The Southern herald., 1922-06-09

to do to ours. So we're going to at.
tend to them. OF course that's why
I'm here. 1t wasn't you.
Don't forget to write pretty soon,
Dora. You say in your letter. Ger.
tainly was glad to get that letter.
WELL you say have things to do more
important than girls Dora, | think
you probably know without my saying
so that of course while l have got i'm.
portant things to do just as every
man over here has, and everybody at
home, for that matter, well, the thing
that is most important in the world to
me, next to helping win this war, it's
reading the next letter from you.
Don't forget how glad I'll be to get
it, and don't forget you didn't have
anything to do with my being over
here. That vast was something
else. And you bet, whatever happens
I'm glad l camel Don't ever forget
that !"
Dora knew it was something else"
Her memory went back to her first rec
objection Of him in school: from that
time on he had been just an ordinary,
| everyday boy, foundering somehow
through his lessons in school and
through his sweetheartng with Mllla,
as the millions of other boys ilOun-
dered along with their own lessons
and their own Millas. She saw him
swinging his books and romping home
ward from the sch0Olhouse, or going
whistling by her fathers front yard,
rattling a stick on the fence as he
went, care-free and masterful, but shy
as deer if strangers looked at him,
and always mot much of talker"
She had always felt so superior to
him; she shuddered as she thought Of
! it. His quiet had been so much better
than her talk. His intelligence was
proven now, when 1t came to the great
test to be of a stronger sort than hers,
He was wise and good and gentle
and a fighting man. "We know what
they've done to this country and what
they mean to do to ours. SO we're
goHg to attend to them" She read
this over, and she knew that Ramsey
wlAe and gentle and good, would fight
like an unclaimed devil, and that he
aid his comrades would indeed and
indeed do what they "came for
ut wasn't you" he said. She nod,
ded gently, agreeing, and knew what
1t was that sent him. Yet Ramsey
had his own secret here, and did not
tell it. Sometimes there rose, faint in
his memory, a whimsical picture, YET
one that had always meant much tC
him. He would see an old man sitting
with little boy upon rustic bench
under a walnut tree to watch the Dec
Grafton Day Parade" go by-and Ram
sey would see a shoot of sunshine that
had somehow got through the walnut
tree and make a bedazzlement Of
glinting fine lines over a spot about
the size of saucer, upon the ole
mans thick white hair. And in Ram
sey's memory, the little boy, sittini
beside the veteran, would half clos,
his eyes, drowsily, playing that thi
sunshine spot was white blrd's-nest
until he had a mOmentary dream Of |
glittering little bird that dwelt ther,
and wore a blue soldier cap on 1t
head. And Ramsey would bring out o
his memory thoughts that the old mai
had got into the chid's head that day
I I'VE knew that armies fighting for tn
Freedom of Man had to win, in tn
long run. E. We were on the side o
/ Gods Plan. Long ago we begaI
T. to see hints of His Plan. MAJ
/ has to win his freedom from himself
men in the light have to fight agains
! men in the dark e. That light is tn
, answer We had the light tina
: made US never doubt"
;
= A long while Dora sat with the lei
| ter in her hand before she answered
e and took 1t upon her heart to weal
' That was the place for it, since 1t wa
t already within her heart, where h
' would find it when he came HON
: again. And she beheld the revelatlO
t sent to her. This ordinary life of Ran
0 sey's was but the outward glnting {
a high and splendid spirit, as high an
f splendid as earth can show. And "
t it was only the life of an everyda
0 American boy. The streets Of tn
/ town were full, now, of boys like Ran
= sey.
t At first they were just boys in un
e form; then one saw that they wei
g boys no more.
4