The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1918-12-26


90 with his heart nglow with good
cheer be Will be magnificently pre-
pared to endure! oh, friends, you
who SIT here eager 10 do something for
The country: II there Is any trouble
you can smooth by money, or word, or
sacrifice. smooth H. Don't let your sol.
der or any other YOU can help, go to
prance with heavy heart y
In their courthouse the HGllettsburs
people listened IN hreathless entlluSi-
assn To the Rcd Cross worker-thc lttle
pale womnn With scar on her fore
head splinter Of shell had made
Margaret Ruc, the daughter OF Hal
lcushurg's one rich man, felt her henri
/ swell She'd been knitting, and max
4 ing hnndages, and sewing ON stout gr-
mentS ever since the war began, but
that wasn't sacrifice.
Sacrifice, She looked at the dia-
mond ring on her left htnd's third fin.
I ger and her face hlanched, That ring
/ had no business to be tlere she knew
I il when Lloyd Shannon put il 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 slim boy of fifteen, whose
crutches leaned on the bench beside
him. he young girls pretty oval
f,,., with thp Mniuht a
SponSibility. The little brother had
long been in need OF an operation that
might restore him TO health. but they
were orphans, with but their little
home, and Princes 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. Ii must have been that
Frances had refused to marry him and,
with his hurt heart craving sympathy
he had recklessy turned to her.
Lloyd-aood, 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 n telltale, wistful yearnlng out
Of his eyes.
They had been engaged only two
weeks when he enlisted as private
the first, the very first, of the town to
volunteer. How Margaret had glOried
in her. patriot! And now he was to
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 soldier over
there at ease in mind, and happy, then
let us all sacrifice and count it 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 she loved away! And Lloyd's
ring felt like 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 and bid her gOod-by,
and that 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 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 III be hungry for let.
ters."
That was all-but 1t was 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
10 hear from the girl he loved
Margaret had resolved to surprise ,
him by making Aunt Cyrena go down ,
10 the camp with her on the twelfth
but-she read the postscript again ,
would he be thousand times more ,
glad II il were Frances that waved
him G0dspeed when he left?,
Send your soldier over there at
ease in mind and happy = q
Margaret rose at last and got inta I
her car and went TO her fathers of !
fee. c
Daddy" she said abruptly, INSTEAD !
" buying me a new car next summer /
will you give me the money this fallf' S
For the country, dearT' he asked. I
as he wrote her check
"Yes, daddy she said, and kissed )
lin. (
From the Office Of the telephone ex. a
.hange manager she drove to the little
Thompson cottage. I
DO you think Philip would like 10
make a few days visit TO my homer