The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-02-21
Molly's Man in
the Service
eA0
BY JANE OSBORN

from her citidel behind the coffee urn
Ut the head of the long boarding house
table. She nodded in the direction of
the newest and quietest of the young
women who tenanted her rooms AMI
partoJk of the bounty of her plate and
then looked up to Mrs. Dean with the
suspicion of Il blush on her face.
"DiIn't you?" She said and then the
other baarderS whose noses We're not
buried in their morning papers locke:
back at Mrs. Dean to see how She
would take Miss Pringle's calm 70
joinder
II happened to see the service lag
flying in your window-that was ALL
she shifted. Il always go in to inspect
after Maggy said it was something
new. Well. thinks I, Miss Pringle has
been keeping no brothers in the serv-
ice, Miss Pringle, and we hadn't yet
seen any soldier beaus around here
evenings, or any other beaus for that
matter-so 1 says to myself Miss Prin-
gle is sly one-she's got her Sammy
1T the front like the rest of them"
L
she studied the brown and buff of her
pancakes with even more scrutiny.
Some of the boarders who had been
deep in their papers felt the oppres-
sion of the silence that followed and
looked up, so that almost all eyes were
on Miss Pringle. But she made no
comment And after breakfast in more
than one group Of dispensing boarders
the question uppermost was did you
see poor Miss Pringle?" Poor girl
suppose she has young man at the
front-she's never mentioned him and
think she had any beaus-but you new
err know, still water runs Deep" Such
were the other comments.
AS Miss Pringle passed, still little
embarrassed, from the dining room a
tall, lonely-looking young man stood
back to hold the door open for her.
She had seen him several times before.
lie was one of the new boarderS-had
a back hall bedroom somewhere in the
higher regions of the house. Appa-
rently he had no claims to stellar con-
sideration from Mrs. Dean. She had
never introduced him to any Of the
pretty girls of the house and she nev-
er, never asked him to have more sirup
on his pancakes. He had heard Mrs.
Deans prying remark to Miss Pringle,
for as she passed him to leave the room
he looked into her eyes for just Sec
ond.
Don't let her worry you," he said.
That was all; but Miss Pringle felt
that in that anthill of house she had
at least one friend. And Molly Pringle
needed a friend-she needed to know
that someone believed in her-for as
a matter of fact she knew herself to
be fraud. The service flag was mere
ly a flag that fiuttered outside her
window because other girlss she knew
had similar flags f1uttering from their
windows. She hadn't meant to cheat
but when the man with the little flags
on the street corner called out every
evening as the girls from the store
were passing: SCOT a man at the
front? Buy flag to show you've got
q man at the 'front.'" other girls stop
ped and bought flags, some with one
star, some with two, some with three,
and hurried away seemingly much hap
pier for the small purchase. Molly
had no man at the front or anywhere
else, for that matter, but still she
bought her little flag and let it wave
from her clearinghouse window. Then
she started to work knitting mufflers
and sleeveless sweaters and wristletS
for the general Red Cross supply and,
as she worked her needles far into the
night, she pretended that they were all
going for her sOldier-for the Sammy
for whom the flag in the window was
waving. Then she bought some soft
green wool and started knitting a
sweater for herself. After knitting an
hour for her Sammy she would knit
fifteen minutes for herself-that was
what the other girls did-the other
girls in the store who had real Sam
mics.
Sometimes Molly took her soft green
knitting into the clearinghouse sit
ting room-when she was waiting for
dinner that was not really quite on
time. She hesitated about taking down
the soldier knitting for fear another
inquiring remark might come from
Mrs. Dean. The girls had watched her
knit and had told her she was rapid
worker, and once she had wound a
skein of worsted on the back of chair
and another time the tall, forlorn
young man, who had once held the door
open for her, seemed to rise up from
a shadowy part Of the room and offered
to hold the yarn for her. He had held
to the last end of the wool and as it
crawled through his hand, as Molly
wound the ball to completion, he look
ed at it and stroked it with his other
hand.
Its a very pretty color" he said,
and then having accomplished his use
fulness, he settled back into the shad-
ow of the room.
Once after that the young man ap-
preached her apparently with some en-
barrassment and asked her why she
did not do her knitting in the living
room any more. He explained the
question by saying that he had hoped
to help her wind another skein some
-ime But after that Molly did her
hitting III her own room.
;,.ie evening Il h;'if hour after dr.
aer time Molly was alone in her room
sitting up on her little couch by day
and bed by night, knitting. There was
Il tap at the door and Molly, not wish
ing to put down her knitting-it was
the fifteen minutes during which she
knitted on her own sweater-called out
"COme in" without rising. The door
opened and the tall young man who
had wound her wool stood there.
wort you come in?" said Molly,
rising and motioning to the one chair
in her neat little room.
The young man first said that he
couldn't and then did come in and,
4