The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-04-17

| Mary sat by the front window
crouched down, watching. Her eye.
were red with recent tears. but she
spoke bravely and without tremor t.
someone in the other room.
There are some boys out here play
Ing tag" she said with a poor imita
ton OF a laugh. "One of them Just
fell into a puddle. He looks so funny
When Billy went to West Point he
said there wouldn't be anybody to
fight" the littlest brother submitted
shakily. LESS it was Indians. Now
they send him to war"
Mary drew a quick breath. Their
mother was sewing in the library
while Lionel read aloud to her, and
she must not hear. She must not
think they weren't being brave. too.
Come here, Bobbie," Mary said
softly. From here you can see way
up the street."
The littlest brother came gladly, be-
cause he was lonely and forlorn. On
the wide window-seat 1t was brighter,
and one could see telegraph boy a
block away If one came. Then, too,
Mary would talk, and mother was so
silent it frightened a body. Ever since
the newspaper had said, yesterday,
that an officer, lieutenant of the
Forty-second, had been killed away of
there. mother had not slept, and she
was SO white 1t seemed there we're
not many lieutenants in C company Of
the Forty-second, and somebody
named Censor had held back the name.
"Will the president telegraph
Mary?" he asked in whisper. DO
you think it's Billy, do you?"
Mary was gazing wild-eyed at a boy
in blue who came whistling down the
street. What should she do il he
came to their steps? Could she get
there before he rang? How could she
tell mother how could she?
IF 1t is Billy, will they put flowers
on his grave, Mary?" the littlest
brother asked. MARY. is that boy
coming here. is he?"
mo-" Mary said with a little gasp
Hes gone to Mrs. Winthrops. l sup
pose their aunt is coming to visit. Go
open the door for the postman, there's
a good boy. The postman is coming,
mother" she called. "Bobbie is get.
ting the mail"
Thus would mother be saved the
fear that message had come. Lionel
closed the book, and she could hear
him speaking with q brave jocularity.
We'll, we'd have heard by this time.
anyhow. said all along there wasn't
anything to worry about. 1t isn't as II
he were all alone. He's got lot of
friends in the regiment, you know, and
somebody'd wire. They'd have plenty
of time. because they never do much
the day after a fight"
Bobbie brought in the mail, all cast
aside for the picture postals from Billy
which they admired while mother read
his fat letter in silence. 1t was the
custom to read Billy's letters aloud,
but no one wanted the task now. Each
could read by himself, except the lit
tlest brother, and Mary read 1t to him
In whisper on the window-seat. Deep
down in their hearts they knew they
might have worse than this to bear.
with Billy's CHEEKY letters coming
every little while. even though Billy
himself were lying silent in another
land, under the flag of the alien, the
enemy. How could they bear 1t then?
The telephone rang insistently.
harshly. and Lionel, who was not wor-
ried. sprang with one leap to answer
1t, his one awful thought being that
they did telephone the kilograms some
times. The color came back to his
face as he listened.
IT'S father" he said at once. ne
says" Lionel added after a moment.
he says that headquarters has had no
news. and he thinks that 10 encourax.
Ing. They would have heard, he thinks.
He is coming home early"
Father could not do any business,
then? What mattered 1t whether there
was any business done any more:
what mattered anything? Mary, on
the window-seat, her arm over Bob.
bie's shoulder. could see, hundreds of
miles away. the little group Of men
fighting desperately against the ad.
vancing hordes and one by one falling
where they had stood, guarding the
stores. A lieutenant was very young,
Just out Of the Point. gay, debonair. af.
fectionate. home-loving boy that he
was!
So the time dragged along and ia
Their came home. He talked about
business and the men who had been
In to see him. about Q runaway horse
that had upset q banana cart, and
about . story In q magazine, but he
said no word Of Billy. He and mother
sat side by side as he talked, and
when mother laid her hand on the
arm of his chair he put his hand over
hers and held 1t. The papers tossed |
on tho library table no one had
touched. The wild excitement over
the war. the thrill at news of battles.
the patriotic anxiety to do something
to help had left them under the cloud |
of a possible personal loss. Billy!
Why. it was only last winter he had
been with them. acting like q small
boy. with more charming pranks in q