Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-06-04
THE CALL OF DUTY
BY NAOMI RI. ANDERSON

piers and typists We're needed in Wash
ington, Ann Rogers saw them printed
in the daily news, read them, Won
dered If she ought to offer her serv-
ices, and then forgot them, for her
daily tasks at Burr & Merchants
seemed quite sufficient for the sum
total of her existence, and for three
months she ignored Uncle Sans con-
slant and urgent appeals. But one day,
when one of the stenOgraphers came in
and calmly announced that she was
going to Washington, Ann Rogers took
up the newspapers again, read and re-
read Uncle Sans appeals, and finally
decided to follow in the footsteps of
the former stenOgrapher.
Two months later, having followed
the call Of '"The Great Adventure" Gas
she called it, she was happily en-
ScOnced in one of the offices of the war
department busily checking names CT
applicants for one of the branches Of
the war service, despite the fact that
Burr & Marchant's had offered her
larger salary if she would have re-
NAMED and quite unaware that be-
side her an officer, whom she had
hardly noticed, would be a great par
ticipator in her "Great Adventure"
and forthwith treated him with de-
liberate unconcern. But the days
stretched on to weeks, and each day
the officer by her side began to loom
up of greater and greater interest on
the horizon of fer happy existence.
Finally she admitted even to her CO.
workers that she thought he was aW-
fully nice; and the days slipped by.
Three months later an order came
from the adjutant generals office, or
| dering First Lieutenant Downs to go
| to camp, and there he would be as
signed to some company for early
| overseas duty. Ann had known foT
| some' weeks that the order was coming
| through, but the days chased each
| other so sublimely that she did not
| realize what the order would mean to
| her until it came But when she read
| the order that within three days he
was to report to his commanding of
! ficer, she knew. The three days
| dragged by-they no longer flew-and
| the nights were an eternity of tears
and prayers; but on the morning OF
| the last day when the first lieutenant
said good-by, Ann was smiling, and for
| all the world none would have guessed
at the tears and prayers. The week
| following his departure dragged
| through its course but the brightness
| and novelty of the thrObbing, crowded
| city had died for Ann.
| One afternoon when a letter arrived
| from Mr. Marchant asking If Ann
would not come back to her old posi-
| ton she dispatched an immediate re-
ply to the effect that she would be
| back in three weeks The next day
| she handed in her resignation.
| "Oh. she's got the blues on account
of a sweetheart back home," confded
the sergeant to the corporal, but Cap
tain Downs knew, and accepted her
resignation.
| On the morning that she presented
| herself at the office Of Burr & Mar
! chant she found a beautiful bunch of
| red roses in vase on her desk, and
| attached to them was card bearing
| Mr.. Marchants name. 1t occurred to
| her then he was bachelor, and she
| asked herself, 'Is it pOssible?' but
| soon forgot the question in the busy
| examination of her old desk and type
| writer. Later when Mr.. Marchant
| dc n i'm
| thanked him for the roses.
"Are you glad to be back in this
| smoky city," he leased.
'Its the best city in the world" she
rejoined, laughing.
Again the weeks began slipping by,
| but Mr.. Marchant was quick to notice
| that the happy laughter In AIMS eyes
was gone.
"You ought to take a vacation" he
told her one day. You seem so tired"
ooh, I'm not tired" she quietly re-
Piled
"Then, have a DOCTOR"
s'Why?" and her eyes widened.
you'll be having nervous break
down before you know it." he said.
"Why, there's nothing the matter
with me, or, perhaps it's just a little
| touch of the blues" she smiled. But
she did not go to a doctor.
A few days later when Marchant
was watching her he saw a soft light
in her eyes, and the doubt in them
seemed to have vanished. And he
| said to himself, 'He has written to
| her"
He talked to her of the transports
| loaded with troops arriving daily, and
| what q fine thing it was that the war
| was over, but all he could get out of
her was her quiet, 81 am so glad"
and he knew that it was not the brand
| of gladness for her.
And one morning she came in ra-
diant. There was a buoyancy to her
| step, such shining brightness in her
! avac +bo+ IL electrified the whole office