, 1918-10-24
For the
Country
BY 8. B. HAcKLEY



Copyright. 1918. by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)
IF the boy who goes over there can
go with his heart aglow with good
cheer he will be magnificently pre-
pared to endure! Oh, friends, you
who sit here eager to do something for
the country; if there is any trouble
you car smooth by money, or word, or
sacrifice, smooth it. Don't let your sol
der, or any other you can help, go to
France with u heavy heart"
In their courthouse the Hallettsburg
people listened in breathless enthusi-
assn to the Red Cross worker-the little
pale woman with "a scar on her fore
head a splinter of shell had made.
Margaret Rue, the daughter of Hal
l~ettsburg's one rich felt her heart
swell. Shed been knitting, and max
ing bandages, and sewing on stout gar
ments ever since the war began, u
that wasn't sacrifice.
Sacrifice! She looked at the dia-
mond ring on her left hands third fin
ger, and her face blanched. That ring
had no business to be there; she knew
it when Lloyd Shannon put it there six
months before. But Lloyd Shannon
was so desirable, and she had loved
him so long! Across the aisle from
Margaret sat Frances Thompson, be-
side a slim boy of fifteen, whose
crutches leaned on the bench beside
him. he young girls pretty oval
face vas tense with the weight of re-
sponsibility. The little brother had
long been in iced of an operation that
might restore him to health. but they
were orphans, with but their little
home, and Frances small salary as
telephone girl to keep them.
But Margaret looked across and
wished that she were Frances, the girl
that Lloyd Shannon loved! Why Lloyd
had asked her to marry him she could
only guess. 1t must have been that
Frances had refused to marry him and,
with his hurt heart craving sympathy,
he had recklessly turned to her.
Lloyd-good, jolly, comradely Lloyd
had evidently made compact with
himself, never to let her know by word
or act that he didn't truly love her, but
she knew.
He never spoke Frances NAME, but
by one pretext or another he avoided
the street on which was the little
Thompson house, and whenever he
happened to see Frances, try as Mar
garet realized he did, he could not
keep a telltale, wistful yearning out
of his eyes.
They had been engaged only two
weeks when he enlisted as a private
the first, the very first. of the town to
volunteer. How Margaret had gloried
in her patriot! And now he was tC
leave for France, he thought, soon.
1.-THE utmost we can give the coun
try, friends, when we think of what
our boys are enduring and giving is
%little,' the SCARED nurse concluded
IF sacrifices will send a soldier Over
there at ease in mind, and happy, then
let us all sacrifice and count it u priv
ilege!"
AS Margaret passed Frances helping
her brother down the steps, all at once
she knew why the other girl had sent
the man h loved away II Lloyd's
ring felt like a strip of molten steel!
A letter awaited her, addressed in
his firm handwriting. He wrote that
he was to sail on the fifteenth, that he
was desperately sorry he couldn't get
leave to come ana bid her good-by,
and hat she must write to him very
often and tell him all the news. There
wasn't much mOre-he never wrote
long letterS-but on the back of the
last sheet was a two-line postscript.
please tell Philip Thompson" he
said, that / want him to write to me
when I get across. Poor little Phil
will feel that he's doing something for
the country, and I'll be hungry for let
ters."
That was all-but 1t vas enough. In
his delicate consideration for her, his
sense of honor and rectitude, he would
not mention Frances name, but Mar
garet read between the lines. His
heart could not help making its appeal
to hear from the girl he lovedl
Margaret had resolved to surprise
him by making Aunt Cyrena go down
to the camp with her on the twelfth,
but-she read the postscript again
would he be n thousand times more
glad If it were Frances that waved
him Godspeed when he left?
"Send your soldier over there at
ease in mind and happy"
Margaret rOse at last and got into
her car and went to her fathers Of
flee.
Daddy" she said abruptly, instead
of buying me- a new car next summer
will you give me the money this fall?"
For the country. dear?' he asked,
as he wrote her n check.
him.
From the Office of the telephone ex-
change manager she drove to the little
Thompson cottage.