The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-03-22
Continued from page 81
THE TRUE BLUE STAR.

which had come the tread and
needles to patch and darn countless
young clothes. The work-box shook
as she recalled that such service
would not be needed again.
Then she gently took the service
| flag out OF the window. Whitebearded
Doctor MacFarland, passing in his
machine, slowed to tip his hat to the
mother, and she saw his car swerve
as he rolled along Doctor had met
Sam on his arrival twenty-five years
| ago.
With the flag on her arm, the
mother turned to the statue, and al
most before she knew it, she was
saying:
"Oh! In Thee I trusted!'
But looking at the exposed Heart,
she gently amended:
in Thee trust"
And she went up to the back bed
room that had been his.
Here, in the low morris chair, she
sat, laying the brown Work-boX on the
floor.
She held up the small silken flag
and the thought struck her for the
first time, that the blue star on the
white field were the colors Of our
Lady, and red border, the sacred
color of her Son. Surely, he should
have had double protection, She re-
membered the time, just entering his
teens, when Sam had gone so low
with. pneumonia, here in this very
bed, and Father Scully had come with
the Holy Oils; and how, as she eX-
pressed it, she had "emptied street
/ in Purgstory'' with her prayers that
he might not be taken. And well she
recalled the evening Of the First
Friday, when the crisis had been sue
cessfully passed, and Sam slept That
night she had especially consecrated
her only son. Her hand had reached
the blue star, and as she fingered it,
she suddenly remembered the reason
OF it's thickness. She looked up at
the blurred window, flooded with the
dying gold, and said:
And when I put him specially I'M
der Your protection. 1t isn't like
| YOu!'
Then her eyes rested on the cloth
of gold star that Mother Ambrose
had just given her to replace this
blue one. And she wondered should
she make the exchange. Wouldn't it
| be a kind of lack Of trust? She
dropped the stars into her lap, where
they lay side by side. The blue for
the living, and the gold, the symbol
! of one Who had given life that others
might live Long she unused. Later
she picked up the flag and with her
scissors began to cut the threads that
held the blue star on the white field
! AS the points came up, there ap-
peared, underneath, the red and white
badge she had placed there the day
Sam had departed with his regiment
to join the Rainbow Division. Gazing
on that thorn-girded Heart afame, she
burst out:
I This is the only time You have
ever failed me. It's hard to believe
it, .....t
And then Loyalty she. stopped. She
cut away slowly the threads that
held, and this time her thoughts lin
gered consolingly on the immense
Spiritual Bouquet the children Of the
parochial school had offered for her
/ Sammie, and it was balm to know
how those many young prayers would
expedite his passage through that
other helpless No Mans Land.
Four blue points Of the star were
free, and she had started her scis-
sors under the last point, when she
heard the door bell ring, and Mary
moved below to answer it. A boys
shrill voice sounded; she did not rec
ognize the voice, and the front door
banged closed 1t was intensely still
in the hallway. Then, suddenly, Mary
began screaming. Mrs. Howard rose
hastily, upsetting the work-box. She
heard
Mother! Mother, where are your
Mary came racing up the stairs.
The next instant she flashed into the
bedroom, a yellow telegram in her
hand.
60 mother! Sam-a cable mistake
he has been made a Sergeant
Mrs. Howard crushed the blue star
and the protecting badge to her
bosom, crying:
I 20, Heart! That l ever doubted
YOU"
Messenger ofthe Sacred Heart.