The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-24

| CndnCe TO snow the SUIT Sne was maze
of and showed it. Not a whimp.r.
| Down at the train. standing at the car
window. looking up at him and smil-
ing, and saying futile. foolish, final
things.
n. . and Tyler. remember what
said about your feet. You know. Dry.
. And I'll send a box every week.
only don't eat too many of the nut
cookies. They're so rich. Give some
to the other-yes. know you will. I
was just :. Won't it be grand to
be right there on the water all the
timel My! . I'll write every night
and then send 1t twice a week. . . l
don't suppose you Well once a
week. won't you. dear? You're
moving. The trains going! Good-b-'
she ran along with it for few feet.
awkwardly, as a woman runs. Stun
blingly.
And suddenly as she ran. his head
always just ahead Of her. she thought,
| with a great pang:
20 my God. how young he Isl, How
young he is, and he doesn't know any
thing. I should have told him.
Things. He doesn't know any
thing about and all those other
men"
She ran on. one arm outstretched as
though to hold him a moment longer
while the train gathered speed. Ty-
ler!" she called, through the din and
shouting Tyler. be good! Be good"
He only saw her lips moving, and could
not hear, so he nodded his head, and
smiled, and waved, and was gone.
| The first few days had been unbe-
| lievably bad. what with typhoid inoc-
] ulations, smallpox vaccinations. and
loneliness. The very first day. when
he had entered his barracks one Of the
other boys, older in experience. misled
bv Tyler's pink and white and gold
coIoring, had leaned forward from
amongst a group and had called in
glad surprise, at the top of leathery
pair of lungs:
why. hello, sweetheart" The 9TH
ers had taken it up with the cruelty of
| their age. Hello, sweetheart" 1t had
stuck.
Tyler met Gunner Moran. Moran,
tattooed hairy armed. hairy chested
as gorilla and with something Of the
sadness and humor or the gorilla in his
long upper lip and short forehead. But
his eyes did not bear out the resemb-
lance. An Irish blue; bright unravag-
ed; clear beacon lights in a rough and
storm battered countenance. Gunner
Moran wasn't a gunner at all, or even
a gunner's mate. but just seaman
who knew the sea from Shanghai to
New Orleans; from Liverpool to Bar
celona His knowledge of knots and
sails and rifles and bayonets and fists
was thing to strike you dumb. He
wasn't the stuff of which officers are
made. But you should have seen him
with Springfield! Or a bayonet! A
bare twenty five, Moran. but with ten
years sea experience. Into those ten
years he had damned lifetime Of ad-
venture. And he could do expertly all
The things that Tyler Ramps did anna
teurishly.
Because OF what he knew they gave
lin two hundred men at a time and
made him company commander, with
,ut insignia or official position. In
ank. he was only 'gob" like the rest
IF them. In influence a captain.
This man 1t was who had Tyler
: Ramps admiration. 1t was more than
admiration. 1t was nearer alteration.
But there was nothing unnatural or
unwholesome about the boys worship
} Of this man. 1t was legitimate thing
born of all his fatherless years
In Tylers third week at the Naval
Station mumps developed in his bar
racks and they were quarantined
Tyler escaped the epidemic but he had
to endure the boredom of weeks OF
. quarantine. At first they took it as a
) lark. like schoolboys. Moran's ham
mock was just next Tyler's. On his
other side was a young Kentuckian
named Dabney Courtney. The barracks
had dubbed him Monicker the very first
day. Monicker had a rather surprising
tenor voice. Moran a salty bass. And
? Tyler his mandolin. The trio did much
+, to make life bearable, or unbearable
depending on ones musical knowledge
and views. The boys all sang a great
5 deal. They played everything from
a saxophone to a harmonica- They
read. They talked. And they grew sc
t sick of the sight of one another thai
! they began to snap and smart.
Sometimes they gathered around
/. Moran and he told them tales they only
half believed. He had been in place:
2 whose very names were exotic anC
oriental. breathing of sandalwood, ant
, .nyrrh. and spices and aloes. They
. we're places over which a boy dreams IL
books of travel. He had an easy way
Nth him that made you feel provincial
nd ashamed. 1t made you ashamed
not knowing the sort of thing 20,
sed to be ashamed of knowing.
One OF the boys to Whom Tyler haC
/. never even spoken one day sudden!
n took a picture out o. his blouse poke
e and showed It to Tyler. 1t was a cheaI
j little picture-one Of the kind they sci
: two for a quarter If one sitter; two fol
d thirty five IL two. This was a two.
e some. The boy, and girl. A healthy
q wideawake wholesome looking small
). town girl.
l. Shes vice-president of the Silve
n Star Pleasure Club back home" tn,
/ boy conhded to Tyler I'm president
o We meet every other Saturday."
T Tyler looked at the picture seriousl,
It and approvingly. Suddenly he wished
a that he had, tucked away in his blouse
# a picture of a clear-eyed. rounu
o checked vtce-president of a plea sur
l. club. He took out his mothers pictur
d and showed 1t.