flag," pursued the colonel, "as you say. It is +the national emblem of the country where you were born; the country you +are renouncing, to become a subject of the All Highest." + +"Meanin' Gawd?" asked Cash. + +He wanted to be sure of every step. While he did not at all know the +meaning of "renounce," yet his attendance at mountain camp-meeting +revivals had given him a possible inkling as to what "All Highest" +meant. + +"What?" inquired the puzzled colonel, not catching his drift. + +"The 'All Highest' is Gawd, ain't it?" said Cash. + +"It is His Imperial Majesty, the Kaiser," sharply retorted the +scandalized colonel. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Cash, much interested. "I see. In Wes' V'ginny we call +Him 'Gawd.' An' over in this neck of the woods your Dutch name for Him +is 'Kaiser.' What a ninny I am! I'd allers had the idee the Kaiser was +jes' a man, with somethin' the same sort of job as Pres'dent Wilson's. +But----" + +"This picture represents the flag of the United States," resumed the +impatient Von Scheurer, waiving the subject of theology for the point in +hand. "You have renounced it. You have declared your wish to fight +against it. Prove that. Prove it by tearing that sketch in two--and +spitting upon it!" + +"Hold on!" interposed Cash, speaking with tolerant kindness as to a +somewhat stupid child. "Hold on, Cap! You got me wrong. Or may be I +didn't make it so very clear. I didn't ever say I wanted to fight Old +Glory. All I said I wanted to do was to fight that crowd of smart Alecks +over yonder who jail me all the time an' won't let me fight in my own +way. I've got nothin' agin th' old flag. Why, that 'ere's the flag I was +borned under! Me an' pop an' gran'ther an' the hull b'ilin' of us--as +fur back as there was any 'Merica, I reckon. I don't go 'round wavin' it +none. That ain't my way. But I sure ain't goin' to tear it up. And I +most gawdamightysure ain't goin' to spit on it. I----" + +He checked himself. Not that he had no more to say, but because to his +astonishment he found he was beginning to lose his temper. This +phenomenon halted his speech and turned his wondering thoughts inward. + +Cash could not understand his own strange surge of choler. He had not +been aware of any special interest in the American flag. A little +bunting representation of the Stars and Stripes--now faded close to +whiteness--hung on the wall of his shack at home, where his grandmother, +a rabid Unionist, had hung it nearly sixty years earlier, when West +Virginia had refused to join the Confederacy. Every day of his life Cash +had seen it there; had seen without noting or caring. + +Camp Lee, too, had been ablaze with American flags. And after he had +learned the rules as to the flag salute Cash had never given the banners +a second thought. The regimental flags, too, here in France, had seemed +to him but a natural part of the Army's equipment, and no more to be +venerated than the twin bars on his captain's tunic. + +Thus he could not in the very least account for the fiery flare of +rebellion that gripped him at this ramrod-like Prussian's command to +defile the emblem. Yet grip him it did. And it held him there, quivering +and purple, the strange emotion waxing more and more overpoweringly +potent at each passing fraction of a second. Dumb and shaking he +glowered down at the amused colonel. + +Von Scheurer watched him placidly for a few moments; then with a short +laugh he advanced the test. Reaching for the sheet of paper whereon he +had sketched the flag the colonel held it lightly between the fingers of +his outstretched hands. + +"It is really a very simple thing to do," he said carelessly, yet +keeping a covert watch upon the mountaineer. "And it is a thing that +every loyal German subject should rejoice to do. All I required was that +you first tear the emblem in two and then spit upon it--as I do now." + +But the colonel did not suit action to words. As his fingers tightened +on the sheet of paper the dugout echoed to a low snarl that would have +done credit to a Cumberland catamount. + +And with the snarl six feet of lean and wiry bulk shot through the air +across the narrow table that separated Cash from the colonel. + +Von Scheurer with admirable presence of mind snatched his pistol from +its temporary resting place in his lap. With the speed of the wind he +seized the weapon. But with the speed of the whirlwind Cash Wyble was +upon him, his clawlike fingers deep in the colonel's full throat, his +hundred and sixty pounds of bone and gristle smiting Von Scheurer on +chest and shoulder. + +Cash had literally risen in air and pounced on the Prussian. Under the +impact Von Scheurer's chair collapsed. Both men shot to earth, the +colonel undermost and the pistol flying unheeded from his grasp. Over, +too, went the table, and the electric light upon it. And the dugout was +in pitch blackness. + +There in the dark Cash Wyble deliriously tackled his prey, making queer +and hideous little worrying sounds now and then far down in his throat, +like a dog that mangles its meat. + +And there the sentry from the earthen passageway found them when he +rushed in with an electric torch, and followed by a rabble of fellow +soldiers. + +Cash at sound of the running footsteps jumped to his feet. The man he +had attacked was lying very still, in a crumpled and yet sprawling +heap--in a posture never designed by Nature. + +With one wild sweep of his windmill arms Cash grabbed up the sheet of +paper on which Von Scheurer had made his life's last sketch. With a +simultaneous sweep he knocked the glass-bulbed torch from the sentinel, +just as a rifle or two were centering their aim toward him; and, head +down, he tore into the group of men who blocked the dugout entrance. + +Cash had a faintly conscious sense of dashing down one passageway and up +another, following by forestry instinct the course he noted when he was +led into the colonel's presence. + +He collided with a sentinel; he butted another from his flying path. He +heard yells and shots--especially shots. Once something hit him on the +shoulder, whirling him half round without breaking his stride. Again +something hot whipped him across the cheek. And at last he was out, +under the foggy stars, with excited Germans firing in his general +direction and loosing off star shells. + +Again instinct and scout skill came to the rescue as he plunged into a +bramble thicket and wriggled through long grass on his heaving stomach. + +An hour before dawn Cash Wyble was led before his sleepy and unloving +company commander. The returned wanderer was caked with dirt and blood. +His face was scored by briers. Across one cheek ran the red wale of a +bullet. A very creditable flesh wound adorned his left shoulder. His +clothes were in ribbons. + +Before the captain could frame the first of a thousand scathing words +Cash broke out pantingly: "Stick me in the hoosgow if you're a mind to, +Cap! Stick me there for life. Or wish me onto a kitchen-police job +forever! I'm not kickin'. It's comin' to me, all right, arter what I +done. + +"I git the drift of the hull thing now. I'm onter what it means. It--it +means Old Glory! It means--_this!_" + +He stuck out one muddy hand wherein was clutched a wad of scratch-pad +paper. + +Then the company commander did a thing that stamped him as a genius. +Instead of administering the planned rebuke and following it by sending +the wretch to the guard house he began to ask questions. + +"What do you make of it all?" dazedly queried the captain of Top +Sergeant Mahan when Cash had been taken to the trench hospital to have +his shoulder dressed. + +"Well, sir," reported Mahan meditatively, "for one thing, I take it, +we've got a new soldier in the company. A soldier, not a varmint. For +another thing, I take it, Uncle Sam's got a new American on his list of +nephews. And--and, unless I'm wrong, Kaiser Bill is short one crackajack +sniper and one perfectly good Prussian colonel too. War's a funny thing, +sir." + + --Albert Payson Terhune. + + + + +IV--THE CITIZEN + + +The President of the United States was speaking. His audience comprised +two thousand foreign-born men who had just been admitted to citizenship. +They listened intently, their faces, aglow with the light of a new-born +patriotism, upturned to the calm, intellectual face of the first citizen +of the country they now claimed as their own. + +Here and there among the newly made citizens were wives and children. +The women were proud of their men. They looked at them from time to +time, their faces showing pride and awe. + +One little woman, sitting immediately in front of the President, held +the hand of a big, muscular man and stroked it softly. The big man was +looking at the speaker with great blue eyes that were the eyes of a +dreamer. + +The President's words came clear and distinct: + +_You were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by +some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some +expectation of a better kind of life. You dreamed dreams of this +country, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. A man enriches the +country to which he brings dreams, and you who have brought them have +enriched America._ + +The big man made a curious choking noise and his wife breathed a soft +"Hush!" The giant was strangely affected. + +The President continued: + +_No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us, but remember this, +if we have grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with +you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man +does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of +us have forgotten what America believed in, you at any rate imported in +your own hearts a renewal of the belief. Each of you, I am sure, brought +a dream, a glorious, shining dream, a dream worth more than gold or +silver, and that is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome._ + +The big man's eyes were fixed. His wife shook him gently, but he did not +heed her. He was looking through the presidential rostrum, through the +big buildings behind it, looking out over leagues of space to a +snow-swept village that huddled on an island in the Beresina, the +swift-flowing tributary of the mighty Dnieper, an island that looked +like a black bone stuck tight in the maw of the stream. + +It was in the little village on the Beresina that the Dream came to Ivan +Berloff, Big Ivan of the Bridge. + +The Dream came in the spring. All great dreams come in the spring, and +the Spring Maiden who brought Big Ivan's Dream was more than ordinarily +beautiful. She swept up the Beresina, trailing wondrous draperies of +vivid green. Her feet touched the snow-hardened ground and armies of +little white and blue flowers sprang up in her footsteps. Soft breezes +escorted her, velvety breezes that carried the aromas of the far-off +places from which they came, places far to the southward, and more +distant towns beyond the Black Sea whose people were not under the sway +of the Great Czar. + +The father of Big Ivan, who had fought under Prince Menshikov at Alma +fifty-five years before, hobbled out to see the sunbeams eat up the snow +hummocks that hid in the shady places, and he told his son it was the +most wonderful spring he had ever seen. + +"The little breezes are hot and sweet," he said, sniffing hungrily with +his face turned toward the south. "I know them, Ivan! I know them! They +have the spice odor that I sniffed on the winds that came to us when we +lay in the trenches at Balaklava. Praise God for the warmth!" + +And that day the Dream came to Big Ivan as he plowed. It was a wonder +dream. It sprang into his brain as he walked behind the plow, and for a +few minutes he quivered as the big bridge quivers when the Beresina +sends her ice squadrons to hammer the arches. It made his heart pound +mightily, and his lips and throat became very dry. + +Big Ivan stopped at the end of the furrow and tried to discover what had +brought the Dream. Where had it come from? Why had it clutched him so +suddenly? Was he the only man in the village to whom it had come? + +Like his father, he sniffed the sweet-smelling breezes. He thrust his +great hands into the sunbeams. He reached down and plucked one of a +bunch of white flowers that had sprung up overnight. The Dream was born +of the breezes and the sunshine and the spring flowers. It came from +them and it had sprung into his mind because he was young and strong. He +knew! It couldn't come to his father or Donkov, the tailor, or Poborino, +the smith. They were old and weak, and Ivan's dream was one that called +for youth and strength. + +"Ay, for youth and strength," he muttered as he gripped the plow. "And I +have it!" + +That evening Big Ivan of the Bridge spoke to his wife, Anna, a little +woman, who had a sweet face and a wealth of fair hair. + +"Wife, we are going away from here," he said. + +"Where are we going, Ivan?" she asked. + +"Where do you think, Anna?" he said, looking down at her as she stood by +his side. + +"To Bobruisk," she murmured. + +"No." + +"Farther?" + +"Ay, a long way farther." + +Fear sprang into her soft eyes. Bobruisk was eighty-nine versts away, +yet Ivan said they were going farther. + +"We--we are not going to Minsk?" she cried. + +"Ay, and beyond Minsk!" + +"Ivan, tell me!" she gasped. "Tell me where we are going!" + +"We are going to America." + +"_To America?_" + +"Yes, to America!" + +Big Ivan of the Bridge lifted up his voice when he cried out the words +"To America," and then a sudden fear sprang upon him as those words +dashed through the little window out into the darkness of the village +street. Was he mad? America was 8,000 versts away! It was far across the +ocean, a place that was only a name to him, a place where he knew no +one. He wondered in the strange little silence that followed his words +if the crippled son of Poborino, the smith, had heard him. The cripple +would jeer at him if the night wind had carried the words to his ear. + +Anna remained staring at her big husband for a few minutes, then she sat +down quietly at his side. There was a strange look in his big blue eyes, +the look of a man to whom has come a vision, the look which came into +the eyes of those shepherds of Judea long, long ago. + +"What is it, Ivan?" she murmured softly, patting his big hand. "Tell +me." + +And Big Ivan of the Bridge, slow of tongue, told of the Dream. To no one +else would he have told it. Anna understood. She had a way of patting +his hands and saying soft things when his tongue could not find words to +express his thoughts. + +Ivan told how the Dream had come to him as he plowed. He told her how it +had sprung upon him, a wonderful dream born of the soft breezes, of the +sunshine, of the sweet smell of the upturned sod and of his own +strength. "It wouldn't come to weak men," he said, baring an arm that +showed great snaky muscles rippling beneath the clear skin. "It is a +dream that comes only to those who are strong and those who want--who +want something that they haven't got." Then in a lower voice he said: +"What is it that we want, Anna?" + +The little wife looked out into the darkness with fear-filled eyes. +There were spies even there in that little village on the Beresina, and +it was dangerous to say words that might be construed into a reflection +on the Government. But she answered Ivan. She stooped and whispered one +word into his ear, and he slapped his thigh with his big hand. + +"Ay," he cried. "That is what we want! You and I and millions like us +want it, and over there, Anna, over there we will get it. It is the +country where a muzhik is as good as a prince of the blood!" + +Anna stood up, took a small earthenware jar from a side shelf, dusted it +carefully and placed it upon the mantel. From a knotted cloth about her +neck she took a ruble and dropped the coin into the jar. Big Ivan looked +at her curiously. + +"It is to make legs for your Dream," she explained. "It is many versts +to America, and one rides on rubles." + +"You are a good wife," he said. "I was afraid that you might laugh at +me." + +"It is a great dream," she murmured. "Come, we will go to sleep." + +The Dream maddened Ivan during the days that followed. It pounded within +his brain as he followed the plow. It bred a discontent that made him +hate the little village, the swift-flowing Beresina and the gray +stretches that ran toward Mogilev. He wanted to be moving, but Anna had +said that one rode on rubles, and rubles were hard to find. + +And in some mysterious way the village became aware of the secret. +Donkov, the tailor, discovered it. Donkov lived in one-half of the +cottage occupied by Ivan and Anna, and Donkov had long ears. The tailor +spread the news, and Poborino, the smith, and Yanansk, the baker, would +jeer at Ivan as he passed. + +"When are you going to America?" they would ask. + +"Soon," Ivan would answer. + +"Take us with you!" they would cry in chorus. + +"It is no place for cowards," Ivan would answer. "It is a long way, and +only brave men can make the journey." + +"Are you brave?" the baker screamed one day as he went by. + +"I am brave enough to want liberty!" cried Ivan angrily. "I am brave +enough to want----" + +"Be careful! Be careful!" interrupted the smith. "A long tongue has +given many a man a train journey that he never expected." + +That night Ivan and Anna counted the rubles in the earthenware pot. The +giant looked down at his wife with a gloomy face, but she smiled and +patted his hand. + +"It is slow work," he said. + +"We must be patient," she answered. "You have the Dream." + +"Ay," he said. "I have the Dream." + +Through the hot, languorous summertime the Dream grew within the brain +of Big Ivan. He saw visions in the smoky haze that hung above the +Beresina. At times he would stand, hoe in hand, and look toward the +west, the wonderful west into which the sun slipped down each evening +like a coin dropped from the fingers of the dying day. + +Autumn came, and the fretful whining winds that came down from the north +chilled the Dream. The winds whispered of the coming of the Snow King, +and the river grumbled as it listened. Big Ivan kept out of the way of +Poborino, the smith, and Yanansk, the baker. The Dream was still with +him, but autumn is a bad time for dreams. + +Winter came, and the Dream weakened. It was only the earthenware pot +that kept it alive, the pot into which the industrious Anna put every +coin that could be spared. Often Big Ivan would stare at the pot as he +sat beside the stove. The pot was the cord which kept the Dream alive. + +"You are a good woman, Anna," Ivan would say again and again. "It was +you who thought of saving the rubles." + +"But it was you who dreamed," she would answer. "Wait for the spring, +husband mine. Wait." + +It was strange how the spring came to the Beresina that year. It sprang +upon the flanks of winter before the Ice King had given the order to +retreat into the fastnesses of the north. It swept up the river escorted +by a million little breezes, and housewives opened their windows and +peered out with surprise upon their faces. A wonderful guest had come to +them and found them unprepared. + +Big Ivan of the Bridge was fixing a fence in the meadow on the morning +the Spring Maiden reached the village. For a little while he was not +aware of her arrival. His mind was upon his work, but suddenly he +discovered that he was hot, and he took off his overcoat. He turned to +hang the coat upon a bush, then he sniffed the air, and a puzzled look +came upon his face. He sniffed again, hurriedly, hungrily. He drew in +great breaths of it, and his eyes shone with a strange light. It was +wonderful air. It brought life to the Dream. It rose up within him, ten +times more lusty than on the day it was born, and his limbs trembled as +he drew in the hot, scented breezes that breed the _Wanderlust_ and +shorten the long trails of the world. + +Big Ivan clutched his coat and ran to the little cottage. He burst +through the door, startling Anna, who was busy with her housework. + +"The Spring!" he cried. "_The Spring!_" + +He took her arm and dragged her to the door. Standing together they +sniffed the sweet breezes. In silence they listened to the song of the +river. The Beresina had changed from a whining, fretful tune into a +lilting, sweet song that would set the legs of lovers dancing. Anna +pointed to a green bud on a bush beside the door. + +"It came this minute," she murmured. + +"Yes," said Ivan. "The little fairies brought it there to show us that +spring has come to stay." + +Together they turned and walked to the mantel. Big Ivan took up the +earthenware pot, carried it to the table, and spilled its contents upon +the well-scrubbed boards. He counted while Anna stood beside him, her +fingers clutching his coarse blouse. It was a slow business, because +Ivan's big blunt fingers were not used to such work, but it was over at +last. He stacked the coins into neat piles, then he straightened himself +and turned to the woman at his side. + +"It is enough," he said quietly. "We will go at once. If it was not +enough, we would have to go because the Dream is upon me and I hate this +place." + +"As you say," murmured Anna. "The wife of Littin, the butcher, will buy +our chairs and our bed. I spoke to her yesterday." + +Poborino, the smith; his crippled son; Yanansk, the baker; Donkov, the +tailor, and a score of others were out upon the village street on the +morning that Big Ivan and Anna set out. They were inclined to jeer at +Ivan, but something upon the face of the giant made them afraid. Hand in +hand the big man and his wife walked down the street, their faces turned +toward Bobruisk, Ivan balancing upon his head a heavy trunk that no +other man in the village could have lifted. + +At the end of the street a stripling with bright eyes and yellow curls +clutched the hand of Ivan and looked into his face. + +"I know what is sending you," he cried. + +"Ay, _you_ know," said Ivan, looking into the eyes of the other. + +"It came to me yesterday," murmured the stripling. "I got it from the +breezes. They are free, so are the birds and the little clouds and the +river. I wish I could go." + +"Keep your dream," said Ivan softly. "Nurse it, for it is the dream of a +man." + +Anna, who was crying softly, touched the blouse of the boy. "At the back +of our cottage, near the bush that bears the red berries, a pot is +buried," she said. "Dig it up and take it home with you and when you +have a kopeck drop it in. It is a good pot." + +The stripling understood. He stooped and kissed the hand of Anna, and +Big Ivan patted him upon the back. They were brother dreamers and they +understood each other. + +Boris Lugan has sung the song of the versts that eat up one's courage as +well as the leather of one's shoes. + + "Versts! Versts! Scores and scores of them! + Versts! Versts! A million or more of them! + Dust! Dust! And the devils who play in it + Blinding us fools who forever must stay in it." + +Big Ivan and Anna faced the long versts to Bobruisk, but they were not +afraid of the dust devils. They had the Dream. It made their hearts +light and took the weary feeling from their feet. They were on their +way. America was a long, long journey, but they had started, and every +verst they covered lessened the number that lay between them and the +Promised Land. + +"I am glad the boy spoke to us," said Anna. + +"And I am glad," said Ivan. "Some day he will come and eat with us in +America." + +They came to Bobruisk. Holding hands, they walked into it late one +afternoon. They were eighty-nine versts from the little village on the +Beresina, but they were not afraid. The Dream spoke to Ivan, and his big +hand held the hand of Anna. The railway ran through Bobruisk, and that +evening they stood and looked at the shining rails that went out in the +moonlight like silver tongs reaching out for a low-hanging star. + +And they came face to face with the Terror that evening, the Terror that +had helped the spring breezes and the sunshine to plant the Dream in the +brain of Big Ivan. + +They were walking down a dark side street when they saw a score of men +and women creep from the door of a squat, unpainted building. The little +group remained on the sidewalk for a minute as if uncertain about the +way they should go, then from the corner of the street came a cry of +"Police!" and the twenty pedestrians ran in different directions. + +It was no false alarm. Mounted police charged down the dark thoroughfare +swinging their swords as they rode at the scurrying men and women who +raced for shelter. Big Ivan dragged Anna into a doorway, and toward +their hiding place ran a young boy who, like themselves, had no +connection with the group and who merely desired to get out of harm's +way till the storm was over. + +The boy was not quick enough to escape the charge. A trooper pursued +him, overtook him before he reached the sidewalk, and knocked him down +with a quick stroke given with the flat of his blade. His horse struck +the boy with one of his hoofs as the lad stumbled on his face. + +Big Ivan growled like an angry bear, and sprang from his hiding place. +The trooper's horse had carried him on to the sidewalk, and Ivan seized +the bridle and flung the animal on its haunches. The policeman leaned +forward to strike at the giant, but Ivan of the Bridge gripped the left +leg of the horseman and tore him from his saddle. + +The horse galloped off, leaving its rider lying beside the moaning boy +who was unlucky enough to be in a street where a score of students were +holding a meeting. + +Anna dragged Ivan back into the passageway. More police were charging +down the street, and their position was a dangerous one. + +"Ivan!" she cried, "Ivan! Remember the Dream! America, Ivan! _America!_ +Come this way! _Quick!_" + +With strong hands she dragged him down the passage. It opened into a +narrow lane, and, holding each other's hands, they hurried toward the +place where they had taken lodgings. From far off came screams and +hoarse orders, curses and the sound of galloping hoofs. The Terror was +abroad. + +Big Ivan spoke softly as they entered the little room they had taken. +"He had a face like the boy to whom you gave the lucky pot," he said. +"Did you notice it in the moonlight when the trooper struck him down?" + +"Yes," she answered. "I saw." + +They left Bobruisk next morning. They rode away on a great, puffing, +snorting train that terrified Anna. The engineer turned a stopcock as +they were passing the engine, and Anna screamed while Ivan nearly +dropped the big trunk. The engineer grinned, but the giant looked up at +him and the grin faded. Ivan of the Bridge was startled by the rush of +hot steam, but he was afraid of no man. + +The train went roaring by little villages and great pasture stretches. +The real journey had begun. They began to love the powerful engine. It +was eating up the versts at a tremendous rate. They looked at each other +from time to time and smiled like two children. + +They came to Minsk, the biggest town they had ever seen. They looked out +from the car windows at the miles of wooden buildings, at the big church +of St. Catharine, and the woolen mills. Minsk would have frightened them +if they hadn't had the Dream. The farther they went from the little +village on the Beresina the more courage the Dream gave to them. + +On and on went the train, the wheels singing the song of the road. +Fellow travelers asked them where they were going. "To America," Ivan +would answer. + +"To America?" they would cry. "May the little saints guide you. It is a +long way, and you will be lonely." + +"No, we shall not be lonely," Ivan would say. + +"Ha! you are going with friends?" + +"No, we have no friends, but we have something that keeps us from being +lonely." And when Ivan would make that reply Anna would pat his hand and +the questioner would wonder if it was a charm or a holy relic that the +bright-eyed couple possessed. + +They ran through Vilna, on through flat stretches of Courland to Libau, +where they saw the sea. They sat and stared at it for a whole day, +talking little but watching it with wide, wondering eyes. And they +stared at the great ships that came rocking in from distant ports, their +sides gray with the salt from the big combers which they had battled +with. + +No wonder this America of ours is big. We draw the brave ones from the +old lands, the brave ones whose dreams are like the guiding sign that +was given to the Israelites of old--a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar +of fire by night. + +The harbor master spoke to Ivan and Anna as they watched the restless +waters. + +"Where are you going, children?" + +"To America," answered Ivan. + +"A long way. Three ships bound for America went down last month." + +"Ours will not sink," said Ivan. + +"Why?" + +"Because I know it will not." + +The harbor master looked at the strange blue eyes of the giant, and +spoke softly. "You have the eyes of a man who sees things," he said. +"There was a Norwegian sailor in the _White Queen_, who had eyes like +yours, and he could see death." + +"I see life!" said Ivan boldly. "A free life----" + +"Hush!" said the harbor master. "Do not speak so loud." He walked +swiftly away, but he dropped a ruble into Anna's hand as he passed her +by. "For luck," he murmured. "May the little saints look after you on +the big waters." + +They boarded the ship, and the Dream gave them a courage that surprised +them. There were others going aboard, and Ivan and Anna felt that those +others were also persons who possessed dreams. She saw the dreams in +their eyes. There were Slavs, Poles, Letts, Jews, and Livonians, all +bound for the land where dreams come true. They were a little +afraid--not two per cent of them had ever seen a ship before--yet their +dreams gave them courage. + +The emigrant ship was dragged from her pier by a grunting tug and went +floundering down the Baltic Sea. Night came down, and the devils who, +according to the Esthonian fishermen, live in the bottom of the Baltic, +got their shoulders under the stern of the ship and tried to stand her +on her head. They whipped up white combers that sprang on her flanks and +tried to crush her, and the wind played a devil's lament in her rigging. +Anna lay sick in the stuffy women's quarters, and Ivan could not get +near her. But he sent her messages. He told her not to mind the sea +devils, to think of the Dream, the Great Dream that would become real in +the land to which they were bound. Ivan of the Bridge grew to full +stature on that first night out from Libau. The battered old craft that +carried him slouched before the waves that swept over her decks, but he +was not afraid. Down among the million and one smells of the steerage he +induced a thin-faced Livonian to play upon a mouth organ, and Big Ivan +sang Paleer's "Song of Freedom" in a voice that drowned the creaking of +the old vessel's timbers, and made the seasick ones forget their +sickness. They sat up in their berths and joined in the chorus, their +eyes shining brightly in the half gloom: + + "Freedom for serf and for slave, + Freedom for all men who crave + Their right to be free + And who hate to bend knee + But to Him who this right to them gave." + +It was well that these emigrants had dreams. They wanted them. The sea +devils chased the lumbering steamer. They hung to her bows and pulled +her for'ard deck under emerald-green rollers. They clung to her stern +and hoisted her nose till Big Ivan thought that he could touch the door +of heaven by standing on her blunt snout. Miserable, cold, ill, and +sleepless, the emigrants crouched in their quarters, and to them Ivan +and the thin-faced Livonian sang the "Song of Freedom." + +The emigrant ship pounded through the Cattegat, swung southward through +the Skagerrack and the bleak North Sea. But the storm pursued her. The +big waves snarled and bit at her, and the captain and the chief officer +consulted with each other. They decided to run into the Thames, and the +harried steamer nosed her way in and anchored off Gravesend. + +An examination was made, and the agents decided to transship the +emigrants. They were taken to London and thence by train to Liverpool, +and Ivan and Anna sat again side by side, holding hands and smiling at +each other as the third-class emigrant train from Euston raced down +through the green Midland counties to grimy Liverpool. + +"You are not afraid?" Ivan would say to her each time she looked at him. + +"It is a long way, but the Dream has given me much courage," she said. + +"To-day I spoke to a Lett whose brother works in New York City," said +the giant. "Do you know how much money he earns each day?" + +"How much?" she questioned. + +"Three rubles, and he calls the policemen by their first names." + +"You will earn five rubles, my Ivan," she murmured. "There is no one as +strong as you." + +Once again they were herded into the bowels of a big ship that steamed +away through the fog banks of the Mersey out into the Irish Sea. There +were more dreamers now, nine hundred of them, and Anna and Ivan were +more comfortable. And these new emigrants, English, Irish, Scotch, +French, and German, knew much concerning America. Ivan was certain that +he would earn at least three rubles a day. He was very strong. + +On the deck he defeated all comers in a tug of war, and the captain of +the ship came up to him and felt his muscles. + +"The country that lets men like you get away from it is run badly," he +said. "Why did you leave it?" + +The interpreter translated what the captain said, and through the +interpreter Ivan answered. + +"I had a Dream," he said, "a Dream of freedom." + +"Good," cried the captain. "Why should a man with muscles like yours +have his face ground into the dust?" + +The soul of Big Ivan grew during those days. He felt himself a man, a +man who was born upright to speak his thoughts without fear. + +The ship rolled into Queenstown one bright morning, and Ivan and his +nine hundred steerage companions crowded the for'ard deck. A boy in a +rowboat threw a line to the deck, and after it had been fastened to a +stanchion he came up hand over hand. The emigrants watched him +curiously. An old woman sitting in the boat pulled off her shoes, sat in +a loop of the rope, and lifted her hand as a signal to her son on deck. + +"Hey, fellers," said the boy, "help me pull me muvver up. She wants to +sell a few dozen apples, an' they won't let her up the gangway!" + +Big Ivan didn't understand the words, but he guessed what the boy +wanted. He made one of a half dozen who gripped the rope and started to +pull the ancient apple woman to the deck. + +They had her halfway up the side when an undersized third officer +discovered what they were doing. He called to a steward, and the steward +sprang to obey. + +"Turn a hose on her!" cried the officer. "Turn a hose on the old woman!" + +The steward rushed for the hose. He ran with it to the side of the ship +with the intention of squirting the old woman, who was swinging in +midair and exhorting the six men who were dragging her to the deck. + +"Pull!" she cried. "Sure, I'll give every one of ye a rosy red apple an' +me blessing with it." + +The steward aimed the muzzle of the hose, and Big Ivan of the Bridge let +go of the rope and sprang at him. The fist of the great Russian went out +like a battering ram; it struck the steward between the eyes, and he +dropped upon the deck. He lay like one dead, the muzzle of the hose +wriggling from his limp hands. + +The third officer and the interpreter rushed at Big Ivan, who stood +erect, his hands clenched. + +"Ask the big swine why he did it," roared the officer. + +"Because he is a coward!" cried Ivan. "They wouldn't do that in +America!" + +"What does the big brute know about America?" cried the officer. + +"Tell him I have dreamed of it," shouted Ivan. "Tell him it is in my +Dream. Tell him I will kill him if he turns the water upon this old +woman." + +The apple seller was on deck then, and with the wisdom of the Celt she +understood. She put her lean hand upon the great head of the Russian and +blessed him in Gaelic. Ivan bowed before her, then as she offered him a +rosy apple he led her toward Anna, a great Viking leading a withered old +woman who walked with the grace of a duchess. + +"Please don't touch him," she cried, turning to the officer. "We have +been waiting for your ship for six hours, and we have only five dozen +apples to sell. It's a great man he is. Sure he's as big as Finn +MacCool." + +Some one pulled the steward behind a ventilator and revived him by +squirting him with water from the hose which he had tried to turn upon +the old woman. The third officer slipped quietly away. + +The Atlantic was kind to the ship that carried Ivan and Anna. Through +sunny days they sat up on deck and watched the horizon. They wanted to +be among those who would get the first glimpse of the wonderland. + +They saw it on a morning with sunshine and soft winds. Standing together +in the bow, they looked at the smear upon the horizon, and their eyes +filled with tears. They forgot the long road to Bobruisk, the rocking +journey to Libau, the mad buckjumping boat in whose timbers the sea +devils of the Baltic had bored holes. Everything unpleasant was +forgotten, because the Dream filled them with a great happiness. + +The inspectors at Ellis Island were interested in Ivan. They walked +around him and prodded his muscles, and he smiled down upon them +good-naturedly. + +"A fine animal," said one. "Gee, he's a new white hope! Ask him can he +fight?" + +An interpreter put the question, and Ivan nodded. "I have fought," he +said. + +"Gee!" cried the inspector. "Ask him was it for purses or what?" + +"For freedom," answered Ivan. "For freedom to stretch my legs and +straighten my neck!" + +Ivan and Anna left the Government ferryboat at the Battery. They started +to walk uptown, making for the East Side, Ivan carrying the big trunk +that no other man could lift. + +It was a wonderful morning. The city was bathed in warm sunshine, and +the well-dressed men and women who crowded the sidewalks made the two +immigrants think that it was a festival day. Ivan and Anna stared at +each other in amazement. They had never seen such dresses as those worn +by the smiling women who passed them by; they had never seen such +well-groomed men. + +"It is a feast day for certain," said Anna. + +"They are dressed like princes and princesses," murmured Ivan. "There +are no poor here, Anna. None." + +Like two simple children, they walked along the streets of the City of +Wonder. What a contrast it was to the gray, stupid towns where the +Terror waited to spring upon the cowed people. In Bobruisk, Minsk, +Vilna, and Libau the people were sullen and afraid. They walked in +dread, but in the City of Wonder beside the glorious Hudson every person +seemed happy and contented. + +They lost their way, but they walked on, looking at the wonderful shop +windows, the roaring elevated trains, and the huge skyscrapers. Hours +afterward they found themselves in Fifth Avenue near Thirty-third +Street, and there the miracle happened to the two Russian immigrants. It +was a big miracle inasmuch as it proved the Dream a truth, a great +truth. + +Ivan and Anna attempted to cross the avenue, but they became confused in +the snarl of traffic. They dodged backward and forward as the stream of +automobiles swept by them. Anna screamed, and, in response to her +scream, a traffic policeman, resplendent in a new uniform, rushed to her +side. He took the arm of Anna and flung up a commanding hand. The +charging autos halted. For five blocks north and south they jammed on +the brakes when the unexpected interruption occurred, and Big Ivan +gasped. + +"Don't be flurried, little woman," said the cop. "Sure I can tame 'em by +liftin' me hand." + +Anna didn't understand what he said, but she knew it was something nice +by the manner in which his Irish eyes smiled down upon her. And in front +of the waiting automobiles he led her with the same care that he would +give to a duchess, while Ivan, carrying the big trunk, followed them, +wondering much. Ivan's mind went back to Bobruisk on the night the +Terror was abroad. + +The policeman led Anna to the sidewalk, patted Ivan good-naturedly upon +the shoulder, and then with a sharp whistle unloosed the waiting stream +of cars that had been held up so that two Russian immigrants could cross +the avenue. + +Big Ivan of the Bridge took the trunk from his head and put it on the +ground. He reached out his arms and folded Anna in a great embrace. His +eyes were wet. + +"The Dream is true!" he cried. "Did you see, Anna? We are as good as +they! This is the land where a muzhik is as good as a prince of the +blood!" + +The President was nearing the close of his address. Anna shook Ivan, and +Ivan came out of the trance which the President's words had brought upon +him. He sat up and listened intently: + +_We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in +the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's +evening. Some of us let those great dreams die, but others nourish and +protect them, nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the +sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that +their dreams will come true._ + +The President finished. For a moment he stood looking down at the faces +turned up to him, and Big Ivan of the Bridge thought that the President +smiled at him. Ivan seized Anna's hand and held it tight. + +"He knew of my Dream!" he cried. "He knew of it. Did you hear what he +said about the dreams of a spring day?" + +"Of course he knew," said Anna. "He is the wisest man in America, where +there are many wise men. Ivan, you are a citizen now." + +"And you are a citizen, Anna." + +The band started to play "My Country, 'tis of Thee," and Ivan and Anna +got to their feet. Standing side by side, holding hands, they joined in +with the others who had found after long days of journeying the blessed +land where dreams come true. + + --James Francis Dwyer. + + + + +V--THE INDIAN OF THE RESERVATION + + +The big, square, barren, rude room which in its existence had progressed +from store to schoolroom and on to council hall, was filled to +overflowing with a throng of anachronous humanity, rank on rank, tier +behind tier. There was the sound of moccasins slipping grittily over the +knotty floor, of the dull, rhythmic thudding of a mother's foot as she +trotted her fretful baby, the rustling of soft garments, the stirring of +unhurried bodies, the hissing of stealthy whispers. Here and there two +Indians might be seen conversing in the sign language; their hands, +shielded from sight by encircling backs, were lifted scarcely above the +level of their laps. + +The people were massed one might say ethnologically. The main part of +the crowd was Indian, squatting, seated on benches, or standing leaning +against the walls. The two tribes sat separately, as did also the sexes +of each. To right and left at the tapering ends of the rows were the +mixed-bloods, dressed mainly like the whites except that their garments +looked more home-made, more patternless, more illy put. Then quite at +one end of the room and grouped about the chairman's table sat the +whites; school and Agency employees, traders, soldiers, ranch neighbors; +an indifferent, self-seeking, heterogeneous group. In the midst of these +last, dapper, conspicuously well-dressed, and well-groomed, presided the +inspector from Washington. His old, dignified face, slightly pompous, +was crowned with gray hair brushed back from his brow. His hands rested +squarely upon his knees. By his side, taking notes, sat his +stenographer, his glance half curious and half supercilious playing +constantly over the faces of the throng. At either end of the little +table behind which sat the inspector, were stationed the interpreters, +one for each tribe. The eyes of these men were searching, though their +lips seemed to mock slightly, and when they spoke, rising to interpret, +even though they passed on the phrases with a certain guarded vehemence, +they seemed consciously to preserve a detached attitude, as do those who +speak but will not be held accountable for what they say. + +Perhaps the arrangement that caused the mixed-bloods and the other +younger Indians to be the first to deliver their speeches was +intentional on the part of someone. At any rate one by one they arose, +in overalls, in spurs, in bright neckerchiefs, differing from each other +in type and temperament, as differed also those two tribes, and indeed, +the two races, represented there within the council room. + +Occasionally after some speech the inspector would get up and pronounce +in continuance a few elucidating words. He gesticulated slightly and +conventionally. He bent a little toward the interpreters, each in turn. +His words came slowly and with unction. + +The subject of the council was the desire of the Indian Bureau to throw +open to white settlement a half of the reservation. The mixed-bloods and +the younger Indians were, though they spoke but briefly, in accord in +favoring the execution of the plan. Their words, however, from some lack +in themselves of knowledge or of conviction, were not uttered in a +manner calculated to tip the scale greatly their way. + +"It's a question of water rights," they said. "We must have money to buy +those rights and how else can we obtain it? It's an obligation to our +children." + +Again and again the same note was struck. One by one the young men +arose, and one by one sat down again. The interpreters mopped their +tired brows. The inspector sipped frequently from a glass of water upon +his table. + +The air was full of the odor of people, pungent with the herb perfume +worn by the Indians in little sacks sewed to the clothing, acrid with +the smell of sage clinging to shawls and dresses, with the flavor of +smoke-tanned buckskin. A half-open window let in a little fitful breeze +that played wantonly with the dust showing in the sunlight of the upper +reaches of the room, flirting and whisking about the heads of the +throng. + +At last it came time for the weightier speeches, for those of the +councilmen, of the chiefs, of indeed the older men of the two tribes, +the patriarchs of this patriarchal people. + +"Sell our land?" they cried. "Retreat? Give up? Be forced into contact +with intermingling whites? Take money in place of our land? What, money +for the good of these traders who will get it all from us in the end?" +Their old faces hardened; their eyes flamed. "Give up? Retreat? Move on? +Abrogate the old promises, the old treaties? What, _again?_" Their lips +twisted bitterly. "Do you not know, does not the Great Father at +Washington know, that all we ask now of life is a little land, a little +peace, a little place wherein to live quietly our quiet life, and in the +end a little ground for our narrow bed? Move on! That we think was the +first word the whites--" the "outsiders," the "aliens," was the name +they in the Indian tongue gave this other race--"said to us. It seems +they are saying it yet." The soft bitter voices ceased; the old men sank +into their seats, the interpreters, too, relaxed, wiping their faces. + +The inspector stood up cautiously, apologetically even. "But these old +men, the chiefs, do not seem to have caught the point. The whole +question of selling or not selling turns on the matter of their water +rights; on theirs and their children's as has been said. Land even in +this beautiful Wyoming valley is a mockery without water. They can I am +sure understand that; water they must have." + +An old chief rose solemnly, turned deep, scornful eyes upon the +inspector. "Let the white man from Washington go but a mile yonder," +extended arm pointed that way, "and he will see the river that flows +down our valley and waters our land. It is there. It is ours. It is born +in these mountains above us. God made them, I suppose as he made it. It +is ours." + +Along the packed rows there was a slight stirring. + +Patiently again the inspector arose. "I know that it is hard for the old +people to understand that having _water_ does not necessarily mean +having _rights_ to that water. There exist hundreds of white men below +you, beyond the border of your reservation, who have taken up claims +along this same stream and who have filed on its water prior to any +Indian having done so. The State must recognize this priority. The +whites have filed on the water and have paid the dues. Beside that as +the law stands now the Indians cannot individually take out water +rights. I know that you will say that when this reservation was given to +these two tribes, a matter of a generation and a half ago, the water was +included with the land, 'to the center of the streams bordering the +reservation,' as your old treaty reads. But times and conditions have +changed since then. At that period the Federal Government controlled the +water of Wyoming, now its disposition has been turned over to the State. +Where the Indians stand in this matter has never been decided by law." + +The mixed-bloods who understood at least partially, shifted uneasily. + +"But now--although the question of priority has still not been +decided--the Indian Bureau--which I represent--says that you as a tribe +may buy your water rights. For this you must have money." He named a sum +reaching far into the thousands. "The sale of your land will bring you +this amount of money, at least. This thing is intricate and impossible I +believe to elucidate to the older people, your leaders. They must, I +fear, just hear my statements and, if they can, believe." With his hands +he made a deprecating little gesture. Then he sat down. + +There was silence in the room, complete save for a slight stirring, the +sound of deep breathing, and the fretting, here and there, of a hungry +child. + +Finally at the back of the room, by some shifting of his pose, by +thrusting himself forward beyond the relief of his line, an Indian made +his presence known. He was a man of powerful build, of nobly moulded +head; his hair instead of having been braided, had been gathered forward +into two loosely twisted strands; his eyes showed, speculative yet keen, +his mouth was sharply chiseled though withal soft in its lines, and +there was a kindly look on his face which gave somehow the impression of +the morning light seen upon the rugged side of a great mountain. In age +he seemed to be between the young and the old. + +As he made his presence known there was a slow turning of the heads in +his direction, a slight tensing of the crowd. The old chiefs appeared +suddenly eager and filled with hope; as for the younger men and the +mixed-bloods they glanced at him and looked away again, as if, sighing +they said: "Another on the wrong side. Ah, the blind old men!" + +Then he spoke. His voice was deep, very virile, carefully subdued as +something held in leash, and yet through it there seemed to run a +tremor, a quaver almost, that gave an impression of strange intensity. + +I repeat his words with elision. + +"I am not one of the old men," he said, "and yet I can easily remember +the time when this valley, these mountains, were ours; not because +someone had given them to us, but because we had taken them for +ourselves, because our arrows flew straightest, our spears reached +furthest, our horsemen rode fastest, our hearts were bravest." + +Here several of the old men grunted sympathetically. More and more the +faces of the throng were turned toward the speaker. + +"Then everything was changed. The strangers came like a flood, like our +rivers in the spring; they surged over us and they left us--as we are. +Perhaps this was the will of the Stranger-on-High, we cannot tell.... +But these strangers on earth were not altogether unkind to us. For what +they took they gave a sort of compensation. It was as though they +carried away from us fat buffaloes and then handed to us in exchange +each a little slice of their meat. They deprived us of our valley and +our mountains but instead they gave us each eighty acres of the land. +Then they sent more strangers with chains and three-legged toys to +measure these off correctly for us. They gave us wire for our fences but +only enough so that we must spend much money for more. They gave us +seed, but also so little that we were driven to buy more. We +worked--some of us with the chains and three-legged toys--some at the +ditches, every way we could, for now we needed a new thing--something of +which we had before known nothing, _money_. We received it--and then we +spent it." + +Again faint grunts and groans encouraged him. + +"For we cannot keep money long. We are children. This the Great Father +in Washington understands, and also that our ears are dull, that our +eyes cannot read his written words. Therefore, in his kindness, he sends +to us this man to speak to us face to face." He turned his slow gaze +upon the inspector. In his eyes was the look of mockery. "We have +listened to his words. But what has he said to us? 'Give up the eighty +acres, for your children to be born, give up the money you earned and +spent, give up your homes; as you gave up this valley and these +mountains. The white men need them. Your day is past. But I am not +unkind. Without compensation I will not deprive you. See, I will give +you even a little more money--'" He stopped abruptly. His eyes drooped, +his shoulders, his hands, the whole man. + +A strained silence had fallen upon the room, smothered it. From it +escaped the faint sighing of the younger men. The chiefs stiffened as +they sat. + +By an effort the speaker seemed to rouse himself. He stared strangely +about the room. "There was a little boy once," he said, and his voice +had grown dreamy, slightly high in pitch, "and this little boy held his +hand out toward the flames, nearer,--I saw it--the fire was so pretty, +so warm, it danced, purred, sparkled. His hand crept nearer, nearer. His +father watched him. At the last moment he caught him and pulled him +away. The child cried then, he struggled in his father's arms, he pushed +away from him, he fought. Again he reached out toward the flame. But +finally he looked up into the man's face and suddenly it seemed to dawn +on him that, although he could not understand, this was indeed his +father, old and wise and loving; and that he, by comparison, was only a +little misguided child...." The strange, vibrant voice dwindled, broke. +The speaker made a wide gesture toward the attentive inspector, held it +while the interpreters got forth in English his last sentence. Then he +sank back into his old place against the wall; with one bent hand he +wiped the sweat from his brow. + +A faint sound of muttering passed over the room; old fierce eyes were +veiled, young keen ones peered incredulously. But the inspector was on +his feet on the instant, his hand outstretched to grasp the golden +moment. + +"There is no more to be said," he cried. "Our ears are ringing with +words. Our hearts are full. I have here, prepared, a paper. Let those +who for their own good and the good of their children are of a mind to +sell, now sign it." + +Slowly, amidst moving and murmuring, the long paper, in the hands of one +of the interpreters, made its deliberate rounds. Difficult signatures +were inscribed in slow succession. Ancient, unaccustomed hands, deft +enough with spear or bow, grasped awkwardly the pen and with it made +their wavering "mark." + +Some there were of the old men, indeed the majority of them, who +wrapping their blankets about them arose, and shambling, withdrew, aloof +and soundless. + +Like a shaken kaleidoscope the council broke up. + +The inspector leaned back in his chair, a hand shielding the working of +his mouth. His eyes searched the variegated, dissolving throng. The +stenographer, still seated and playing with his idle pencil, shot him an +understanding glance. + +Later the Half-breed, standing on the board walk outside the trading +store, a box of crackers in one hand, a paper containing pickles in the +other, was lunching heartily. Suddenly he shifted everything into his +left hand and strode down into the road. For in company with his wife +and a young son the last of the speakers was passing. + +The Half-breed's extended hand grasped the Indian's. + +"I thank you for what you said," he cried. "It was a noble thing to have +done. You faced them all; the old timers, the chiefs, public opinion, +prejudice. And you won. It was a brave act." + +The rugged, illuminated face was turned to him, the deep eyes rested +squarely upon his. "You have perhaps forgotten," he said. "You are +younger than I am and too you have been for a long time with the +whites--but I remember well the time when we were boys and our great +head-chief Black Star used to sit and talk with us. Yes, you have +perhaps forgotten," he repeated, and his look, just touched with +yearning, rested upon the younger man. "But I remember--I have never +forgotten what he used to say to us. 'Be brave,' he would tell us. 'That +is the chief thing to learn; to do what each one believes is right, to +speak for the right, everywhere, always. To be fearless of tongues, of +persecution, to take counsel with our own minds and being sure to speak +out surely. That,' he always said to us, 'and that only, is the man's +part.'" + + --Grace Coolidge. + + + + +VI--THE NIGHT ATTACK + + +When B Company marched out of the camp for the morning skirmish +practice, Tom Kennedy of squad five was feeling depressed. His corporal, +John Wheeler, had just given him a scolding, and now wore a stern +expression on his youthful yet somehow granite-like countenance. +Kennedy, glancing out of the corner of his eye, saw and interpreted the +expression. + +He was a thin, pale youth, who had gone from high school into the bank, +where he was employed in a humble capacity as clerk. His lack of +physical strength had prevented him from taking part in school +athletics; the impecuniosity of his family had kept him from a share in +many healthful, boyish activities. He had been a bookish boy and had +shown himself quick at figures; many of his classmates envied him when, +after graduation, a subordinate place in the First National Bank had +been given him. In his second year of service there he was promoted to a +clerkship; and when the bank announced its willingness to let some of +its employees attend the military training camp, Kennedy had presented +himself as a volunteer. + +Without experience in the handling of arms, without natural dexterity +and without the self-confidence that a boy derives from participation in +sports or from a life outdoors, Kennedy was not the most promising of +"rookies." He would have made a better showing in the early drills +perhaps had he been less concerned with the dread of being regarded as a +"dub." What made him especially self-conscious was the fact that his +corporal was the son of the president of the First National Bank. It +seemed to Kennedy, inexperienced youth that he was, that his whole +future might depend on the impression he made on the president's son. + +He had long known John Wheeler by reputation. Wheeler had been halfback +on his college football team; he was a yachtsman of more than local +renown. As corporal, he was alert, industrious and energetic; his +efficiency caused Kennedy to be only the more keenly aware of his own +incompetence. The other men in the tent were all older than he, all +better educated than he, and without in the least intending to make him +feel inferior they did make him feel so. As a matter of fact, they +thought he was an unassuming and obliging person, who had, as one of +them expressed it, not much small change in conversation. + +Now, after a week at the camp, Kennedy had begun to make himself a +nuisance to his companions--the thing that he had most dreaded being. He +had caught cold, and had coughed at frequent intervals throughout the +night; he had buried his head under his blankets and tried to suppress +the coughs, and he had blown his nose with as little reverberation as +possible, but he had, nevertheless, received intimations that he was +disturbing the sleep of his tent mates. In the morning one of them, +Morrison, a student in a medical school, offered him some quinine pills +and advised him to report at sick call. But Kennedy had resolved not to +be knocked out by sickness; he thanked Morrison for the pills and said +he thought he should get through all right. His feelings were hurt, +however, when after breakfast Wheeler said: + +"Come, fellows, let's roll up the tent; if we don't give the sun and air +a chance in here, we'll all of us be sniffling." + +The corporal started in to undo the guy ropes and then exclaimed +wrathfully. "Who's the man that tied these ropes in hard knots? He's a +landlubber, all right." + +"I should say!" remarked Morrison, who was at work on the other side of +the tent. "I'm not guilty." + +"I'm afraid I am." Kennedy's admission was the more rueful because so +croaking. + +"A man who can only tie a hard knot or a granny has no business ever to +touch a rope." Wheeler snapped out the words while his fingers worked +busily. "I should think before coming to a camp a fellow would learn to +tie a few knots." + +Kennedy accepted the reproof in silence--if a sudden access of coughing +can be termed silence. He was finding it hard work to disengage one of +the knots of his own making; presently Wheeler, having freed the other +ropes, came up and unceremoniously took possession of that at which +Kennedy was picking. + +"Undo your pack, take the rope that's fastened to your shelter half and +I'll give you a lesson," commanded Wheeler. + +To the object lesson in tying hitches, half hitches, slipknots and other +useful knots Kennedy gave close attention; but when he tried to do what +he had just seen his instructor do he became confused. + +"Are you as slow as that counting bills in the bank?" Wheeler asked. "I +wonder that they keep you. You don't seem to have learned to use your +hands." + +He snatched the rope and then began another demonstration for the +mortified youth; Kennedy could not have been more hurt if he had been +lashed with it. The whistle blew; the order, "Fall in!" was shouted at +the head of the street. + +"Quick, now! Do up your pack!" Wheeler tossed back the rope, and Kennedy +made a dive into the tent where his equipment lay scattered. Hastily +cramming things together, he discovered when he had his pack rolled up +and fastened that he had left out the rubber poncho. In the street the +men were all lined up at attention; he alone was unready. The first +sergeant was calling the roll; the corporals were reporting: "Squad +one?" "All present." "Squad two?" "All present." Kennedy flung on his +pack and crammed his poncho under his mattress, where it would not be +visible. "Squad five?" "Private Kennedy absent." "Squad six?" "All +present." + +Kennedy fastened his canteen to his belt, caught up his rifle and took +his place in the rear rank. + +He heard the corporals far down the line reporting, "All present." He +alone had been delinquent. Wheeler's face seemed more forbidding than +ever. + +And that was why, as the company marched out for the day's work, Kennedy +felt depressed. He was making a poor showing; he had won the outspoken +disapproval of the man whose good opinion he most heartily desired. +Besides, he was miserable in body; nose, eyes and throat were all +inflamed, the pack seemed heavier than it ought to be, and there was no +early-morning enthusiasm in his legs. A glance at Wheeler's face still +further depressed his spirits. He had never seen the corporal look so +black, and he knew it was all on account of having such a "dub" in the +squad! + +It was really not on that account at all. What was troubling the +corporal was a sense of his severity toward a subordinate who seemed to +be doing the best he could. He was chagrined that he had been so +sharp-tongued with the little fellow; he had got into the habit of +thinking of Kennedy rather pityingly as "the little fellow." + +All the long morning B Company was put through skirmish drill; the sun +was hot, the air heavy; with all too brief intermissions the men were +kept at work; running, leaping, casting themselves on their faces, and +pulling the trigger and throwing the bolt of their rifles. Lying prone, +with neck and shoulder muscles aching under the weight of the pack, +Kennedy experienced the greatest discomfort, for then his nose became an +abomination to him. And at those times, snuffling, coughing and gasping, +he was painfully aware that to the other members of the squad, and +particularly to the corporal, he must seem nothing less than a curse. + +The luncheon hour afforded him a little rest. But all the afternoon +there was drill on the parade ground; and at supper Kennedy was almost +too tired to eat. His cold was no better, his cough was more frequent +and racking, and he feared that he should be a greater nuisance to his +tent mates than on the preceding night. After supper he thought he +should go into the town and get some cough drops; but that was a mile +walk, and before undertaking it he decided to stretch himself out on his +bed for a few minutes' rest. Wheeler came up and asked him how he was +feeling. + +"All right, if only I don't keep you fellows awake," Kennedy croaked, +grateful for the question. + +"You don't sound all right. I should think you'd better see the doctor." + +"Oh, I sound worse than I am." + +Wheeler walked away, with a good-natured laugh that made Kennedy feel +better than a cough drop could have done. It showed him that the +corporal did not have an unfriendly attitude toward him, and it +stimulated his resolve to let the corporal see that he did not lack +staying power. + +For a few minutes he had been reclining on his bed, when he was +horrified to hear the B Company whistle, followed by the shout, "Fall +in, B Company!" When he emerged from the tent, he heard the second order +that was being relayed down the street, "Fall in with the rifle and the +full pack!" For a dismal moment Kennedy thought of going up to the +captain and pleading unfitness for further duty. Then he gritted his +teeth, slung his pack, which he had not yet unrolled, on his aching +shoulders and took up his rifle. The other occupants of the tent made +their appearance on the run, uttering maledictions and cries of grief +and wonderment. Had not they been worked hard enough for one day! This +kind of thing was an outrage! + +When the company was lined up, Captain Hughes said, "B Company is +ordered out to hold a section of trench against an expected night +attack. Squads right!" + +While the men proceeded at route step, they lamented facetiously the +ordeal ahead of them. Kennedy snuffled and shuffled along, trying to +keep his head up and his shoulders from drooping. He looked +apprehensively at the western sky; the sun had gone down in a black +cloud wrack, which was swarming higher and heavier. The sultry air was +suddenly fanned by a cool wind, lightning flashed in the mass of clouds, +and thunder pealed. + +"Going to have a little real war this evening, I guess," observed +Morrison. + +"The storm may not hit us," said Wheeler. + +"Everything that can will hit us to-day," replied Morrison. + +By the time the company had reached the trenches, which were dug on the +edge of a wide field, it was growing dark. The wind was blowing hard and +flung splashes of rain into the men's faces. + +Captain Hughes halted his command and called the members round him. + +"This is the section that you are to defend," he said. "You see it +consists of four separate front-line trenches, each just long enough and +wide enough to accommodate eight men. Each front trench is connected +with the second line of trenches by a short runway. Behind the second +line is the shelter, or dugout, for those who are not on duty in the +trenches. You will take turns in holding the front line; each squad will +be relieved every fifteen minutes. The rest of you will keep under cover +in the shelter--under cover from the enemy, that is." There was an +uncertain ripple of laughter; the rain was beginning now to pour down. +"At what hour the attack may develop I can't tell you," continued the +captain, "but it will no doubt be sometime between now and sunrise." + +In the shelter, which was a large rectangular pit six feet deep, the men +opened their packs and got out their ponchos--all except Kennedy, who +stood looking on while his comrades proceeded to protect themselves +against the now pelting rain. + +Wheeler, poking his head through the opening in his poncho, saw Kennedy +standing thus. + +"Why don't you get out your poncho?" he asked. + +"I forgot to put it in my pack." + +"That's the limit, a night like this. You've got a frightful cold, too." +Wheeler pulled off the poncho that he had just put on. "Get into this +and keep yourself as dry as you can." + +"No, I wouldn't think of taking your----" + +"You're under orders now, and you'll take what your corporal tells you." +Wheeler thrust the rubber garment over his subordinate's head. "There +you are; I don't want to feel responsible for your having pneumonia." + +Then, as Captain Hughes called, "Squad leaders, gather round!" Wheeler +moved away to receive instructions. + +Seating himself cross-legged, Kennedy arranged the poncho as well as he +could over his rifle. The rain came down in sheets, poured from the +brims of hats, formed puddles on the ground, oozed through trousers and +boots and leggings. By the occasional lightning flashes Kennedy could +see the group of corporals holding conference with the captain near by; +he could see the huddled forms of the privates like himself, the ponchos +shining on their shoulders, the pools glistening at their feet. + +In a few moments the conference broke up; then Captain Hughes raised his +voice sharply. + +"Mr. Wheeler, where is your poncho?" + +"I haven't got it, sir." + +"A man who is careless about himself is not likely to look after his +men, and that is an officer's first duty. You set a bad example to the +members of your squad, Mr. Wheeler." + +"Yes, sir." + +Wheeler saluted and the captain turned away just as Kennedy came +forward. The corporal gripped Kennedy's wrist and held him fast, then +led him in silence back to his place. + +"That's all right," he whispered in Kennedy's ear. "Don't you butt in. +You'd only get it in the neck if you did." + +Kennedy, believing that a soldier's first duty is to obey, did not +persist; he saw the captain leave the shelter and join a group of +officers on the bank. + +"It isn't fair, though, for you to take the blame," he began. + +"It's of no importance," Wheeler answered. + +A few moments later Kennedy was convinced that the corporal was +mistaken. While Wheeler was talking to another member of the squad, +Morrison said to Kennedy in a low voice: + +"I guess Wheeler's chance for promotion is gone now. They're going to +make some new sergeants tomorrow, and I thought Wheeler would surely be +one; but I guess that forgetting his poncho has queered him with the +captain. He's a stickler about little things." + +"It doesn't seem fair," repeated Kennedy, as if speaking to himself. + +Night had settled down, the blackest kind of night, when the first +platoon was ordered into the advance trenches. From ambush among the +trees behind the shelter searchlights began to play against the woods +five hundred yards away, out of which the attack was expected to come. +The watchers in the shelter and the trenches remained in utter darkness +while the streaming lines of rain and the distant trees emerged into +view under the sweeping rays. Back and forth the searchlights plied, +raking the whole sector of forest that bounded the field. The men in the +shelter, who had stood up to see what the searchlights might disclose, +soon sat down again and wrapped their ponchos about themselves more +snugly. The minutes passed; there was no sound except that made by the +determined, trampling rain. + +Wheeler, who had been peering over the top of the embankment, came and +seated himself between Kennedy and Morrison. + +"There's one thing," he murmured. "The enemy are getting it same as we +are." + +Morrison grunted. "How do you know? They're regulars, and maybe they +haven't left their barracks yet. Maybe they won't till about 2 A. M." + +"Don't be always taking the joy out of life," Wheeler entreated. + +At last came the turn of the second platoon. They filed out through the +runways into the second-line trench, where they waited until the squads +of the first platoon returned from the sections that they had been +holding. + +"Second platoon, load!" + +In the pitch blackness it was not an easy thing to do. Kennedy got his +clip jammed in the magazine and for a few moments could not shove it +down or pull it out. Then, when he gave a final desperate wrench, out it +came with a jump, slipped through his fingers and fell somewhere in the +mud. + +"Lock your pieces. Forward!" + +Kennedy had to straighten up and move on without having found his +cartridges. When he was in his place between Wheeler and Morrison, he +took another clip out of his belt and, working carefully and slowly, +inserted it in the magazine. The sound of others working with their +rifles let him know that he had not been the only one to get into +difficulty. + +From somewhere behind, Captain Hughes gave instructions: + +"Keep your eyes on that strip of woods. Squad on the right, take the +sector from the ravine to the top of the knoll. Next squad, the sector +from the top of the knoll to that tree that stands out in front of the +woods. Next squad, the sector from that tree to the big rock. Fourth +squad, the sector from the big rock to the road. If anyone comes out of +the woods in your sector, fire on him." + +"No one will come," murmured Morrison. "Not for five or six hours yet." + +But they all stood peering intently over the low ridge of earth that +protected the top of the trench and on which their rifles rested. +Without cessation the searchlights swept back and forth along the belt +of woods; for only the briefest interval was any section left in +darkness. Time passed, and still the only sound was the steady drumming +of the rain. + +Then suddenly out of the belt of woods broke a line of men and charged +forward. Instantly all along the advance trenches burst jets of flame +and the vicious crackle and bang of the rifles. After the wearisome and +uncomfortable vigil, Kennedy felt warmed into excitement; he got off +three shots before the enemy dropped to the ground and began shooting in +their turn. Then an enemy platoon on the right made a short rush forward +and dropped, and immediately resumed firing. By platoon rushes the line +advanced, and its fire seemed to grow steadier and stronger as it drew +nearer. In contrast, the fire of the defenders of the trenches weakened. +Only three men in Wheeler's squad were maintaining a steady fire; the +other squads displayed a corresponding feebleness of resistance. + +"Fire faster, men!" cried Captain Hughes. + +But fire faster they did not--and could not. More than half of them were +now having the trouble in loading their rifles that Kennedy had +experienced--and was having again. Fumbling in the darkness with the +wet, slippery mechanism, trying hurriedly to slide the cartridge clips +into place, man after man had jammed his magazine, and with clumsy +fingers was frantically trying to adjust it. Meanwhile, the fire of the +enemy became more intense; they drew nearer and nearer by platoon +rushes; and at last Captain Hughes gave the order to the defenders of +the trenches, "Cease firing!" + +Then, a few yards away, up sprang the enemy and, with bayonets fixed and +a wild yell that at the last fizzled out into laughter, charged down on +the trenches. They stopped on the edge and greeted the defenders +derisively: "Well, boys, all dead, ain't you?" "Fired as if you were, +anyway." "How'd you have liked it if this had been a real attack?" "Any +of you boys want to have a little bayonet practice?" + +Captain Hughes gave the command to unload. After "inspection arms" had +been ordered, the captain pointed the moral of the evening's experience: +"You see, it's not enough to be good daylight soldiers--important though +that is. You have got to be able to use your rifles as well in the +dark." + +B Company marched back to camp; Kennedy sought an audience with Captain +Hughes. He could only say in a husky whisper: + +"I want to explain about Corporal Wheeler's poncho." He had to stop for +a fit of coughing; the captain bent down and looked at him sharply. "He +took off his poncho and made me put it on--I'd forgotten mine. I hope it +won't count against him." + +"What do you mean by staying on duty in this condition?" demanded the +captain. + +"I sound worse than I am." + +The captain grunted. "Report at sick call tomorrow. I'll remember what +you say about Wheeler. Goodnight!" + +The next morning, when Kennedy returned from the hospital tent, having +been pronounced fit to continue on active duty, he found the members of +squad five congratulating Wheeler on his promotion to the rank of +sergeant. + +"Here's the fellow that saved the job for me." Wheeler clapped Kennedy's +shoulder. "Captain Hughes said you went to him and told tales out of +school." + +Kennedy looked pleased. "I heard the captain tell you that you mightn't +be good at looking after your men," he answered. "I thought I'd show +him." + +"Business, just business," said Wheeler with a twinkle in his eyes. "Dad +would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you. I feel just as +responsible for the bank, having you up here, as he does. Now come and +I'll give you another lesson in how to tie a knot." + + --Arthur Stanwood Pier. + + + + +VII--THE PATH OF GLORY + + +I + +It was so poor a place--a bitten-off morsel "at the beyond end of +nowhere"--that when a February gale came driving down out of a steel sky +and shut up the little lane road and covered the house with snow a +passer-by might have mistaken it all, peeping through its icy fleece, +for just a huddle of the brown bowlders so common to the country +thereabouts. + +And even when there was no snow it was as bad--worse, almost, Luke +thought. When everything else went brave and young with new greenery; +when the alders were laced with the yellow haze of leaf bud, and the +brooks got out of prison again, and arbutus and violet and buttercup +went through their rotation of bloom up in the rock pastures and maple +bush--the farm buildings seemed only the bleaker and barer. + +That forlorn unpainted little house, with its sagging blinds! It +squatted there through the year like a one-eyed beggar without a +friend--lost in its venerable white-beard winters, or contemplating an +untidy welter of rusty farm machinery through the summers. + +When Luke brought his one scraggy little cow up the lane he always +turned away his head. The place made him think of the old man who let +the birds build nests in his whiskers. He preferred, instead, to look at +the glories of Bald Mountain or one of the other hills. There was +nothing wrong with the back drop in the home stage-set; it was only home +itself that hurt one's feelings. + +There was no cheer inside, either. The sagging old floors, though +scrubbed and spotless, were uncarpeted; the furniture meager. A pine +table, a few old chairs, a shabby scratched settle covered by a thin +horse blanket as innocent of nap as a Mexican hairless--these for +essentials; and for embellishment a shadeless glass lamp on the table, +about six-candle power, where you might make shift to read the +_Biweekly_--times when there was enough money to have a Biweekly--if you +were so minded; and window shelves full of corn and tomato cans, still +wearing their horticultural labels, where scrawny one-legged geraniums +and yellowing coleus and begonia contrived an existence of sorts. + +And then, of course, the mantelpiece with the black-edged funeral notice +and shiny coffin plate, relics of Grampaw Peel's taking-off; and the +pink mug with the purple pansy and "Woodstock, N. Y.," on it; the +photograph of a forgotten cousin in Iowa, with long antennæ-shaped +mustaches; the Bible with the little china knobs on the corners; and the +pile of medicine testimonials and seed catalogues--all these contributed +something. + +If it was not a beautiful place within, it was, also, not even a +pleasant place spiritually. What with the open door into his father's +room, whence you could hear the thin frettings made by the man who had +lain these ten years with chronic rheumatism, and the untuneful +whistlings of whittling Tom, the big brother, the shapely supple giant +whose mind had never grown since the fall from the barn room when he was +eight years old, and the acrid complaints of the tall gaunt mother, +stepping about getting their inadequate supper, in her gray wrapper, +with the ugly little blue shawl pinned round her shoulders, it was as +bad a place as you might find in a year's journeying for anyone to keep +bright and "chirk up" in. + +Not that anyone in particular expected "them poor Hayneses" to keep +bright or "chirk up." As far back as he could remember, Luke had +realized that the hand of God was laid on his family. Dragging his bad +leg up the hill pastures after the cow, day in and day out, he had +evolved a sort of patient philosophy about it. It was just inevitable, +like a lot of things known in that rock-ribbed and fatalistic region--as +immutably decreed by heaven as foreordination and the damnation of +unbaptized babes. The Hayneses had just "got it hard." + +Yet there were times, now he was come to a gangling fourteen, when +Luke's philosophy threatened to fail him. It wasn't fair--so it wasn't! +They weren't bad folks; they'd done nothing wicked. His mother worked +like a dog--"no fair for her," any way you looked at it. There were +times when the boy drank in bitterly every detail of the miserable place +he called home and knew the depths of an utter despair. + +If there was only some way to better it all! But there was no chance. +His father had been a failure at everything he touched in early life, +and now he was a hopeless invalid. Tom was an idiot--or almost--and +himself a cripple. And Nat! Well, Nat "wa'n't willin"--not that one +should blame him. Times like these, a lump like a roc's egg would rise +in the boy's throat. He had to spit--and spit hard--to conquer it. + +"If we hain't the gosh-awfulest lot!" he would gulp. + +To-day, as he came up the lane, June was in the land. She'd done her +best to be kind to the farm. All the old heterogeneous rosebushes in the +wood-yard and front "lawn" were piled with fragrant bloom. Usually Luke +would have lingered to sniff it all, but he saw only one thing now with +a sudden skipping at his heart--an automobile standing beside the front +porch. + +It was not the type of car to cause cardiac disturbance in a +connoisseur. It was, in fact, of an early vintage, high-set, chunky, +brassily æsthetic, and given to asthmatic choking on occasion; but Luke +did not know this. He knew only that it spelled luxury beyond all +dreams. It belonged, in short, to his Uncle Clem Cheesman, the rich +butcher who lived in the village twelve miles away; and its presence +here signaled the fact that Uncle Clem and Aunt Mollie had come to pay +one of their detestable quarterly visits to their poor relations. They +had come while he was out, and Maw was in there now, bearing it all +alone. + +Luke limped into the house hastily. He was not mistaken. There was a +company air in the room, a stiff hostile-polite taint in the atmosphere. +Three visitors sat in the kitchen, and a large hamper, its contents +partly disgorged, stood on the table. Luke knew that it contained +gifts--the hateful, merciful, nauseating charity of the better-off. + +Aunt Mollie was speaking as he entered--a large, high-colored, +pouter-pigeon-chested woman, with a great many rings with bright stones, +and a nodding pink plume in her hat. She was holding up a bifurcated +crimson garment, and greeted Luke absently. + +"Three pair o' them underdrawers, Delia--an' not a break in one of 'em! +I sez, as soon as I see Clem layin' 'em aside this spring, 'Them +things'll be jest right fur Delia's Jere, layin' there with the +rheumatiz.' They may come a little loose; but, of course, you can't be +choicey. I've b'en at Clem fur five years to buy him union suits; but +he's always b'en so stuck on red flannen. But now he's got two +aut'mobiles, countin' the new delivery, I guess he's gotta be more tony; +so he made out to spare 'em. And now that hat, Delia--it ain't a mite +wore out, an' fur all you'll need one it's plenty good enough. I only +had it two years and I guess folks won't remember; an' what if they +do--they all know you get my things. Same way with that collarette. It's +a little moth-eaten, but it won't matter fur you.... The gray suit you +can easy cut down fur Luke, there--" + +She droned on, the other woman making dry automatic sounds of assent. +She looked cool--Maw--Luke thought; but she wasn't. Not by a darn sight! +There was a spot of pink in each cheek and she stared hard every little +bit at Grampaw Peel's funeral plate on the mantel. Luke knew what she +was thinking of--poor Maw! She was burning in a fire of her own +lighting. She had brought it all on herself--on the whole lot of them. + +Years ago she had been just like Aunt Mollie. The daughters of a +prosperous village carpenter, they had shared beads, beaux and bangles +until Maw, in a moment's madness, had chucked it all away to marry poor +Paw. Now she had made her bed, she must lie in it. Must sit and say +"Thank you!" for Aunt Mollie's leavings, precious scraps she dared not +refuse--Maw, who had a pride as fierce and keen as any! It was devilish! +Oh, it was kind of Aunt Mollie to give; it was the taking that came so +bitter hard. And then they weren't genteel about their giving. There was +always that air of superiority, that conscious patronage, as now, when +Uncle Clem, breaking off his conversation with the invalid in the next +room about the price of mutton on the hoof and the chances of the +Democrats' getting in again, stopped fiddling with his thick plated +watch chain and grinned across at big Tom to fling his undeviating +flower of wit: + +"Runnin' all to beef, hain't ye, Tom, boy? Come on down to the market +an' we'll git some A 1 sirloins outen ye, anyway. Do your folks that +much good." + +It was things like this that made Luke want to burn, poison, or shoot +Uncle Clem. He was not a bad man, Uncle Clem--a thick sandy chunk of a +fellow, given to bright neckties and a jocosity that took no account of +feelings. Shaped a little like a log, he was--back of his head and back +of his neck--all of a width. Little lively green eyes and bristling red +mustaches. A complexion a society bud might have envied. Why was it a +butcher got so pink and white and sleek? Pork, that's what Uncle Clem +resembled, Luke thought--a nice, smooth, pale-fleshed pig, ready to be +skinned. + +His turn next! When crops and politics failed and the joke at poor +Tom--Tom always giggled inordinately at it, too--had come off, there was +sure to be the one about himself and the lame duck next. To divert +himself of bored expectation, Luke turned to stare at his cousin, +S'norta. + +S'norta, sitting quietly in a chair across the room, was seldom known to +be emotional. Indeed, there were times when Luke wondered whether she +had not died in her chair. One had that feeling about S'norta, so +motionless was she, so uncompromising of glance. She was very +prosperous-looking, as became the heiress to the Cheesman meat +business--a fat little girl of twelve, dressed with a profusion of +ruffles, glass pearls, gilt buckles, and thick tawny curls that might +have come straight from the sausage hook in her papa's shop. + +S'norta had been consecrated early in life to the unusual. Even her name +was not ordinary. Her romantic mother, immersed in the prenatal period +in the hair-lifting adventures of one Señorita Carmena, could think of +no lovelier appellation when her darling came than the first portion of +that sloe-eyed and restless lady's title, which she conceived to be +baptismal; and in due course she had conferred it, together with her own +pronunciation, on her child. A bold man stopping in at Uncle Clem's +market, as Luke knew, had once tried to pronounce and expound the +cognomen in a very different fashion; but he had been hustled +unceremoniously from the place, and S'norta remained in undisturbed +possession of her honors. + +Now Luke was recalled from his contemplation by his uncle's voice again. +A lull had fallen and out of it broke the question Luke always dreaded. + +"Nat, now!" said Uncle Clem, leaning forward, his thick fingers +clutching his fat knees. "You ain't had any news of him since quite a +while ago, have you?" The wit that was so preponderable a feature of +Uncle Clem's nature bubbled to the surface. "Dunno but he's landed in +jail a spell back and can't git out again!" The lively little eyes +twinkled appreciatively. + +Nobody answered. It set Maw's mouth in a thin, hard line. You wouldn't +get a rise out of old Maw with such tactics--Maw, who believed in Nat, +soul and body. Into Luke's mind flashed suddenly a formless half prayer: +"Don't let 'em nag her now--make 'em talk other things!" + +The Lord, in the guise of Aunt Mollie, answered him. For once, Nat and +Nat's character and failings did not hold her. She drew a deep breath +and voiced something that claimed her interest: + +"Well, Delia, I see you wasn't out at the Bisbee's funeral. Though I +don't s'pose anyone really expected you, knowin' how things goes with +you. Time was, when you was a girl, you counted in as big as any and +traveled with the best; but now"--she paused delicately, and coughed +politely with an appreciative glance round the poor room--"they ain't +anyone hereabouts but's talkin' about it. My land, it was swell! I +couldn't ask no better for my own. Fourteen cabs, and the hearse sent +over from Rockville--all pale gray, with mottled gray horses. It was +what I call tasty. + +"Matty wasn't what you'd call well-off--not as lucky as some I could +mention; but she certainly went off grand! The whole Methodist choir was +out, with three numbers in broken time; and her cousin's brother-in-law +from out West--some kind of bishop--to preach. Honest, it was one of the +grandest sermons I ever heard! Wasn't it, Clem?" + +Uncle Clem cleared his throat thoughtfully. + +"Humiliatin'!--that's what I'd call it. A strong maur'l sermon all +round. A man couldn't hear it 'thout bein' humiliated more ways'n one." +He was back at the watch-chain again. + +"It's a pity you couldn't of gone, Delia--you an' Matty always was so +intimate too. You certainly missed a grand treat, I can tell you; +though, if you hadn't the right clothes--" + +"Well, I haven't," Maw spoke dryly. "I don't go no-wheres, as you +know--not even church." + +"I s'pose not. Time was it was different, though, Delia. Ain't nobody +but talks how bad off you are. Ann Chester said she seen you in town a +while back and wouldn't of knowed it was you if it hadn't of b'en you +was wearin' my old brown cape, an' she reconnized it. Her an' me got 'em +both alike to the same store in Rockville. You was so changed, she said +she couldn't hardly believe it was you at all." + +"Sometimes I wonder myself if it is," said Maw grimly. + +"Well, 's I was sayin', it was a grand funeral. None better! They even +had engraved invites, over a hundred printed--and they had folks from +all over the state. They give Clem, here, the contract fur the supper +meat----" + +"The best of everything!" Uncle Clem broke in. "None o' your cheap +graft. Gimme a free hand. Jim Bisbee tole me himself. 'I want the best +ye got,' he sez; an' I give it. Spring lamb and prime ribs, fancy hotel +style----" + +"An' Em Carson baked the cakes fur 'em, sixteen of 'em; an' Dickison the +undertaker's tellin' all over they got the best quality shroud he +carries. Well, you'll find it all in the _Biweekly_, under Death's Busy +Sickle. Jim Bisbee shore set a store by Matty oncet she was dead. It was +a grand affair, Delia. Not but what we've had some good ones in our time +too." + +It was Aunt Mollie's turn to stare pridefully at the Peel plate on the +chimney shelf. + +"A thing like that sets a family up, sorta." + +Uncle Clem had taken out a fat black cigar with a red-white-and-blue +band. He bit off the end and alternately thrust it between his lips or +felt of its thickness with a fondling thumb and finger. Luke, watching, +felt a sudden compassion for the cigar. It looked so harried. + +"I always say," Aunt Mollie droned on, "a person shows up what he really +is at the last--what him and his family stands fur. It's what kind of a +funeral you've got that counts--who comes out an' all. An' that was true +with Matty. There wa'n't a soul worth namin' that wasn't out to hers." + +How Aunt Molly could gouge--even amicably! And funerals! What a subject, +even in a countryside where a funeral is a social event and the manner +of its furniture marks a definite social status! Would they never go? +But it seemed at last they would. Incredibly, somehow, they were taking +their leave, Aunt Mollie kissing Maw good-by, with the usual remark +about "hopin' the things would help some," and about being "glad to +spare somethin' from my great plenty." + +She and Señorita were presently packed into the car and Tom had gone out +to goggle at Uncle Clem cranking up, the cold cigar still between his +lips. Now they were off--choking and snorting their way out of the +wood-yard and down the lane. Aunt Mollie's pink feather streamed into +the breeze like a pennon of triumph. + + * * * * * + +Maw was standing by the stove, a queer look in her eyes; so queer that +Luke didn't speak at once. He limped over to finger the spilled +treasures on the table. + +"Gee! Lookit, Maw! More o' them prunes we liked so; an' a bag o' early +peaches; an' fresh soup meat fur a week--" + +A queer trembling had seized his mother. She was so white he was +frightened. + +"Did you sense what it meant, Luke--what Aunt Molly told us about Matty +Bisbee? We was left out deliberate--that's what it meant. Her an' me +that was raised together an' went to school and picnics all our girlhood +together! Never could see one 'thout the other when we was growin' +up--Jim Bisbee knew that too! But"--her voice wavered miserably--"I +didn't get no invite to her funeral. I don't count no more, Lukey. None +of us, anywheres.... We're jest them poor Gawd-forsaken Hayneses." + +She slipped down suddenly into a chair and covered her face, her thin +shoulders shaking. Luke went and touched her awkwardly. Times he would +have liked to put his arms round Maw--now more than ever; but he didn't +dare. + +"Don't take on, Maw! Don't!" + +"Who's takin' on?" She lifted a fierce, sallow, tear-wet face. "Hain't +no use makin' a fuss. All's left's to work--to work, an' die after a +while." + +"I hate 'em! Uncle Clem an' her, I mean." + +"They mean kindness--their way." But her tears started afresh. + +"I hate 'em!" Luke's voice grew shriller. "I'd like--I'd like--Oh, damn +'em!" + +"Don't swear, boy!" + +It was Tom who broke in on them. "It's a letter from Rural Free +Delivery. He jest dropped it." + +He came up, grinning, with the missive. The mother's fingers closed on +it nervously. + +"From Nat, mebbe--he ain't wrote in months." + +But it wasn't from Nat. It was a bill for a last payment on the "new +harrow," brought three years before. + + +II + +One of the earliest memories Luke could recall was the big blurred +impression of Nat's face bending over his crib of an evening. At first +flat, indefinite, remote as the moon, it grew with time to more human, +intimate proportions. It became the face of "brother," the black-haired, +blue-eyed big boy who rollicked on the floor with or danced him on his +knee to-- + + This is the way the lady rides! + Tritty-trot-trot; tritty-trot-trot! + +Or who, returning from school and meeting his faltering feet in the +lane, would toss him up on his shoulder and canter him home with mad, +merry scamperings. + +Not that school and Nat ever had much in common. Even as a little shaver +Luke had realized that, Nat was the family wilding, the migratory bird +that yearned for other climes. There were the times when he sulked long +days by the fire, and the springs and autumns when he played an unending +round of hookey. There were the days when he was sent home from school +in disgrace; when protesting notes, and sometimes even teacher, arrived. + +"It's not that Nat's a bad boy, Mrs. Haynes," he remembered one teacher +saying; "but he's so active, so full of restless animal spirits. How are +we ever going to tame him?" + +Maw didn't know the answer--that was sure. She loved Nat best--Luke had +guessed it long ago, by the tone of her voice when she spoke to him, by +the touch of her hand on his head, or the size of his apple turnover, so +much bigger than the others'. Maw must have built heavily on her hopes +of Nat those days--her one perfect child. She was so proud of him! In +the face of all ominous prediction she would fling her head high. + +"My Nat's a Peel!" she would say. "Can't never tell how he'll turn out." + +The farmers thereabouts thought they could tell her. Nat was into one +scrape after another--nothing especially wicked; but a compound of the +bubbling mischief in a too ardent life--robbed orchards, broken windows, +practical jokes, Halloween jinks, vagrant whimsies of an active +imagination. + +It was just that Nat's quarters were too small for him, chiefly. Even he +realized this presently. Luke would never forget the sloppy March +morning when Nat went away. He was wakened by a flare of candle in the +room he shared with his brothers. Tom, the twelve-year-old, lay sound +asleep; but Nat, the big man of fifteen, was up, dressed, bending over +something he was writing on a paper at the bureau. There was a fat +little bundle beside him, done up in a blue-and-white bandanna. + +Day was still far off. The window showed black; there was the sound of a +thaw running off the eaves; the whitewashed wall was painted with +grotesque leaping shadows by the candle flame. At the first murmur, Nat +had come and put his arms about him. + +"Don't ye holler, little un; don't ye do it! 'Tain't nothin'--on'y +Natty's goin' away a spell; quite a spell, little un. Now kiss Natty.... +That's right!... An' you lay still there an' don't holler. An' listen +here, too: Natty's goin' to bring ye somethin'--a grand red ball, +mebbe--if you're good. You wait an' see!" + +But Natty hadn't brought the ball. Two years had passed without a scrap +of news of him; and then--he was back. Slipped into the village on a +freighter at dusk one evening. A forlorn scarecrow Nat was; so tattered +of garment, so smeared of coal dust, you scarcely knew him. So full of +strange sophistications, too, and new trails of thought--so oddly rich +of experience. He gave them his story. The tale of an exigent life in a +great city; a piecework life made of such flotsam labors as he could +pick up, of spells of loafing, of odd incredible associates, of months +tagging a circus, picking up a task here and there, of long journeyings +through the country, "riding the bumpers"--even of alms asked at back +doors! + +"Oh, not a tramp, Nat!" + +The hurt had quivered all through Maw. + +But Nat only laughed. + +"Jiminy Christmas, it was great!" + +He had thrown back his head, laughing. That was Nat all through--sipping +of life generously, no matter in what form. + +He had stayed just three weeks. He had spent them chiefly defeating +Maw's plans to keep him. Wanderlust kept him longer the next time. That +was eight years ago. Since then he had been back home three times. Never +so poor and shabby as at first--indeed, Nat's wanderings had prospered +more or less--but still remote, somewhat mysterious, touched by new +habits of life, new ways of speech. + +The countryside, remembering the manner of his first return, shook its +head darkly. A tramp--a burglar, even. God knew what! When, on his third +visit home, he brought an air of extreme opulence, plenty of money, and +a sartorial perfection undreamed of locally, the heads wagged even +harder. A gambler probably; a ne'er-do-well certainly; and one to break +his mother's heart in the end. + +But none of this was true, as Luke knew. It was just that Nat hated +farming; that he liked to rove and take a floater's fortune. He had a +taste for the mechanical and followed incomprehensible quests. San +Francisco had known him; the big races at Cincinnati; the hangars at +Mineola. He was restless--Nat; but he was respectable. No one could look +into his merry blue eyes and not know it. If his labors were uncertain +and sporadic, and his address that of a nomad, it all sufficed, at least +for himself. + +If at times Luke felt a stirring doubt that Nat was not acquitting +himself of his family duty, he quenched it fiercely. Nat was different. +He was born free; you could tell it in his talk, in his way of thinking. +He was like an eagle and hated to be bound by earthly ties. He cared for +them all in his own way. Times when he was back he helped Maw all he +could. If he brought money he gave of it freely; if he had none, just +the look of his eye or the ready jest on his lip helped. + +Upstairs in a drawer of the old pine bureau lay some of Nat's discarded +clothing--incredible garments to Luke. The lame boy, going to them +sometimes, fingered them, pondering, reconstructing for himself the +fabric of Nat's adventures, his life. The ice-cream pants of a by-gone +day; the pointed, shriveled yellow Oxfords! the silk-front shirt; the +odd cuff link or stud--they were like a genie-in-a-bottle, these poor +clothes! You rubbed them and a whole Arabian Night's dream unfurled from +them. + +And Nat lived it all! But people--dull stodgy people like Uncle Clem and +Aunt Mollie, and old Beckonridge down at the store, and a dozen +others--these criticized him for not "workin' reg'lar" and giving a full +account of himself. + +Luke, thinking of all this, would flush with impotent anger. + +"Oh, let 'em talk, though! He'll show 'em some day! They dunno Nat. +He'll do somethin' big fur us all some day." + + +III + +Midsummer came to trim the old farm with her wreaths. It was the time +Luke loved best of all--the long, sweet, loam-scented evenings with Maw +and Tom on the old porch; and sometimes--when there was no fog--Paw's +cot, wheeled out in the stillness. But Maw was not herself this summer. +Something had fretted and eaten into her heart like an acid ever since +Aunt Mollie's visit and the news of Matty Bisbee's funeral. + +When, one by one, the early summer festivities of the neighborhood had +slipped by, with no inclusion of the Hayneses, she had fallen to +brooding deeply,--to feeling more bitterly than ever the ignominy and +wretchedness of their position. + +Luke tried to comfort her; to point out that this summer was like any +other; that they "never had mattered much to folks." But Maw continued +to brood; to allude vaguely and insistently to "the straw that broke the +camel's back." It was bitter hard to have Maw like that--home was bad +enough, anyway. Sometimes on clear, soft nights, when the moon came out +all splendid and the "peepers" sang so plaintively in the Hollow, the +boy's heart would fill and grow enormous in his chest with the +intolerable sadness he felt. + +Then Maw's mood lifted--pierced by a ray of heavenly sunlight--for Nat +came home! + +Luke saw him first--heard him, rather; for Nat came up the lane--oh, +miraculous!--driving a motor car. It was not a car like Uncle +Clem's--not even a step-brother to it. It was low and almost noiseless, +and shaped like one of those queer torpedoes they were fighting with +across the water. It was colored a soft dust-gray and trimmed with +nickel; and, huge and powerful though it was, it swung to a mere touch +of Nat's hand. + +Nat stood before them, clad in black leather Norfolk and visored cap and +leggings. + +"Look like a fancy brand of chauffeur, don't I?" he laughed, with the +easy resumption of a long-broken relation that was so characteristically +Nat. + +But Nat was not a chauffeur. Something much bigger and grander. The news +he brought them on top of it all took their breaths away. Nat was a +special demonstrator, out on a brand-new high-class job for a house +handling a special line of high-priced goods. And he was to go to Europe +in another week--did they get it straight? Europe! Jiminy! He and +another fellow were taking cars over to France and England. + +No; they didn't quite get it. They could not grasp its significance, but +clung humbly, instead, to the mere glorious fact of his presence. + +He stayed two days and a night; and summer was never lovelier. Maw was +like a girl, and there was such a killing of pullets and extravagance +with new-laid eggs as they had never known before. At the last he gave +them all presents. + +"Tell the truth," he laughed, "I'm stony broke. 'Tisn't mine, all this +stuff you see. I got some kale in advance--not much, but enough to swing +me; but of course, the outfit's the company's. But I'll tell you one +thing: I'm going to bring some long green home with me, you can bet! And +when I do"--Nat had given Maw a prodigious nudge in the ribs--"when I +do--I ain't goin' to stay an old bachelor forever! Do you get that?" + +Maw's smile had faded for a moment. But the presents were fine--a new +knife for Tom, a book for Luke, and twenty whole round dollars for Maw, +enough to pay that old grocery bill down at Beckonridge's and Paw's new +invoice of patent medicine. + +They all stood on the porch and watched him as far as they could see; +and Maw's black mood didn't return for a whole week. + +Evenings now they had something different to talk about--journeys in +seagoing craft; foreign countries and the progress of the "Ee-ropean" +war, and Nat's likelihood--he had laughed at this--of touching even its +fringe. They worked it all up from the boiler-plate war news in the +_Biweekly_ and Luke's school geography. Yes; for a little space the +blackness was lifted. + +Then came the August morning when Paw died. This was an unexpected and +unsettling contingency. One doesn't look for a "chronic's" doing +anything so unscheduled and foreign to routine; but Paw spoiled all +precedent. They found him that morning with his heart quite still, and +Luke knew they stood in the presence of imminent tragedy. + +It's all very well to peck along, hand-to-mouth fashion. You can manage +a living of sorts; and farm produce, even scanty, unskillfully +contrived, and the charity of relatives, and the patience of tradesmen, +will see you through. But a funeral--that's different! Undertaker--that +means money. Was it possible that the sordid epic of their lives must be +capped by the crowning insult, the Poormaster and the Pauper's Field? If +only poor Paw could have waited a little before he claimed the +spotlight--until prices fell a little or Nat got back with that "long +green"! + +Maw swallowed her bitter pill. + +She went to see Uncle Clem and ask! And Uncle Clem was kind. + +"He'll buy a casket--he's willin' fur that--an' send a wreath and pay +fur notices, an' even half on a buryin' lot; but he said he couldn't do +no more. The high cost has hit him too.... An' where are we to git the +rest? He said--at the last--it might be better all round fur us to take +what Ellick Flick would gimme outen the Poor Fund--" Maw hadn't been +able to go on for a spell. + +A pauper's burial for Paw! Surely Maw would manage better than that! She +tried to find a better way that very night. + +"This farm's mortgaged to the neck; but I calculate Ben Travis won't +care if I'm a mind to put Paw in the south field. It hain't no mortal +good fur anything else, anyhow; an' he can lay there if we want. It's a +real pleasant place. An' I can git the preacher myself--I'll give him +the rest o' the broilers; an' they's seasoned hickory plankin' in the +lean-to. Tom, you come along with me." + +All night Luke had lain and listened to the sound of big Tom's saw and +hammer. Tom was real handy if you told him how--and Maw would be showing +him just how to shape it all out. Each hammer blow struck deep on the +boy's heart. + +Maw lined the home-made box herself with soft old quilts, and washed and +dressed her dead herself in his faded outlawed wedding clothes. And on a +morning soft and sweet, with a hint of rain in the air, they rode down +in the farm wagon to the south field together--Paw and Maw and +Luke--with big Tom walking beside the aged knobby horse's head. + +Abel Gazzam, a neighbor, had seen to the grave; and in due course the +little cavalcade reached the appointed spot inside the snake fence--a +quiet place in a corner, under a graybeard elm. As Maw had said, it was +"a pleasant place for Paw to lay in." + +There were some old neighbors out in their own rigs, and Uncle Clem had +brought his family up in his car, with a proper wreath; and Reverend +Kearns came up and--declining all lien on the broilers--read the burial +service, and spoke a little about poor Paw. But it wasn't a funeral, no +how. No supper; no condolence; no viewing "the remains"--not even a +handshake! Maw didn't even look at her old friends, riding back home +between Tom and Luke, with her head fiercely high in the air. + +A dull depression settled on Luke's heart. It was all up with the +Hayneses now. They had saved Paw from charity with their home-made +burial; but what had it availed? They might as well have gone the whole +figure. Everybody knew! There wasn't any comeback for a thing like this. +They were just no-bodies--the social pariahs of the district. + + +IV + +Somehow, after the fashion of other years, they got their meager crops +in--turnips, potatoes and Hubbard squashes put up in the vegetable +cellar; oats cradled; corn husked; the buckwheat ready for the mill; +even Tom's crooked furrows for the spring sowings made. Somehow, Maw +helping like a man and Tom obeying like a docile child, they took toll +of their summer. And suddenly September was at their heels--and then the +equinox. + +It seemed to Luke that it had never rained so much before. Brown vapor +rose eternally from the valley flats; the hilltops lay lost entirely in +clotted murk. By periods hard rains, like showers of steel darts, beat +on the soaking earth. Gypsy gales of wind went ricocheting among the +farm buildings, setting the shingles to snapping and singing; the +windows moaned and rattled. The sourest weather the boy could remember! + +And on the worst day of all they got the news. Out of the mail box in +the lane Luke got it--going down under an old rubber cape in a steady +blinding pour. It got all damp--the letter, foreign postmark, stamp and +all--by the time he put it into Maw's hand. + +It was a double letter--or so one judged, first opening it. There was +another inside, complete, sealed, and addressed in Nat's hand; but one +must read the paper inclosed with it first--that was obvious. It was +just a strip, queer, official looking, with a few lines typed upon it +and a black heading that sprang out at one strangely. They read it +together--or tried to. At first they got no sense from it. Paris--from +clear off in France--and then the words below--and Maw's name at the +top, just like the address on the newspaper: + + Mrs. Jere Haynes, + Stony Brook, New York. + +It was for Maw all right. Then quite suddenly the words came clear +through the blur: + + Mrs. Jere Haynes, + Stony Brook, New York. + + _Dear Madam_: We regret to inform you that the official _communiqué_ + for September sixth contains the tidings that the writer of the + enclosed letter, Nathaniel Haynes, of Stony Brook, New York, + U. S. A., was killed while on duty as an ambulance driver in the + Sector of Verdun, and has been buried in that region. Further + details will follow. + + The American Ambulance, Paris. + +Even when she realized, Maw never cried out. She sat wetting her lips +oddly, looking at the words that had come like evil birds across the +wide spaces of earth. It was Luke who remembered the other letter: + + * * * * * + +"_My dear kind folks--Father, Mother and Brothers_: I guess I dare call +you that when I get far enough away from you. Perhaps you won't mind +when I tell you my news. + +"Well we came over from England last Thursday and struck into our +contract here. Things was going pretty good; but you might guess yours +truly couldn't stand the dead end of things. I bet Maw's guessed +already. Well sir it's that roving streak in me I guess. Never could +stick to nothing steady. It got me bad when I got here any how. + +"To cut it short I throwed up my job with the firm yesterday and have +volunteered as an Ambulance driver. Nothing but glory; but I'm going to +like it fine! They're short-handed anyhow and a fellow likes to help +what he can. Wish I could send a little money; but it took all I had to +outfit me. Had to cough up eight bucks for a suit of underclothes. What +do you know about that? + +"You can write me in care of the Ambulance, Paris. + +"Now Maw don't worry! I'm not going to fight. I did try to get into the +Foreign Legion but had no chance. I'm all right. Think of me as a nice +little Red Cross boy and the Wise Willie on the gas wagon. And won't I +have the hot stuff to make old Luke's eyes pop out! Hope Paw's legs are +better. And Maw have a kiss on me. Mebbe you folks think I don't +appreciate you. If I was any good at writing I'd tell you different. + + "Your Son and Brother, + "Nat Haynes." + +The worst of it all was about Maw's not crying--just sitting there +staring at the fire, or where the fire had been when the wood had died +out of neglect. It's not in reason that a woman shouldn't cry, Luke +felt. He tried some words of comfort: + +"He's safe, anyhow, Maw--'member that! That's a whole lot too. Didn't +always know that, times he was rollin' round so over here. You worried a +whole lot about him, you know." + +But Maw didn't answer. She seldom spoke at all--moved about as little as +possible. When she had put out food for him and Tom she always went back +to her corner and stared into the fire. Luke had to bring a plate to her +and coax her to eat. Even the day Uncle Clem and Aunt Mollie came up she +did not notice them. Only once she spoke of Nat to Luke. + +"You loved him the most, didn't ye, Maw?" he asked timidly one dreary +evening. + +She answered in a sort of dull surprise. + +"Why, lad, he was my first!" she said; and after a bit, as though to +herself: "His head was that round and shiny when he was a little fellow +it was like to a little round apple. I mind, before he ever come, I +bought me a cap fur him over to Rockville, with a blue bow onto it. He +looked awful smart an' pretty in it." + +Sometimes in the night Luke, sleeping ill and thinking long, lay and +listened for possible sounds from Maw's room. Perhaps she cried in the +nights. If she only would--it would help break the tension for them all. +But he never heard anything but the rain--steadily, miserably beating on +the sodden shingles overhead. + + * * * * * + +It was only Luke who watched the mail box now. One morning his journey +to it bore fruit. No sting any longer; no fear in the thick foreign +letter he carried. + +"It'll tell ye all's to it, I bet!" he said eagerly. + +Maw seemed scarcely interested. It was Luke who broke the seal and read +it aloud. + +It was written from the Ambulance Headquarters, in Paris--written by a +man of rare insight, of fine and delicate perception. All that Nat's +family might have wished to learn he sought to tell them. He had himself +investigated Nat's story and he gave it all fully and freely. He spoke +in praise of Nat; of his friendly associations with the Ambulance men; +of his good nature and cheerful spirits; his popularity and ready +willingness to serve. People, one felt, had loved Nat over there. + +He wrote of the preliminary duties in Paris, the preparations--of Nat's +final going to join one of the three sections working round Verdun. It +wasn't easy work that waited for Nat there. It was a stiff contract +guiding the little ambulance over the shell-rutted roads, with deftness +and precision, to those distant dressing stations where the hurt +soldiers waited for him. It was a picture that thrilled Luke and made +his pulses tingle--the blackness of the nights; the rumble of moving +artillery and troops; the flash of starlights; the distant crackling of +rifle fire; the steady thunder of heavy guns. + +And the shells! It was mighty close they swept to a fellow, whistling, +shrieking, low overhead; falling to tear out great gouges in the earth. +It was enough to wreck one's nerve utterly; but the fellows that drove +were all nerve. Just part of the day's work to them! And that was Nat +too. Nat hadn't known what fear was--he'd eaten it alive. The adventurer +in him had gone out to meet it joyously. + +Nat was only on his third trip when tragedy had come to him. He and a +companion were seeking a dressing station in the cellar of a little +ruined house in an obscure French village, when a shell had burst right +at their feet, so to speak. That was all. Simple as that. Nat was dead +instantly and his companion--oh, Nat was really the lucky one.... + +Luke had to stop for a little time. One couldn't go on at once before a +thing like that.... When he did, it was to leave behind the darkness, +the shell-torn houses, the bruised earth, the racked and mutilated +humans.... Reading on, it was like emerging from Hades into a great +Peace. + +"I wish it were possible to convey to you, my dear Mrs. Haynes, some +impression of the moving and beautiful ceremony with which your son was +laid to rest on the morning of September ninth, in the little village of +Aucourt. Imagine a warm, sunny, late-summer day, and a village street +sloping up a hillside, filled with soldiers in faded, dusty blue, and +American Ambulance drivers in khaki. + +"In the open door of one of the houses, the front of which was covered +with the tri-color of France, the coffin was placed, wrapped in a great +French flag, and covered with flowers and wreaths sent by the various +American sections. At the head a small American flag was placed, on +which was pinned the _Croix de Guerre_--a gold star on a red-and-green +ribbon--a tribute from the army general to the boy who gave his life for +France. + +"A priest, with six soldier attendants, led the procession from the +courtyard. Six more soldiers bore the coffin, the Americans and +representatives of the army branches following, bearing wreaths. After +these came the General of the Army Corps, with a group of officers, and +a detachment of soldiers with arms reversed. At the foot of the hill a +second detachment fell in and joined them.... + +"The scene was unforgettable, beautiful and impressive. In the little +church a choir of soldiers sang and a soldier-priest played the organ, +while the Chaplain of the Army Division held the burial service. The +chaplain's sermon I have asked to have reproduced and sent to you, +together with other effects of your son's.... + +"The chaplain spoke most beautifully and at length, telling very +tenderly what it meant to the French people that an American should give +his life while trying to help them in the hour of their extremity. The +name of this chaplain is Henri Deligny, _Aumônier Militaire_, Ambulance +16-27, Sector 112; and he was assisted by the permanent curé of the +little church, Abbé Blondelle, who wishes me to assure you that he will +guard most reverently your son's grave, and be there to receive you when +the day may come that you shall wish to visit it. + +"After leaving the church the procession marched to the military +cemetery, where your son's body was laid beside the hundreds of others +who have died for France. Both the lieutenant and general here paid +tributes of appreciation, which I will have sent to you. The general, +various officers of the army, and ambulance assisted in the last +rites.... + +"I have brought back and will send you the _Croix de Guerre_...." + + * * * * * + +Oh, but you couldn't read any further--for the great lump of pride in +your throat, the thick mist of tears in your eyes. A sob escaped the +boy. He looked over at Maw and saw the miraculous. Maw was awake at last +and crying--a new-fledged pulsating Maw emerged from the brown chrysalis +of her sorrows. + +"Oh, Maw!... Our Nat!... All that--that-funeral!... Some funeral, Maw!" +The boy choked. + +"My Nat!" Maw was saying. "Buried like a king! ... Like a King o' +France!" She clasped her hands tightly. + +It was like some beautiful fantasy. A Haynes--the despised and rejected +of earth--borne to his last home with such pomp and ceremony! + +"There never was nothin' like it heard of round here, Maw.... If folks +could only know--" + +She lifted her head as at a challenge. + +"Why, they're goin' to know, Luke--for I'm goin' to tell 'em. Folks that +have talked behind Nat's back--folks that have pitied us--when they see +this--like a King o' France!" she repeated softly. "I'm goin' down to +town to-day, Luke." + + +V + +It was dusk when Maw came back; dusk of a clear day, with a rosy sunset +off behind the hills. Luke opened the door for her and he saw that she +had brought some of the sun along in with her--its colors in her worn +face; its peace in her eyes. She was the same, yet somehow new. Even the +tilt of her crazy old bonnet could not detract from a strange new +dignity that clothed her. + +She did not speak at once, going over to warm her gloveless hands at the +stove, and staring up at the Grampaw Peel plate; then: + +"When it comes--my Nat's medal--it's goin' to set right up here, 'stead +o' this old thing--an' the letters and the sermons in my shell box I got +on my weddin' trip.... Lawyer Ritchie told me to-day what it means, the +name o' that medal--Cross o' War! It's a decoration fur soldiers and +earned by bravery." + +She paused; then broke out suddenly: + +"I b'en a fool, settin' here grievin'. My Nat was a hero, an' I never +knew it!... A hero's folks hadn't ought to cry. It's a thing too big for +that. Come here, you little Luke! Maw hain't b'en real good to you an' +Tommy lately. You're gittin' all white an' peaked. Too much frettin' +'bout Nat. You an' me's got to stop it, I tell you. Folks round here +ain't goin' to let us fret--" + +"Folks! Maw!" The words burst from the boy's heart. "Did they find +out?... You showed it to 'em? Uncle Clem--" + +Maw sniffed. + +"Clem! Oh, he was real took aback; but he don't count in on this--not +big enough." Then triumph hastened her story. "It's the big ones that's +mixin' into this, Lukey. Seems like they'd heard somethin' a spell back +in one o' the county papers, an' we didn't know.... Anyhow, when I first +got into town I met Judge Geer. He had me right into his office in +Masonic Hall, 'fore I could git my breath almost--had me settin' in his +private room, an' sent his stenugifer out fur a cup o' cawfee fur me. He +had me give him the letter to read, an' asked dare he make some copies. +The stenugifer took 'em like lightnin', right there. + +"The judge had a hard time of it, coughin' an' blowin' over that letter. +He's goin' to send some copies to the New York papers right off. He took +me acrost the hall and interduced me to Lawyer Ritchie. Lawyer Ritchie, +he read the letter too. 'A hero!' they called Nat; an' me 'A hero's +mother!' + +"'We ain't goin' to forgit this, Mis' Haynes,' Lawyer Ritchie said. +'This here whole town's proud o' your Nat.' ... My land! I couldn't +sense it all!... Me, Delia Haynes, gettin' her hand wrung, 'count o' +anything Nat'd b'en doin', by the big bugs round town! Judge Geer, he +fetched 'em all out o' their offices--Slade, the supervisor, and Fuller +Brothers, and old Sumner Pratt--an' all! An' Ben Watson asked could he +have a copy to put in the _Biweekly_. It's goin' to take the whole front +page, with an editor'al inside. He said the Rockville Center News'd most +likely copy it too. + +"I was like in a dream!... All I'd aimed to do was to let some o' them +folks know that those people acrost the ocean had thought well of our +Nat, an' here they was breakin' their necks to git in on it too!... +Goin' down the street they was more of it. Lu Shiffer run right out o' +the hardware store an' left the nails he was weighin' to shake hands +with me; and Jem Brand came; and Lan'lord Peters come out o' the Valley +House an' spoke to me.... I felt awful public. An' Jim Beckonridge come +out of the Emporium to shake too. + +"'I ain't seen you down in town fur quite a spell,' he sez. 'How are you +all up there to the farm?... Want to say I'm real proud o' Nat--a boy +from round here!' he sez.... Old Beckonridge, that was always wantin' to +arrest Nat fur takin' his chestnuts or foolin' down in the store! + +"I just let 'em drift--seein' they had it all fixed fur me. All along +the street they come an' spoke to me. Mame Parmlee, that ain't b'en able +to see me fur three years, left off sweepin' her porch an' come down an' +shook my hand, an' cried about it; an' that stylish Mis' Willowby, +that's president o' the Civil Club, followed me all over the Square and +asked dare she read a copy o' the letter an' tell about Nat to the +school-house next Wednesday. + +"It seems Judge Geer had gone out an' spread it broadcast that I was in +town, for they followed me everywhere. Next thing I run into Reverend +Kearns and Reverend Higby, huntin' me hard. They both had one idee. + +"'We wanted to have a memor'al service to the churches 'bout Nat,' they +sez; 'then it come over us that it was the town's affair really. So, +Mis' Haynes,' they sez, 'we want you should share this thing with us. +You mustn't be selfish. You gotta give us a little part in it too. Are +you willin'?'" + +"It knocked me dumb--me givin' anybody anything! Well, to finish, they's +to be a big public service in the Town Hall on Friday. They'll have it +all flags--French ones, an' our'n too. An' the ministers'll preach; an' +Judge Geer'll tell Nat's story an' speak about him; an' the Ladies' +Guild'll serve a big hot supper, because they'll probably be hundreds +out; an' they'll read the letters an' have prayers for our Nat!" She +faltered a moment. "An' we'll be there too--you an' me an' Tom--settin' +in the seat o' honor, right up front!... It'll be the greatest funeral +service this town's ever seen, Luke." + +Maw's face was crimson with emotion. + +"An' Uncle Clem an' Aunt Mollie--" + +"Oh--them!" Maw came back to earth and smiled tolerantly. "They was real +sharp to be in it too. Mollie took me into the parlor an' fetched a +glass o' wine to stren'then me up." Maw mused a moment; then spoke with +a touch of patronage: "I'm goin' to knit Clem some new socks this +winter. He says he can't git none like the oldtime wool ones; an' the +market floors are cold. Clem's done what he could, an' I'll be real glad +to help him out.... Oh, I asked 'em to come an' set with us at the +service--S'norta too. I allowed we could manage to spare 'em the room." + +She dreamed again, launched on a sea of glory; then roused to her final +triumph: + +"But that's only part, Luke. The best's comin'. Jim Beckonridge wants +you to go down an' see him. 'That lame boy o' yours,' he sez, 'was in +here a spell ago with some notion about raisin' bees an' buckwheat +together, an' gittin' a city market fur buckwheat honey. Slipped my +mind,' he sez, 'till I heard what Nat'd done; an' then it all come back. +City party this summer had the same notion an' was lookin' out for a +likely place to invest some cash in. You send that boy down an' we'll +talk it over. Shouldn't wonder if he'd get some backin'. I calculate I +might help him, myself,' he sez, 'I b'en thinkin' of it too.' ... Don't +seem like it could hardly be true." + +"Oh, Maw!" Luke's pulses were leaping wildly. Buckwheat honey was the +dear dream of many a long hour's wistful meditation. "If we could--I +could study up about it an' send away fur printed books. We could make +some money--" + +But Maw had not yet finished. + +"An' they's some about Tom, too, Luke! That young Doctor Wells down +there--he's on'y b'en there a year--he come right up, an' spoke to me, +in the midst of several. 'I want to talk about your boy,' he sez. 'I've +wanted to fur some time, but didn't like to make bold; but now seem's as +good a time as any.' 'They're all talkin' of him,' I sez. 'Well,' he +sez, 'I don't mean the dead, but the livin' boy--the one folks calls Big +Tom. I've heard his story, an' I got a good look over him down here in +the store a while ago. Woman'--he sez it jest like that--'if that big +boy o' your'n had a little operation, he'd be as good as any.' + +"I answered him patient, an' told him what ailed Tom an' why he couldn't +be no different--jest what old Doc Andrews told us--that they was a +little piece o' bone druv deep into his skull that time he fell. He +spoke real vi'lent then. 'But--my Lord!--woman,' he sez, 'that's what +I'm talkin' about. If we jack up that bone'--trepannin', he called it +too--'his brains'd git to be like anybody else's.' Told me he wants fur +us to let him look after it. Won't cost anything unless we want. They's +a hospital to Rockville would tend to it, an' glad to--when we git +ready.... My poor Tommy!... Don't seem's if it could be true." + +Her face softened, and she broke up suddenly. + +"I got good boys all round," she wept. "I always said it; an' now folks +know." + +Luke lay on the old settle, thinking. In the air-tight stove the hickory +fagots crackled, with jeweled color-play. On the other side Tom sat +whittling silently--Tom, who would presently whittle no more, but rise +to be a man. + +It was incredible! Incredible that the old place might some day shake +off its shackles of poverty and be organized for a decent struggle with +life! Incredible that Maw--stepping briskly about getting the +supper--should be singing! + +Already the room seemed filled and warmed with the odors of prosperity +and self-respect. Maw had put a red geranium on the table; there was the +crispy fragrance of frying salt pork and soda biscuit in the air. + +These the Hayneses! These people, with hope and self-esteem once more in +their hearts! These people, with a new, a unique place in the +community's respect! It was all like a beautiful miracle; and, thinking +of its maker, Luke choked suddenly and gulped. + +There was a moist spot on the old Mexican hairless right under his eyes; +but it had been made by tears of pride, not sorrow. Maw was right! A +hero's folks hadn't ought to cry. And he wouldn't. Nat was better off +than ever--safe and honored. He had trod the path of glory. A line out +of the boy's old Reader sprang to his mind: "The paths of glory lead but +to the grave." Oh, but it wasn't true! Nat's path led to life--to hope; +to help for all of them, for Nat's own. In his death, if not in his +life, he had rehabilitated them. And Nat--who loved them--would look +down and call it good. + +In spite of himself the boy sobbed, visioning his brother's face. + +"Oh, Nat!" he whispered. "I knew you'd do it! I always said you'd do +somethin' big for us all." + + --Mary Brecht Pulver. + + + + +VIII--SERGT. WARREN COMES BACK FROM FRANCE + + +Immediately after voting, the Rev. Jeremiah Soule stepped outside the +town hall to fortify himself with fresh air for the coming meeting. +Several others had done the same. + +"Been a hard winter, Mr. Soule," politely remarked one of the loiterers +about the door. He was clad for the gusts of March like a sealer about +to venture forth upon an Arctic floe. + +"And especially for the boys in the trenches," said the minister. + +"That's a fact, sir. I didn't mean we'd ought to complain. We had our +share of coal and wood, I guess, if the wood _was_ green and the coal +mostly slate." + +"And we had the money to pay for it." + +The group of men stirred a little uneasily. + +"Honestly made, I think you'll admit that, sir," said Arthur Watts, a +strapping fellow of thirty years, who had been called in the first draft +and rejected on account of his poor teeth. + +"I believe so--quite," admitted Mr. Soule. "We are making good rope for +the government and our allies, and no one is better pleased over it than +I. I'm proud of the cordage plant. Yes, since this dreadful war had to +be, the town has come honestly enough by its prosperity." + +The group felt that Mr. Soule had tactfully dodged the real issue, and +they were content to have it so. Just then the polls were closed, and +those who had brought lunch boxes proceeded to consume the contents. +Others presented themselves at the anteroom, where George Bassett was +dispensing his famous chowder and coffee, together with pickles and +bread and butter. + +"It frets the parson to see us keeping our money instead of blowing it +all out in charity," remarked Watts, across a steaming mug of strong +coffee. He laughed indulgently. + +His friends did not echo his amusement. They looked, if not exactly ill +at ease, at any rate somewhat sober. + +The hall was packed when Joel Holmes, a massive and imperturbable +person, was chosen moderator for the tenth successive time. Warrant in +one large hand and gavel in the other, he inscrutably stared upon the +expectant voters for a weighty minute. + +"The meeting will please come to order," he announced. The gavel smote +the desk resoundingly. + +As usual, the first person to be recognized was fiery little Mr. Abel +Crabbe, who had a few withering remarks to make concerning the warrant +as a whole. He was greatly applauded. As a conscientious objector to +everything, Abel was looked upon as an interesting feature of town +meeting. + +A number of articles were then discussed and disposed of without +excitement until Henry Torrey rose. He was as much of an objector as Mr. +Crabbe, but he dealt in irony rather than in blunt scorn. With a grim +smile he proceeded to ridicule the library directors. When he had +exposed them in their true colors, he made an impassioned motion to +halve the appropriation they asked for in Article 6 of the warrant. + +The motion was enthusiastically seconded, but on being put to vote +Torrey's was the only ay. The crowd enjoyed Torrey as they enjoyed Abel +Crabbe, but they had perfect faith in the library directors, the town +officers and the warrant. + +Early in the proceedings it was evident that Article No. 10 was to +furnish the event of the day. It ran as follows: + +"That the sum of $25,000 be appropriated for the improvement and +embellishment of Farragut Square, said improvement to include the +removal of the four old buildings now abutting upon it, the erection of +a flagpole and a suitable band stand and the widening of Brig Street on +the bay side of the square." + +When the article was reached, no disposition was shown to dispose of it +quickly. Fenville wished to hear the report of the committee and the +opinions and impressions of each and every member thereon. The plan had +caught the popular fancy. Nearly every man there was ready to back it +firmly, even boastfully. + +Pompous Mr. Baxter, the chairman of the committee, sounded the keynote. +He sketched the history of the cordage plant, which had begun as an +unaspiring rope-walk. He compared it to the ugly duckling that became a +regal swan. And the swan, he said, pursuing the simile, had not flown +out of their hands in spite of the great wings it had grown. + +At this point the moderator's voice and gavel were called upon to quell +a disturbance in the rear of the hall apparently occasioned by the +entrance of some late arrivals. + +When order was restored Mr. Baxter, continuing the pæan to the town's +prosperity, spoke of the uniquely local character of the cordage plant; +of the fact that virtually everyone, from the president down to the +office boy, concerned with it was a native of Fenville. And besides a +liberal salary everyone had a share in the profits. Nearly every penny +of the stock was owned right in the town of Fenville. All of which was +no news, but everyone relished Baxter's glowing phrases just the same. + +The speeches of the other committeemen were in the same tenor. Fenville +had made money out of its cordage; was still making money. It could +afford to pat its own back, and the pat might well take the form of a +renovated and beautified town square that would advertise its business +smartness to all beholders. + +As the last of the committeemen sat down, some one in the rear of the +hall addressed the moderator. + +"Mr. ----?" queried that official, unable to see the speaker clearly. +Like the old hall, recently destroyed by fire, the new structure had +made a concession to the fair and inquisitive sex in the shape of a deep +rear balcony. + +"Warren--Miles Warren." + +An excited craning of heads followed, and even Joel Holmes showed the +human being beneath the armor of officialdom. + +"Miles Warren!" he ejaculated. Then his gavel mechanically reminded him +of his duties and he recalled the meeting to order. It took vigorous +rapping to still the persistent murmurs and the eager turnings. + +"I'd like to say a few words about Article 10," said the man under the +low balcony. + +"Well, I guess you can!" boomed the moderator. He was preserving his +self-control with difficulty. His hands fidgeted and his circular face +showed a deepening crimson. "But we can't hear what you say way back +there--or see you, either," he added. "Please step a little farther +forward if you will, Mr. Warren." + +The storm of welcoming applause for the son who had so unexpectedly +returned to his native town after two years of splendid service in the +far-famed Foreign Legion suddenly fell to a shocked silence. They saw +now why Sergt. Warren had come home. His father stood beside him. Miles +needed some one to guide him up the narrow aisle--for he was blind. + +Fenville had heard of the metal cross pinned to the faded tunic and had +shared the pride of John Warren and his wife, Abigail; but it had not +heard of the scarred face and sightless eyes. Miles had gone forth to +fight for democracy "like a true knight of old," the Fenville Weekly +Gazette had said. The townspeople had not smiled at the phrase, for +there had always been something gallant in Miles; he had always had a +fearless and honorable outlook upon life. + +"I'm not much use to them over there, so it seems good to get home," he +said. "And on town-meeting day. I knew father wanted to be here, and I +did, too, so we came right over from the depot." + +Sightless: thrown back into the discard. But there was the same firm +mouth and the same upright carriage of the well-shaped head. Broken? Not +a bit of it. Everyone could see that. The old spirit was there, just as +gallant as when he had set out for the battlefields of France. + +"This Article No. 10," continued the sergeant. "You don't know how +strange it sounds. Because I've come straight home from over there, you +know. I was going to say, without seeing anything on the way." He +smiled. "And that's true, too. What I mean is, I haven't had time to get +adjusted to the change. It wasn't till just now that I said to myself, +the war's thousands of miles off, way across the ocean. Not that the +ocean would stop Fritz from getting at us mighty quick if he ever beats +us over there. You may depend on that. + +"Some one has to make the things that are needed and get paid for them. +That's of course. But I haven't been seeing that side. I've been seeing +France and England and our own boys with their backs to the wall. I've +been seeing new graveyards grow; bigger than big towns--as big as +cities. And cities that were nothing but graveyards. Towns that were +nothing but ash heaps. Rich lands churned up into terrible deserts. + +"And I've met men--met them all the time--who'd been seeing the same and +worse in Russia and Poland, Serbia and Roumania--the whole Christian +world being battered and ripped to pieces. + +"That is the way you think about it over there. What can you do to stop +it--how can you help the millions that have lost their fathers or +mothers, husbands or wives, or children--that have no food or homes or +country? That is what you ask yourself day and night. + +"You can never give them back what they have lost. But if you had money, +you could keep some of them from dying of cold and hunger; little +children at least. That is about all money means to you over there. + +"So when I come home to hear that Fenville has grown rich, why, I can't +seem to sense it! And that you want to fix up Farragut Square,--make it +pretty,--buy the town a kind of decoration because it has been lucky +enough and smart enough to make money--out of the war. It's like blood +money to me--like blood itself; a drop for every penny." + +Fenville had never tolerated criticism, but the man in the faded uniform +with the cross on his tunic and his head up, and his poor, blind, +scarred face, exerted a strange influence over the audience. Even the +least imaginative man had his vision of what that figure symbolized. + +"It was looking at him, as much as hearing him speak--why, I seemed to +get a sight right over to France as clear as if I had been there," +explained Mr. Totten afterwards. "France made Farragut Square look kind +of small." + +"I'll say just one thing more," Miles went on, and you could have heard +a pin drop in that hall. "If any of our boys don't come back,--Lem +Chapman and Frank Keeler and the others,--those that do, will they think +a prettified Farragut Square is the best monument for the ones who died +for us over there?" + +The sergeant turned, and John Warren took hold of his arm to lead him +back. Mr. Chapman, Lem's father, was up like a flash. + +"Hold on!" he shouted. "No, it ain't, by Jupiter!" + +Crash! Out came the handclapping like the rattle of rifle fire. More +than one shrewd old eye was moist, and few were the hearts that did not +beat with a more generous quickness. + +"What can we do, Sergt. Miles?" asked Mr. Chapman. "You have told us +what we shouldn't do, and I for one thank you for it. We want to do the +right thing. Every man of us here does. Tell us what it is." + +"Let us dispose of Article 10 first," said Dr. Shepard. The house +approved, and Mr. Chapman gave way. The article was put in the form of a +motion, was voted upon, and defeated as if it had never had a friend in +the world. + +"Make a motion, Miles!" shouted a score of voices. + +"Do you want to know what I should do?" said the soldier. "There are +places in France and Belgium that used to be towns. Some haven't even +the cellars left. An American society has been formed to take hold of +the work of building up those places after the war. We could write to +that society and get the name of a town that once was--a little one; one +where perhaps our own boys have fought. Fenville could put the money she +meant to spend on herself into helping to make it a town again. It would +help, don't you worry about that. So Fenville could feel, always, long +after our time, that that little French town was her camarade. And it +would be her bit; Fenville's bit." + +When he could make himself heard, the Rev. Jeremiah Soule made a motion, +the gist of which was that a committee be appointed to correspond with +the society with the object of learning the name of some small +devastated town in France or Belgium that would be a worthy recipient of +twenty-five thousand dollars from Fenville's treasury, the same to be +expended toward rebuilding the town at the end of the war. + +A dozen voices seconded the motion, and on being put to vote it was +carried unanimously. Mr. Crabbe, the conscientious objector, was one of +the first to rise on the ay vote. The fiery little man had his streak of +sentiment, after all. + +So had Henry Torrey, who said gruffly that he was glad to see the town's +money spent for a really useful purpose for once. + +"Three cheers for Sergt. Warren, then!" shouted Mr. Chapman. "And make +them rousers!" + +"He and John went out," said a voice in the rear of the hall. + +"Cheer him from the steps!" cried another. + +The crowd filed out. The two Warrens were walking down the road. The +sergeant had his father's arm; but his head was up, and it was not he, +but the older man, that had the air of being led. For some reason the +crowd fell silent. + +Finally some one said crisply, "Miles Warren always could see straight. +And I tell you he can see as straight's ever, even if he is blind." + + --Fisher Ames, Jr. + + + + +IX--THE COWARD + + +We will call him Albert Lloyd. That wasn't his name, but it will do: + +Albert Lloyd was what the world terms a coward. + +In London they called him a slacker. + +His country had been at war nearly eighteen months, and still he was not +in khaki. + +He had no good reason for not enlisting, being alone in the world, +having been educated in an Orphan Asylum, and there being no one +dependent upon him for support. He had no good position to lose, and +there was no sweetheart to tell him with her lips to go, while her eyes +pleaded for him to stay. + +Every time he saw a recruiting sergeant, he'd slink around the corner +out of sight, with a terrible fear gnawing at his heart. When passing +the big recruiting posters, and on his way to business and back he +passed many, he would pull down his cap and look the other way, to get +away from that awful finger pointing at him, under the caption, "Your +King and Country Need You"; or the boring eyes of Kitchener, which +burned into his very soul, causing him to shudder. + +Then the Zeppelin raids--during them, he used to crouch in a corner of +his boarding-house cellar, whimpering like a whipped puppy and calling +upon the Lord to protect him. + +Even his landlady despised him, although she had to admit that he was +"good pay." + +He very seldom read the papers, but one momentous morning, the landlady +put the morning paper at his place before he came down to breakfast. +Taking his seat, he read the flaring headline, "Conscription Bill +Passed," and nearly fainted. Excusing himself, he stumbled upstairs to +his bedroom, with the horror of it gnawing into his vitals. + +Having saved up a few pounds, he decided not to leave the house, and to +sham sickness, so he stayed in his room and had the landlady serve his +meals there. + +Every time there was a knock at the door, he trembled all over, +imagining it was a policeman who had come to take him away to the army. + +One morning his fears were realized. Sure enough there stood a policeman +with the fatal paper. Taking it in his trembling hand, he read that he, +Albert Lloyd, was ordered to report himself to the nearest recruiting +station for physical examination. He reported immediately, because he +was afraid to disobey. + +The doctor looked with approval upon Lloyd's six feet of physical +perfection, and thought what a fine guardsman he would make, but +examined his heart twice before he passed him as "physically fit"; it +was beating so fast. + +From the recruiting depot Lloyd was taken, with many others, in charge +of a sergeant, to the training depot at Aldershot, where he was given an +outfit of khaki, and drew his other equipment. He made a fine-looking +soldier, except for the slight shrinking in his shoulders, and the +hunted look in his eyes. + +At the training depot it does not take long to find out a man's +character, and Lloyd was promptly dubbed "Windy." In the English Army, +"windy" means cowardly. + +The smallest recruit in the barracks looked on him with contempt, and +was not slow to show it in many ways. + +Lloyd was a good soldier, learned quickly, obeyed every order promptly, +never groused at the hardest fatigues. He was afraid to. He lived in +deadly fear of the officers and "Non-Coms" over him. They also despised +him. + +One morning about three months after his enlistment, Lloyd's company was +paraded, and the names picked for the next draft to France were read. +When his name was called, he did not step out smartly, two paces to the +front, and answer cheerfully, "Here, sir," as the others did. He just +fainted in ranks, and was carried to barracks amid the sneers of the +rest. + +That night was an agony of misery to him. He could not sleep. Just cried +and whimpered in his bunk, because on the morrow the draft was to sail +for France, where he would see death on all sides, and perhaps be killed +himself. On the steamer, crossing the Channel, he would have jumped +overboard to escape, but was afraid of drowning. + +Arriving in France, he and the rest were huddled into cattle cars. On +the side of each appeared in white letters, "Chevaux 8, Hommes 40." +After hours of bumping over the uneven French roadbeds they arrived at +the training base of Rouen. + +At this place they were put through a week's rigid training in trench +warfare. On the morning of the eighth day, they paraded at ten o'clock, +and were inspected and passed by General H----, then were marched to the +Quartermaster's, to draw their gas helmets and trench equipment. + +At four in the afternoon, they were again hustled into cattle cars. This +time, the journey lasted two days. They disembarked at the town of +Frévent, and could hear a distant dull booming. With knees shaking, +Lloyd asked the Sergeant what the noise was, and nearly dropped when the +Sergeant replied in a somewhat bored tone: + +"Oh, them's the guns up the line. We'll be up there in a couple o' days +or so. Don't worry, my laddie, you'll see more of 'em than you want +before you get 'ome to Blighty again, that is, if you're lucky enough to +get back. Now lend a hand there unloadin' them cars, and quit that +everlastin' shakin'. I believe yer scared." The last with a contemptuous +sneer. + +They marched ten kilos, full pack, to a little dilapidated village, and +the sound of the guns grew louder, constantly louder. + +The village was full of soldiers who turned out to inspect the new +draft, the men who were shortly to be their mates in the trenches, for +they were going "up the line" on the morrow, to "take over" their +certain sector of trenches. + +The draft was paraded in front of Battalion Headquarters, and the men +were assigned to companies. + +Lloyd was the only man assigned to "D" Company. Perhaps the officer in +charge of the draft had something to do with it, for he called Lloyd +aside, and said: + +"Lloyd, you are going to a new company. No one knows you. Your bed will +be as you make it, so for God's sake, brace up and be a man. I think you +have the stuff in you, my boy, so good-bye, and the best of luck to +you." + +The next day the battalion took over their part of the trenches. It +happened to be a very quiet day. The artillery behind the lines was +still, except for an occasional shell sent over to let the Germans know +the gunners were not asleep. + +In the darkness, in single file, the Company slowly wended their way +down the communication trench to the front line. No one noticed Lloyd's +white and drawn face. + +After they had relieved the Company in the trenches, Lloyd, with two of +the old company men, was put on guard in one of the traverses. Not a +shot was fired from the German lines, and no one paid any attention to +him crouched on the firing step. + +On the first time in, a new recruit is not required to stand with his +head "over the top." He only "sits it out," while the older men keep +watch. + +At about ten o'clock, all of a sudden, he thought hell had broken loose, +and crouched and shivered up against the parapet. Shells started +bursting, as he imagined, right in their trench, when in fact they were +landing about a hundred yards in rear of them, in the second lines. + +One of the older men on guard, turning to his mate, said: + +"There goes Fritz with those trench mortars again. It's about time our +artillery 'taped' them, and sent over a few. Where's that blighter of a +draft man gone to? There's his rifle leaning against the parapet. He +must have legged it. Just keep your eye peeled, Dick, while I report it +to the Sergeant. I wonder if the fool knows he can be shot for such +tricks as leavin' his post." + +Lloyd had gone. When the trench mortars opened up, a maddening terror +seized him and he wanted to run, to get away from that horrible din, +anywhere to safety. So quietly sneaking around the traverse, he came to +the entrance of a communication trench, and ran madly and blindly down +it, running into traverses, stumbling into muddy holes, and falling full +length over trench grids. + +Groping blindly, with his arms stretched out in front of him, he at last +came out of the trench into the village, or what used to be a village, +before the German artillery razed it. + +Mixed with his fear, he had a peculiar sort of cunning, which whispered +to him to avoid all sentries, because if they saw him he would be sent +back to that awful destruction in the front line, and perhaps be killed +or maimed. The thought made him shudder, the cold sweat coming out in +beads on his face. + +On his left, in the darkness, he could make out the shadowy forms of +trees; crawling on his hands and knees, stopping and crouching with fear +at each shell-burst, he finally reached an old orchard, and cowered at +the base of a shot-scarred apple-tree. + +He remained there all night, listening to the sound of the guns and ever +praying, praying that his useless life would be spared. + +As dawn began to break, he could discern little dark objects protruding +from the ground all about him. Curiosity mastered his fear and he +crawled to one of the objects, and there, in the uncertain light, he +read on a little wooden cross: + +"Pte. H.S. Wheaton, No. 1670, 1st London Regt. R.F. Killed in action, +April 25, 1916. R.I.P." (Rest in Peace). + +When it dawned on him that he had been hiding all night in a cemetery, +his reason seemed to leave him, and a mad desire to be free from it all +made him rush madly away, falling over little wooden crosses, smashing +some and trampling others under his feet. + +In his flight, he came to an old French dugout, half caved in, and +partially filled with slimy and filthy water. + +Like a fox being chased by the hounds, he ducked into this hole, and +threw himself on a pile of old empty sandbags, wet and mildewed. +Then--unconsciousness. + +On the next day, he came to; far distant voices sounded in his ears. +Opening his eyes, in the entrance of the dugout he saw a Corporal and +two men with fixed bayonets. + +The Corporal was addressing him: + +"Get up, you white-livered blighter! Curse you and the day you ever +joined 'D' Company, spoiling their fine record! It'll be you up against +the wall, and a good job too. Get a hold of him, men, and if he makes a +break, give him the bayonet, and send it home, the cowardly sneak. Come +on, you, move, we've been looking for you long enough." + +Lloyd, trembling and weakened by his long fast, tottered out, assisted +by a soldier on each side of him. + +They took him before the Captain, but could get nothing out of him but: + +"For God's sake, sir, don't have me shot, don't have me shot!" + +The Captain, utterly disgusted with him, sent him under escort to +Division Headquarters for trial by court-martial, charged with desertion +under fire. + +They shoot deserters in France. + +During his trial, Lloyd sat as one dazed, and could put nothing forward +in his defense, only an occasional "Don't have me shot!" + +His sentence was passed: "To be shot at 3:38 o'clock on the morning of +May 18, 1916." This meant that he had only one more day to live. + +He did not realize the awfulness of his sentence, his brain seemed +paralyzed. He knew nothing of his trip, under guard, in a motor lorry to +the sand-bagged guardroom in the village, where he was dumped on the +floor and left, while a sentry with a fixed bayonet paced up and down in +front of the entrance. + +Bully beef, water, and biscuits were left beside him for his supper. + +The sentry, seeing that he ate nothing, came inside and shook him by the +shoulder, saying in a kind voice: + +"Cheero, laddie, better eat something. You'll feel better. Don't give up +hope. You'll be pardoned before morning. I know the way they run these +things. They're only trying to scare you, that's all. Come now, that's a +good lad, eat something. It'll make the world look different to you." + +The good-hearted sentry knew he was lying about the pardon. He knew +nothing short of a miracle could save the poor lad. + +Lloyd listened eagerly to his sentry's words, and believed them. A look +of hope came into his eyes, and he ravenously ate the meal beside him. + +In about an hour's time, the Chaplain came to see him, but Lloyd would +have none of him. He wanted no parson; he was to be pardoned. + +The artillery behind the lines suddenly opened up with everything they +had. An intense bombardment of the enemy's lines had commenced. The roar +of the guns was deafening. Lloyd's fears came back with a rush, and he +cowered on the earthen floor with his hands over his face. + +The sentry, seeing his position, came in and tried to cheer him by +talking to him: + +"Never mind them guns, boy, they won't hurt you. They are ours. We are +giving the 'Boches' a dose of their own medicine. Our boys are going +over the top at dawn of the morning to take their trenches. We'll give +'em a taste of cold steel with their sausages and beer. You just sit +tight now until they relieve you. I'll have to go now, lad, as it's +nearly time for my relief, and I don't want them to see me a-talkin' +with you. So long, laddie, cheero." + +With this, the sentry resumed the pacing of his post. In about ten +minutes' time he was relieved, and a "D" Company man took his place. + +Looking into the guardhouse, the sentry noticed the cowering attitude of +Lloyd, and, with a sneer, said to him: + +"Instead of whimpering in that corner, you ought to be saying your +prayers. It's bally conscripts like you what's spoilin' our record. +We've been out here nigh onto eighteen months, and you're the first man +to desert his post. The whole Battalion is laughin' and pokin' fun at +'D' Company, bad luck to you! but you won't get another chance to +disgrace us. They'll put your lights out in the mornin'." + +After listening to this tirade, Lloyd, in a faltering voice, asked: +"They are not going to shoot me, are they? Why, the other sentry said +they'd pardon me. For God's sake--don't tell me I'm to be shot!" and his +voice died away in a sob. + +"Of course, they're going to shoot you. The other sentry was jest +a-kiddin' you. Jest like old Smith. Always a-tryin' to cheer some one. +You ain't got no more chance o' bein' pardoned than I have of gettin' to +be Colonel of my 'Batt.'" + +When the fact that all hope was gone finally entered Lloyd's brain, a +calm seemed to settle over him, and rising to his knees, with his arms +stretched out to heaven, he prayed, and all of his soul entered into the +prayer: + +"Oh, good and merciful God, give me strength to die like a man! Deliver +me from this coward's death. Give me a chance to die like my mates in +the fighting line, to die fighting for my country. I ask this of thee." + +A peace, hitherto unknown, came to him, and he crouched and cowered no +more, but calmly waited the dawn, ready to go to his death. The shells +were bursting all around the guardroom, but he hardly noticed them. + +While waiting there, the voice of the sentry, singing in a low tone, +came to him. He was singing the chorus of the popular trench ditty: + + "I want to go home, I want to go home. + I don't want to go to the trenches no more. + Where the 'whizzbangs' and 'sausages' roar galore. + Take me over the sea, where the Allemand can't get at me. + Oh my, I don't want to die! I want to go home." + +Lloyd listened to the words with a strange interest, and wondered what +kind of a home he would go to across the Great Divide. It would be the +only home he had ever known. + +Suddenly there came a great rushing through the air, a blinding flash, a +deafening report, and the sand-bag walls of the guardroom toppled over, +and then--blackness. + +When Lloyd recovered consciousness, he was lying on his right side, +facing what used to be the entrance of the guardroom. Now, it was only a +jumble of rent and torn sandbags. His head seemed bursting. He slowly +rose on his elbow, and there in the east the dawn was breaking. But what +was that mangled shape lying over there among the sandbags? Slowly +dragging himself to it, he saw the body of the sentry. One look was +enough to know that he was dead. The sentry had had his wish gratified. +He had "gone home." He was safe at last from the "whizzbangs" and the +Allemand. + +Like a flash it came to Lloyd that he was free. Free to go "over the +top" with his Company. Free to die like a true Briton fighting for his +King and Country. A great gladness and warmth came over him. Carefully +stepping over the body of the sentry, he started on a mad race down the +ruined street of the village, amid the bursting shells, minding them +not, dodging through or around hurrying platoons on their way to also go +"over the top." Coming to a communication trench he could not get +through. It was blocked with laughing, cheering, and cursing soldiers. +Climbing out of the trench, he ran wildly along the top, never heeding +the rain of machine-gun bullets and shells, not even hearing the shouts +of the officers, telling him to get back into the trench. He was going +to join his Company who were in the front line. He was going to _fight_ +with them. He, the despised coward, had come into his own. + +While he was racing along, jumping over trenches crowded with soldiers, +a ringing cheer broke out all along the front line, and his heart sank. +He knew he was too late. His Company had gone over. But still he ran +madly. He would catch them. He would die with them. + +Meanwhile his Company had gone "over." They, with the other companies +had taken the first and second German trenches, and had pushed steadily +on to the third line. "D" Company, led by their Captain, the one who had +sent Lloyd to Division Headquarters for trial, charged with desertion, +had pushed steadily forward until they found themselves far in advance +of the rest of the attacking force. "Bombing out" trench after trench, +and using their bayonets, they came to a German communication trench, +which ended in a blindsap, and then the Captain, and what was left of +his men, knew they were in a trap. They would not retire. "D" Company +never retired, and they were "D" Company. Right in front of them they +could see hundreds of Germans preparing to rush them with bomb and +bayonet. They would have some chance if ammunition and bombs could reach +them from the rear. Their supply was exhausted, and the men realized it +would be a case of dying as bravely as possible, or making a run for it. +But "D" Company would not run. It was against their traditions and +principles. + +The Germans would have to advance across an open space of three to four +hundred yards before they could get within bombing distance of the +trench, and then it would be all their own way. + +Turning to his Company, the Captain said: + +"Men, it's a case of going West for us. We are out of ammunition and +bombs, and the 'Boches' have us in a trap. They will bomb us out. Our +bayonets are useless here. We will have to go over and meet them, and +it's a case of thirty to one, so send every thrust home, and die like +the men of 'D' Company should. When I give the word, follow me, and up +and at them. If we only had a machine gun, we could wipe them out! Here +they come, get ready, men." + +Just as he finished speaking, the welcome "pup-pup" of a machine gun in +their rear rang out, and the front line of the onrushing Germans seemed +to melt away. They wavered, but once again came rushing onward. Down +went their second line. The machine gun was taking an awful toll of +lives. Then again they tried to advance, but the machine gun mowed them +down. Dropping their rifles and bombs, they broke and fled in a wild +rush back to their trench, amid the cheers of "D" Company. They were +forming again for another attempt, when in the rear of "D" Company came +a mighty cheer. The ammunition had arrived and with it a battalion of +Scotch to reinforce them. They were saved. The unknown machine gunner +had come to the rescue in the nick of time. + +With the reinforcements, it was an easy task to take the third German +line. + +After the attack was over, the Captain and three of his non-commissioned +officers, wended their way back to the position where the machine gun +had done its deadly work. He wanted to thank the gunner in the name of +"D" Company for his magnificent deed. They arrived at the gun, and an +awful sight met their eyes. + +Lloyd had reached the front line trench, after his Company had left it. +A strange company was nimbly crawling up the trench ladders. They were +reinforcements going over. They were Scotties, and they made a +magnificent sight in their brightly colored kilts and bare knees. + +Jumping over the trench, Lloyd raced across "No Man's Land," unheeding +the rain of bullets, leaping over dark forms on the ground, some of +which lay still, while others called out to him as he speeded past. + +He came to the German front line, but it was deserted, except for heaps +of dead and wounded--a grim tribute to the work of _his_ Company, good +old "D" Company. Leaping trenches, and gasping for breath, Lloyd could +see right ahead of him _his_ Company in a dead-ended sap of a +communication trench, and across the open, away in front of them, a mass +of Germans preparing for a charge. Why didn't "D" Company fire on them? +Why were they so strangely silent? What were they waiting for? Then he +knew--their ammunition was exhausted. + +But what was that on his right? A machine gun. Why didn't it open fire +and save them? He would make that gun's crew do their duty. Rushing over +to the gun, he saw why it had not opened fire. Scattered around its base +lay six still forms. They had brought their gun to consolidate the +captured position, but a German machine gun had decreed they would never +fire again. + +Lloyd rushed to the gun, and grasping the traversing handles, trained it +on the Germans. He pressed the thumb piece, but only a sharp click was +the result. The gun was unloaded. Then he realized his helplessness. He +did not know how to load the gun. Oh, why hadn't he attended the +machine-gun course in England? He'd been offered the chance, but with a +blush of shame he remembered that he had been afraid. The nickname of +the machine gunners had frightened him. They were called the "Suicide +Club." Now, because of this fear, his Company would be destroyed, the +men of "D" Company would have to die, because he, Albert Lloyd, had been +afraid of a name. In his shame he cried like a baby. Anyway he could die +with them, and, rising to his feet, he stumbled over the body of one of +the gunners, who emitted a faint moan. A gleam of hope flashed through +him. Perhaps this man could tell him how to load the gun. Stooping over +the body, he gently shook it, and the soldier opened his eyes. Seeing +Lloyd, he closed them again, and in a faint voice said: + +"Get away, you blighter, leave me alone. I don't want any coward around +me." + +The words cut Lloyd like a knife, but he was desperate. Taking the +revolver out of the holster of the dying man, he pressed the cold muzzle +to the soldier's head, and replied: + +"Yes, it is Lloyd, the coward of Company 'D,' but if you don't tell me +how to load that gun, I'll put a bullet through your brain!" + +A sunny smile came over the countenance of the dying man, and he said in +a faint whisper: + +"Good old boy! I knew you wouldn't disgrace our Company----" + +Lloyd interposed, "For God's sake, if you want to save that Company you +are so proud of, tell me how to load that gun!" + +As if reciting a lesson in school, the soldier replied in a weak, +singsong voice: "Insert tag end of belt in feed block, with left hand +pull belt left front. Pull crank handle back on roller, let go, and +repeat motion. Gun is now loaded. To fire, raise automatic safety latch, +and press thumb piece. Gun is now firing. If gun stops, ascertain +position of crank handle----" + +But Lloyd waited for no more. With wild joy at his heart, he took a belt +from one of the ammunition boxes lying beside the gun, and followed the +dying man's instructions. Then he pressed the thumb piece, and a burst +of fire rewarded his efforts. The gun was working. + +Training it on the Germans, he shouted for joy as their front rank went +down. + +Traversing the gun back and forth along the mass of Germans, he saw them +break and run back to the cover of their trench, leaving their dead and +wounded behind. He had saved his Company, he, Lloyd, the coward, had +"done his bit." Releasing the thumb piece, he looked at the watch on his +wrist. He was still alive, and the hands pointed to "3:38," the time set +for his death by the court. + +"Ping!"--a bullet sang through the air, and Lloyd fell forward across +the gun. + +The sentence of the court had been "duly carried out." + + * * * * * + +The Captain slowly raised the limp form drooping over the gun, and, +wiping the blood from the white face, recognized it as Lloyd, the coward +of "D" Company. Reverently covering the face with his handkerchief, he +turned to his "non-coms," and in a voice husky with emotion, addressed +them: + +"Boys, it's Lloyd the deserter. He has redeemed himself, died the death +of a hero. Died that his mates might live." + + --Arthur Guy Empey. + + + + +X--CHÂTEAU-THIERRY + + +When the United States of America finally declared war against His +Satanic Majesty, Wilhelm of Prussia, Carter nodded his approval. The +nation's decision was reached at a time when he was in a particularly +generous mood, for things had been coming his way for some time and he +had finally settled down comfortably to enjoy them. In the preceding +fall he had reached the goal of his ambition, the managership of the New +York office of the Atlas Company, where he had been employed for +twenty-five years. This carried a salary of seventy-five hundred--some +jump from the petty twelve hundred on which he had started; even some +jump from the forty-five hundred he had been drawing for the past year. + +The increase allowed Carter to make several very satisfactory changes: +first, to move from the rented house in Edgemere, where he had lived for +five years, to a house of his own in the same town, for which he gave a +warranty deed to his wife; to take his son Ben out of a commercial +school and send him to Harvard for a liberal education; and to purchase +a classy little runabout. There were certain other perquisites, too, +which made the world a better place to live in, such as an added +servant, a finer table, and, finally, the privilege of taking the +eight-ten to town instead of the seven-fifteen. + +Carter enjoyed all these luxuries as only a man can who has worked hard +for them and waited long. He had promised them to his pretty wife the +day he married her, and now, after twenty years, he had made good. It +was worth something to see him, after a substantial breakfast, kiss +Kitty good-by on the front porch, give a proprietary look at the neat +shingled house, and stroll down the gravelly path at a leisurely pace, +stopping at the gate to light a fat cigar and wave a second adieu to the +little woman, who was still pretty and who he knew admired him from the +crown of his head to the tips of his shoes. She was that kind. + +On the eight-ten he was meeting a new class of neighbors--all eight to +ten thousand dollar men, with a few above that figure, though the latter +generally moved to the Heights at round twelve thousand. They were men +whose lives were now polished and round like stones on the seashore +within reach of the waves. They varied, mostly, in their dimensions, +with of course some differences of political coloring. But they were +fast becoming neutral even in politics. With America at war the old +issues were disappearing. + +Most of the men had long since become used to each other, but Carter, +sitting in the smoker--it was almost like a private car reserved for +those not due at their offices until nine--was actually thrilled by his +associates. And if ever he found an opportunity to refer among them to +"my son at Harvard" he was puffed up all the rest of the day. The only +thing he regretted was that the war had done away with football, because +in high school the lad had promised to make a name for himself in the +game. Still, even that had its redeeming features: his neck was safe. +Though the boy was climbing toward six feet and weighed, at eighteen, +round one hundred and seventy, he threw himself into the line in those +final school games with a recklessness that made Carter, looking on, +catch his breath. + +Carter had not been able to keep pace with the boy's physical growth. It +still seemed to him but a brief time ago that he had been carrying him +round in his arms as a baby. And he had carried him for miles. He had +not been able to keep his hands off him. He had loved to feel the downy +head against his cheek and the frightened little heart pounding against +his own. Night after night he had walked the floor with him with a sense +of creation akin to God's. And when anything was really the matter with +the child Carter became a trembling wreck. + +Well, those days were something to look back upon now with a smile. They +even played their part in the present. They afforded the contrast +necessary to allow him to extract to the last drop his final triumphant +success. Some of those who had never taken the seven-fifteen did not +know what it meant to take the eight-ten. + +Carter, who had previously been content with one paper, now bought the +_Times_ and the _Sun_ at the station and glanced through the headlines. +He had read with a thrill of pride, as did everyone in the whole car on +that early spring morning, the President's declaration of war. + +He was sitting beside Culver, of the Second National Bank, and +exclaimed: "Guess that'll make Wilhelm sit up and take notice, eh?" + +Culver was an older man. Carter could have punched him for his response +in a level voice: "Yes. But 'tis going to make us sit up and take +notice, too." + +"What do you mean?" demanded Carter with a trace of aggressiveness. + +"I mean that our resources are going to be tested to the limit before +we're through with this." + +"You wait until the Huns see Uncle Sam with his sleeves rolled up. +Wouldn't surprise me any if they quit." + +Carter shifted his seat to a place near Barclay and Newell, who were +leading a group in three cheers for the President. And on his way +downtown that day he stopped to buy a flag and pole to be sent to the +house. Before he reached his office these flags of red and white and +blue had begun to appear in numbers on the tops of buildings and from +windows, brightening the dull gray backgrounds as with flowers. It made +him want to cheer. It made him walk more erect. The whole downtown +atmosphere became vibrant. The declaration of war was the sole topic of +conversation in the office, and one of the first things he did was to +ring up Kitty and tell her about it. + +"Well, old girl, we've done it!" he exclaimed. + +"Done what?" she asked anxiously. + +"Declared war," he announced, as though in some way he had been +personally concerned in the act. "Guess that will make the Huns rub +their eyes." + +"War?" trembled Kitty. + +"You bet! Fritzie waited a little too long with his apologies that last +time." + +In the succeeding days Carter followed the nation's preparations for the +task ahead with a feeling of reflected glory. His favorite phrase was: +"We're going at it man-fashion." + +He was keen for conscription and liked to speak of a possible army of +two million. When the First Liberty Loan came along he subscribed for a +thousand dollars. He would have taken more, but he found that his +personal expenses had taken in the last few months a decided jump. It +was costing him more than twice as much to maintain his new house as it +had his old. Besides that, Ben's expenses at college were a considerable +item. His car, too, was costing more than he had anticipated, and he had +added unconsciously a lot to his everyday expenditures. He was smoking +better cigars, eating better lunches and wearing better clothes. At the +same time each one of these items was costing more. However, his new +position in a way called for these things, and, besides, he was entitled +to them. He had worked hard for them and they were the fair reward of +attainment. + +Carter had hoped to do better on the Second Liberty Loan, but when the +time came he found it difficult to take out even another thousand. He +rather resented the way Newell, the overzealous member of the local +committee, harried him about it. When Newell suggested that he double +the amount the man was presuming to know Carter's circumstances better +than he himself knew them. + +He had answered rather tartly: + +"I'm capable of deciding my investments for myself." + +In the interval between the two loans both the servants had asked for an +increase in wages, and Carter had been forced to pay it or see them go. +Kitty had suggested that she be allowed to get along with one and +undertake some of the housework herself, but he had set his foot down on +that. + +"You've had your share of housework, little woman," he said. "It's time +you took a rest and enjoyed yourself." + +But the servants were not the only ones who held Carter up. The grocer, +the butcher and the iceman all conspired against him. When the +Government began to take control under Hoover and fix prices for some of +the essentials Carter was outspoken in his approval. + +"It's time something of the sort was done to check the food pirates," he +declared to Culver. + +"Where's this government control going to stop?" questioned the latter. + +"I don't know and I don't care," replied Carter aggressively. + +"It's a type of paternalism, and that's dangerous," suggested Culver. + +Carter replied with a glittering generality: "Your Uncle Sam has rolled +up his shirt sleeves and means business." + +Carter always chuckled contentedly over the cartoons of the tall, lank +figure with the lean face, grimly set jaws and starred top hat. It +expressed for him in a human way his own patriotism. It filled him with +pride and gave him confidence. It satisfied his traditional conception +of Americanism. He even saw in the face a reflection of his own +ancestors who had fought at Bunker Hill and through the Civil War. It +was distinctly New England, but New England was still in his mind +distinctly America. + +And yet Carter was puzzled at first when he read the names appearing in +the final draft lists--puzzled and a bit worried. These names were not +like those that were signed to the Declaration of Independence or those +who fell at Bunker Hill. Decidedly they were more like those found in +to-day's New York directory. This might have been expected, and yet it +gave Carter something of a shock until one afternoon he saw a regiment +of khaki-clad men marching down Fifth Avenue. Then he felt a lump in his +throat that prevented him from cheering as loud as he wished. In uniform +and marching to the stirring music of a military band these men were, +every mother's son of them, Americans. He saw the same lean faces, the +same lank, sinewy bodies, the same clear eyes and set jaws. Their lips +were sealed, so that it did not matter what language they spoke. In +khaki they were all Americans--the same who fought at Bunker Hill. + +The sight sent Carter home with a renewed enthusiasm, which helped him +survive the shock of the news that the cook had, without notice, packed +up her trunk and left to take some sort of job in a factory. But +fortunately he had brought along with him a sirloin steak, which, +broiled, made a very satisfactory dinner. A week later the second girl +left. + +Mrs. Carter took it good-humoredly, even with a certain amount of +relief. She had turned to Red Cross work and one thing or another, but +still she missed the care of her own home. Furthermore, she had been +genuinely disturbed by the way the expenses had been creeping up. But +Carter stormed round and spent half the next day trying to find some new +girls. The agencies showed him a few old women and shook their heads. + +"We can't compete with the factories," they said sadly. + +"But, hang it all, what's a man going to do?" he inquired petulantly. + +The agencies, perforce, left him to answer that for himself. + +As a matter of fact Carter was not wholly unselfish in his desire to +relieve his wife of the housework--particularly the culinary part of it. +She did her conscientious best, but she had never been able +satisfactorily to master the fine art of cooking. Possibly it was +because she herself was more or less indifferent to what she ate. A +slice of bread and a cup of tea were enough at any time to satisfy her, +so that when she did cook it was always for him and without any other +personal interest in the result. Sometimes she forgot; in fact, more +often than not she forgot. Perhaps it was only some one little thing, +like leaving the baking powder out of the biscuits or the sugar out of +the pies. Or if she did get everything in, perhaps she failed to +remember in time that the mixture was in the oven. When she began +fooling round with war recipes she found herself even more bewildered. +Lord knows, it calls for deft fingers and inborn skill to make a good +pie crust out of honest wheat flour, with all thought of economy thrown +to the winds. It requires nothing short of genius to produce the same +results with substitutes for everything except the apples. + +She tried all one afternoon and created something that had a fairly good +surface appearance. She waited anxiously until Carter tasted it, and +then asked: "How do you like it, Ben?" + +"You want the truth?" he returned. + +"Of course there is no white flour in the crust, but----" + +"There isn't anything in it that ought to be in a pie," he declared. "It +tastes to me as though it were made out of sawdust and motor oil." + +He did not eat it. It might have been possible had he been starving, but +he was in no such unfortunate condition. A man does not ask for apple +pie because of its calory content, but because he wants apple pie. It is +a matter of taste. A primary essential is, then, not that it shall look +like apple pie, but that it shall have the flavor of apple pie. He had +been fond of apple pie all his life, and it certainly seemed like an +innocent enough addiction. That was equally true of doughnuts and coffee +for breakfast. He had enjoyed them all his life until they had become an +integral part of the morning meal. As a result of long practice Mrs. +Carter had finally succeeded in perfecting herself in the art of +doughnut making. But now instead of frying them in fat, she began to use +an excellent vegetable substitute. Not only that, but she followed this +by using a sirup for the sugar, and using eighty per cent barley flour +and twenty of wheat. She had been given the recipe by the local +conservation board and been assured that the product was very +satisfactory. + +From the viewpoint of the conservation board that may have been true, +but to Carter it was nothing short of criminal to allow these balls of +fried barley flour to masquerade under the same name. + +"Don't call 'em doughnuts," he growled, "'cause they aren't. Invent a +new name for them." + +"War doughnuts?" suggested Mrs. Carter anxiously. + +"War nothing!" sputtered Carter. "They don't even belong to the same +family." + +Whereupon he turned to his coffee, sweetened with a new kind of sticky +substance that tasted like an inferior grade of molasses. There were +those who maintained that it was just as good as sugar for sweetening. +They were liars--bold-faced liars or they had lost their sense of taste. +They belonged to the same class as people who maintained that coffee was +better without sugar--that so one enjoyed the taste of the native berry. +One might just as well argue that flapjacks for the same reason were +best without sirup; cake without frosting; bread without butter. + +Carter found his breakfast spoiled for him at precisely the period in +life when he was prepared most to enjoy his breakfast. This was +extremely irritating. It sent him to the office every morning with a +grouch that did not wear off until toward noon, when it was renewed by +having to pay twice what he should for a tasteless lunch. His cigars +were the only thing that held up well in flavor, and he began to smoke +too many of them. + +Carter still followed each day's news of the nation's part in the great +war with honest pride. He liked the big way his country was going about +its preparations. He rolled the dramatic figures over his tongue and +gloated over the scale of the various projects. Six hundred millions +appropriated for airplanes! + +"We'll show 'em," he announced to Culver. "We'll have the air over there +black with planes!" + +And that job at Hog Island! They were planning to build fifty ways there +inside of a year--just put them down on a marshy island. + +"Nothing small about your Uncle Sam," he chuckled. + +When the inevitable scandals began to be whispered and congressional +investigations were started, Carter frowned. + +"If these stories are true," he declared, "the grafters ought to be +lynched; if they're not we ought to lynch the darn-fool congressmen who +are interrupting the game." + +The investigations took place, changes were made, and the work went on, +with the investigations soon forgotten. Nothing could check the onward +movement. Pershing landed in France, and soon was followed by his men. +Work on the same gigantic scale was begun on the other side. Docks were +built, railroads laid down overnight, warehouses put up almost between +dawn and twilight. This vanguard saw big and built big, and when the +news of its accomplishment began to filter across to the men at home it +made every American feel bigger. + +At the close of his freshman year in June, Ben came back home, and that +personal interest took the place of every other in Carter's mind. The +boy was looking fine. Drill with the Harvard regiment had taken the +place of athletics and had left him as rugged and tanned as a seasoned +soldier. Carter proudly took the boy to town with him on the eight-ten +and introduced him to the crowd. Then he introduced him to everyone in +the office, including Stetson, the second vice president. There was some +design in this. He was preparing the way for an opening here for Ben as +soon as the lad was through college. With the benefit of the experience +Carter could give him the boy ought to climb high in the Atlas. + +Ben had acquired poise in this last year. He met these men with an +assurance and charm of manner tempered with respectful deference that +surprised his father. It was clear that the boy made a very pleasant +impression. + +At lunch Ben repeated to his father some of the experiences he had heard +from college mates who had gone over to drive ambulances. The boy was +full of it and his cheeks grew flushed as he talked. Carter became +disturbed. + +"That's all very well," broke in Carter; "but those fellows might have +made themselves more useful if they had waited until they were of age. +Both President Lowell and the War Department are advising men to wait +and finish their college courses, aren't they?" + +"Yes," admitted Ben; "they advise that." + +"Well, it's sound advice," declared Carter. "A man with a college +education and Plattsburg on top of that is worth twenty ambulance +drivers. Officers are what we need." + +"I suppose so," agreed Ben abstractedly. + +The reply left Carter more comfortable. The boy was only just nineteen, +and that gave him two more years before he was twenty-one. By that time +the war would be over. Carter was sure of it. The nation by then would +be in full stride, and when that time came that was to be the end. Of +course, if by any chance the war should be prolonged--why, then the boy +would have to go. But that contingency was two years off--two long years +off. In the meanwhile the boy could feel that he was getting his +training. He was going to make a better officer for waiting. He would +gain in experience and judgment--two most necessary qualifications for +an officer. Carter proceeded to enlarge on that subject. But the boy +listened indifferently. Carter's position, however, was sound, and the +more he talked the more he convinced himself of this, so that he +succeeded in putting himself enough at ease to talk of the war in a +general way. + +"Sort of makes a man glad he's an American to be living in these days, +eh, Ben?" + +"You bet!" nodded Ben. + +"The rest of the world thought we'd gone soft, but your old Uncle Sam +has shown that he still has fighting stuff in him. It took us some time +to get stirred up, but once started--woof!" + +"We've got a big job on our hands," said Ben. + +"The bigger the better," declared Carter. "It takes a big job to wake us +up." + +The boy was surprised and encouraged by his father's aggressive +attitude, and yet when he ventured to reintroduce the subject of +ambulance service he saw his father shy off again. He was puzzled by +this and went away after lunch to meet his chum Stanley. + +A week later, as Carter was about to settle down on the front porch for +an after-dinner smoke, Ben came along, took his arm and led him down the +graveled path toward the road--out of sight of the house, where Mrs. +Carter was washing the dishes. The boy kept his father's arm in an +unusually demonstrative manner until he stopped beneath an electric +light. + +Then he asked quite casually: "Dad, got your fountain pen with you?" + +"Eh?" + +The lad held out a paper. + +"What in thunder is this?" demanded Carter. + +"My enlistment papers, dad. I went down to the Marine Recruiting Office +the other day and passed my physical. Now--they've left a place along +the dotted line for you to sign because I'm under age." + +The thing that astonished Carter most after the initial shock was a +feeling of helplessness. It was as though his relations with his son had +suddenly changed and the son had become the father. He was a foot +shorter than the boy anyway, and now he felt two feet shorter. He saw a +new light in the boy's eyes, heard a fresh note of dominance. And yet it +was only a brief time ago--a pitifully brief time ago--that he had been +holding this same boy in his arms as a baby. Now he stood at the lad's +mercy, even though he still saw below the stalwart figure of the boy-man +the downy-headed baby. + +Carter gulped back a lump in his throat. + +"Good Lord!" he choked. "I can't. I can't. You're all I've got." + +The young man placed a steady hand upon his father's shoulder. + +"You must take this thing right, dad," he said firmly. + +"In another year----" + +"I'd never forgive myself if I waited," cut in Ben. "I've heard too much +from the fellows who've been over there and seen. I want you to +understand that it isn't the adventure of the thing that gets me. It's +the right of it. I'm strong enough for the game, and that's all that +counts. Another year wouldn't make me any more fit." + +"You'd be ready for Plattsburg--in a couple of years." + +"Maybe," Ben nodded; "but somehow--well, I just hanker to use my arms +and legs rather than my head. The way I feel, nothing short of a chance +with the bayonet will satisfy me. That's why I went in for the Marines." + +Carter glanced up. He saw those lips, which had once been so tender and +soft, now sternly taut. + +"Have you told your mother?" asked Carter. + +"No, dad. I want it all settled first." + +"I--I don't know what it will do to her," Carter struggled on feebly. + +"She'll take it right," declared the boy with conviction. "She'll take +it right because--because it's for women like her that we're going over +there." + +Carter did not reach for the paper, even then. He merely found it in his +hands. He drew out his fountain pen and the name he scrawled upon the +dotted line might have been written by a man of eighty. + +"That's the good old dad," Ben whispered hoarsely as he replaced the +paper in his pocket. "You're a brick." + +Carter tried to see it that way. There were moments even when he thought +he was going to feel proud. A day or two later, when Newell, Culver and +the others on the eight-ten heard of it, they hurried up to him and +shook his hand with such phrases as "The boy has the right stuff in him, +Carter," and "He makes us glad we live in Edgemere." All Carter could do +was to turn away. + +The boy's going left a great big hollow place in Carter--a hollow that +only grew bigger when he began to receive the lad's enthusiastic letters +from the training camp. He missed him in a way that disturbed every +detail of his daily life. When he woke up in the morning it was with a +sense of some deep tragedy hanging over him--as though the boy were +dead. This sent him downstairs depressed and irascible. His coffee with +its abominable sirup tasted more bitter than ever. The mere sight of the +war doughnuts irritated him. It was as though they made mock of him. +Half the time the omelet was burned, for Kitty was becoming more +forgetful than ever, and more often than not did not remember the omelet +at all until she smelled it smoking. She did her best to cheer Carter +up, until she found the wisest thing to do was to say nothing. As a +matter of fact everything she said sounded to him as hypocritical as all +the confounded war substitutes with which he found himself more and more +hemmed in. Newell particularly was full of new recipes for foods and +drinks that he claimed were as good as the original articles, and was +forever pulling clippings from his pockets on the morning train. + +"You ought to get your wife to try this, Carter," he broke out one day. +"It's a new recipe for cake without sugar, wheat or butter. Ellen made +some last night and you couldn't tell it from the real stuff." + +"What do you call the real stuff?" demanded Carter. + +"Why, the cake we used to get before the war." + +"And you mean to say you can't tell the difference?" + +"Well, of course this isn't quite so tasty, but it's a darned good +substitute." + +"You're welcome," growled Carter. + +Newell appeared astonished. Later he repeated the conversation to +Manson, and concluded: "Do you know, if the beggar didn't have a boy in +the Marines I'd say he was pro-German." + +"Nonsense!" answered Manson. + +"Well, he wasn't any too keen about the Second Liberty Loan when I saw +him. He only took a thousand." + +"So? I thought he'd be good for five, anyway." + +The Government was already beginning to talk about the Third Liberty +Loan. Somewhat fretfully Carter read the preliminary announcements. +Where was this thing going to stop, anyway? He was not any more than +keeping even with the game now. And even so, he was not getting so much +out of life as he had been getting before. + +On top of that they sent the boy across. After an interval of silence +Carter received a cable one day announcing his safe arrival at a port in +France. It took the starch all out of him. It was like one of those +nightmares he used to suffer when he dreamed of the boy in some great +danger and was forced to stand by, dumb and paralyzed, powerless to +help. It was like that exactly, only this was reality. Day by day and +mile by mile this intangible merciless power called war was dragging the +boy nearer and nearer his destruction. It was barbaric. It was wrong. +This boy was his. + +Now he was at a port in France. Until the last few years that would not +have been anything to worry about. He had wished the boy to travel. +France had always stood to Carter as a land of sunshine and holidays--a +sort of pre-honeymoon land to the more fortunate. To-day a port in +France seemed like a port in hell. + +On the eight-ten they kept asking about the boy, and when Carter told +Barclay that Ben was over there, Barclay answered: "Lucky dog. That +ought to make you proud." + +Carter made no reply. That was in March, just before the big Hun +offensive. When that broke Carter did not dare read the papers for a +while. Those were bad days. America had then been in the war nearly a +year, and yet it was possible for those gray hordes to dash at and into +the allied lines. They did it again and again, until the world stood +aghast and Carter himself stood aghast. It made no difference whether he +read the papers or not, for hourly bulletins were passed round the +office and scarcely anything else was talked of. + +America had been in the war nearly a year. Uncle Sam had appropriated +billions upon billions of dollars; had built shipyards the size of which +staggered belief; had talked of destroyers and airplanes in terms of +thousands; had established vast military camps and already drafted +millions of men; had turned almost every industry in the country over to +war work; had taken over the railroads and whatever else was needed. + +Uncle Sam had been working with his jaws set and his sleeves rolled up +and flags flying from almost every housetop between the Atlantic and the +Pacific; with men marching down the streets and bands playing and half +the politicians of the country turned into Fourth of July orators. + +Yet this thing was happening over there. Lines that had been thought +impregnable were falling daily. City after city was being overrun. If +the Huns paused it was only for breath, and to dash on once more. Nearer +and nearer they came to Paris, until the city heard the sound of their +guns; nearer and nearer, until they came to Château-Thierry. + +Carter reached a point where almost his faith in God was shaken. He did +not know exactly just what his faith in God was, but it stood for +something outside himself representative of justice--just as his +patriotism stood for something outside himself representative of honor. +Not to be in the slightest sacrilegious, God was a figure crowned with +thorns just as Uncle Sam was a figure crowned with a starred top hat. +Both were invincible. Yet both stood aside, helpless, before the Huns' +advance. + +They waited helplessly until the gray wolves reached Château-Thierry. +Then the news was cabled across that the Marines were holding this +line--not only technically but actually. Again and again the wolves came +on and staggered back. + +The Marines were there--the American Marines--and they were holding. + +The first report brought the sweat to Carter's brow. Somewhere in that +line without much doubt his son Ben was standing. The little boy he had +carried in his arms was under that merciless fire of shrapnel and +explosive shells and gas. Carter had read a good deal about the gas +shells--the yellow and the blue and the green cross kind. It was +devilish stuff. It burned into the lungs and the eyes and the skin. He +remembered when it had first been used--had been sent sneaking across +the allied lines like some ancient superstition made real. From that +moment he had been for war. He talked war with everyone he met, usually +ending with the exclamation: "Uncle Sam won't stand for that sort of +dirty work!" + +As a matter of fact Uncle Sam had stood for it a good many months after +that, and for acts even more barbaric. But now your Uncle Sam was right +on the spot and Ben was on the spot. The two were one! + +This was what Carter got hold of, suddenly, unexpectedly, unconsciously, +as a man sees a vision. Uncle Sam was there not in the form of a +middle-aged farmer in a starred top hat, but as one of the Marines, a +tough, wiry young American fighter. And among these Marines was Ben, +holding this ghastly line as in his play days he had helped to hold the +football line. Uncle Sam was there as Carter's boy--blood of his blood +and flesh of his flesh and soul of his soul. And so in a sense Carter +himself was there. This was his fight too. He and Uncle Sam were one! He +and the nation were one. He and the brilliant flags flying unharmed here +in the streets of New York were one. As far as Carter individually was +concerned he was essentially all there was of the nation--just as, +individually and as far as his own soul was concerned, he was all there +was of God. But because of this, because the thought made him so big, he +took in the others too--his boy, Kitty, his neighbors, the state and the +United States, and finally God himself. And this God not only stood for +justice and honor but was justice and honor, and Carter was He and He +was Carter. + +Now God and Carter and the boy and the Marines and the nation were all +standing side by side behind a little town that until now had been no +more conscious of itself than Carter had been. It had been merely +Château-Thierry--a tiny village where simple men and women had gone +about their humble business of living with little thought of the world +at large. Now it was finding itself a turning point in the history of +the world, with the sinewy young men from a country that had not been +discovered when Château-Thierry already was hoary with age, rushing +there to help keep it true. And with Carter some four thousand miles +away staring from his office window and, quite unconscious of the +business of the Atlas Company, praying not that the boy might be kept +safe for his own sake, but that he might be spared to fight his +best--Carter's best, the nation's best, God's best. + +The Marines held, and then they did a little better; they began to +advance. They say that Foch himself was none too sure of what these lads +would find it possible to do. These men were getting their baptism of +Hun fire, which is comparable to no fire this side of hell and which +possibly may have introduced some new ideas into hell itself. Certainly +neither Dante nor Milton revealed any conception of mustard gas. + +Creeping forward on all fours the Marines advanced. It was grim business +these boys were about, while the flags flew dreamily in the streets of +New York and a thousand other cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific +and from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico--flew dreamily and +prettily for safe men to look up at and for safe women and children to +smile at contentedly. It was serious business they were about to the +right and left of that old town, while the machines sped up and down +Fifth Avenue bright in the summer sun. And yet when at length the cables +flashed across the ocean the news that the old town had been won and all +that meant, there was little in the message to hint of that grim +business. And there was no mention at all of individuals--of the boy Ben +who lay in a bit of woods like one asleep, his hair all tousled and his +face dirty as he used to come in from play. But that night Carter went +home with his head held high and his eyes alight. + +When Carter opened the front door he was greeted with the smell of smoke +from the kitchen. He hurried out there and found Mrs. Carter standing +almost in tears before the charred remains of what had evidently been +intended for a pie of some sort. She looked up anxiously as Carter +entered. Her blue eyes began to fill with tears. + +"Oh, Ben," she quavered, "I'm so sorry. I--I've been saving flour and +sugar for a week to have enough to make you a real apple pie. And +then--and then I forgot it. And--and----" + +She made a despairing gesture toward the jet-black evidence of her +unpardonable thoughtlessness. And then before Carter's accusing glance +she shrank back and hid her face in the folds of her blue gingham apron. + +Carter stared from her to the pie and then back to her. Fresh from the +victory of Château-Thierry, this was such a pitiful travesty! She was +crying--she, the mother of his son who had fought with the Marines this +day, was crying in fear of his anger because she had spoiled in the +baking an apple pie. + +Good Lord, to what depths had he sunk! To what pitiful depths of +banality had he dragged her! + +He strode to her side and seized her in his arms fiercely as a baffled +lover. + +"Kitty," he cried hoarsely, "look up at me!" + +In amazement she obeyed. The clutch of his arms took her back +twenty-five years. He saw the springtime blue of her eyes. + +"Kitty," he pleaded, "can you forgive me?" + +"Forgive--you?" she stammered, not understanding. + +"For making you think it matters a picayune what I have to eat. Little +woman--little woman, we took Château-Thierry to-day!" + +She drew back a little as though expecting evil news to follow. But the +news had not yet come. + +"We," he repeated--"you and I and Ben and the Marines and Uncle Sam and +God--all together. We not only held the beasts but drove them back. It's +in the papers to-night." + +"And Ben----" she faltered. + +"He must have been there," he answered. + +"He--he----" + +But she did not finish her timorous question. She caught the contagion +of the fire in her husband's eyes and sealed her lips. And he, stooping, +kissed those lips as he used to kiss them before the boy came. + +The next morning Carter drank his coffee black, and when Kitty brought +on the war doughnuts he shoved them aside. + +"Don't make any more," he said. "Cut 'em out altogether. That's the +trick." + +And when on the eight-ten Newell came round with a recipe for making +frosting without sugar, Carter refused to listen. + +"Look here, Newell," he protested, "those confounded things don't +interest me." + +"They don't?" returned Newell ominously. + +"Not a little bit," Carter continued calmly. + +"You mean to tell me you aren't interested in conservation?" + +"Did I say that?" + +"Well, it amounts to the same thing, doesn't it?" + +"Not on your tintype!" replied Carter. "Look here, Newell, you've been +talking pretty plain to me lately and perhaps I've deserved it, but it +leaves me free to give you a few ideas of my own. What we've got to do +is to face this war--not duck it. We aren't going to win with +substitutes but with sacrifices. The trouble with you and your +crowd--the trouble with me--is that we've been trying to eat our cake +and save it too. What's the use of those fool recipes of yours? The time +has come to give up cake and pie and doughnuts--then why in thunder not +give them up and be done with it?" + +"But the Government doesn't ask that," cut in Newell. + +"Who's the Government?" demanded Carter. + +"Why--why----" + +"You are. I am," Carter cut in, answering his own question. "That's all +there is to it. And if you want to understand how important you are, +just multiply yourself by a hundred million. That's what Hoover does. Do +it for yourself." + +Newell smiled a little maliciously. + +"Perhaps you're right, old man. By the way, I'm on this Third Liberty +Loan committee, and if you'll tell me how much I can look ahead for from +you it would help." + +"Ten thousand dollars," answered Carter. "In the meantime, if you hear +of anyone who wants to buy a house, let me know." + +"You aren't going to leave us?" + +"Not if I can hire a cheap place round town," answered Carter. + +"Say--but you are plunging," exclaimed Newell uncomfortably. + +"We can't let that Château-Thierry victory go for nothing," answered +Carter quietly. + +At last--at last Carter himself had declared war. That was why when he +received a cable to the effect that Private Ben Carter was reported +seriously wounded the man could sign his name firmly to the receipt. + +The time had come for the Huns to take seriously the entry of the United +States into the war. + + --Frederick Orin Bartlett. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Short Stories of the New America, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORIES OF THE NEW AMERICA *** + +***** This file should be named 37432-8.txt or 37432-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/4/3/37432/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from images made available by the HathiTrust +Digital Library.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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