The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1918-11-19
For the
Country
@0
By s. B. HAcKLEY
Copyright. 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)

copyright. 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate.)
eff the boy who goes over there can
go with his heart aglOw with good
cheer he will be magnifcently pre-
pared to endure Oh, friends, you
who sit here eager to do something for
the country; if there is any trouble
YOU can 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 heavy hearth"
In their courthouse the Hallettsburg
people listened in breathless enthusi-'
asm TO the Red Cross worker-the little
pale woman with scar on her fore
head a splinter Of shell had made.
Margaret Rue, the daughter of Hal
lettsburg's one rich man, felt her heart
swell. She'd been knitting, and max
ing bandages, and sewing on stout gar
ments ever since the war began, but
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 slim boy of fifteen, whose
crutches leaned on the bench beside
him. he young girls pretty oval
face was tense with the weight of re-
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 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, eemradelF 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, ana 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 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.
''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 rs all sacrifice and count it priv
| ilegep
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 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 and bid her good-by,
aAd 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 1 want him to write to me
when / 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 it 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
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 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 happyr'
Margaret rose at last and got into
her car and went to her fathers Of
fee.
Daddy" she said abruptly, INSTEAD
of buying me new car next summer
will you give me the money this falI?R
"For the country, dear?" he asked,
as he wrote her check.
"fes, daddy" she said, and kissed
him.
From the office Of the telephone ex-
change manager she drove to the little
Thompson cottage.
DO you think Philip would like to
make a few days visit to my homer"
she asked Frances, who met her.
while you and and Aunt Rena go on
a little auto and camping trip togeth-
err He loves books, l know, and he
could entertain himself In fathers IL
brary, and Uncle Zenas could take him
out driving every day. And YOU
you're not looking WE'LL believe a
few days outdoors would do you goods
Frances colored with pleasure.
"Philip'd love It," she breathed, "and
SO would Its lovely of you to ask
us-hut l can't get off now"
"Yes you can," interrupted Marga-
ret; I've seen the manager, and he
says under the circumstances-picn
ing for your health-you might have
the week off. Now you'll go, won't
your
Lloyd Shannon sent a message by
me to Philip" she remarked q moment
later. HE wants him to write to him
when he gets across. You know Lloyd
Is leaving the fifteenth"
Frances started and her pale face
lost every vestlge of color.
"So-sOOnT she stammered, trying
to conceal her agitation.
Margaret took her shaking hands in
hers.
"You-you love him, don't you,
dear?"
The girls white lips moved, but no
sound came through them,
Don't be afraid to tell me,R Mar
garet encouraged her. "I-Pm not en-
gagged to him any morel Shouldn't
ever have been" she added lightly,
with him loving Won all tha time Rut