The St. Johns herald., 1922-11-02

of them be as bad as some of them it's good thing you don't know what we do, bC Iuse some of 1t would male you sick. As say, there may be quite lot of good ones among them; but we know what they've done to this country, and we know what they mean to do to ours. So we're going to at- tend to them. Of course that's why Pm here. It wasn't you.
 Don't forget to write pretty soon, Dora. You say in your letter. cer- 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 I have got im- 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 1t, and don't forget you didn't have anything to do with my being over here. That was-it was something else. And you bet, whatever happens I'm glad I camel Don't ever forget thatp
 Dora knew 1t was something else" Her memory went back to her first rec ollection of him in school: iron. that time on he had been just an ordinary, everyday boy, laundering som sn : through his lessons in school and through his sweethcarting with Milla, as the millions of other boys flOun- dered along with their own lessons and their own Millas. She saw him swinging his books and rOmping home ward from the schoolhOuse, or going whistling by her fathers front yard, rattling a stick on the fence as he went, care-free and masterful, but shy as a 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 manI we know what they've done to this country and what they mean to do to ours. So were going to attend to them" She read this over, and she knew that Ramsey. wise and gentle and good, would fight like an unclaimed devil, and that he and his comrades would indeed and indeed do what they "came for"
 Tt wasn't you," he said. She nod ded gently, agreeing, and knew what it 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 to him. He would see an old man sitting with a little boy upon a rustic bench under walnut tree to watch the Dec OratiOn 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 or glinting fine lines over spot about the size of a saucer, upon the old mans thick white hair. And in Ram sey's memory, the little boy, sitting beside the veteran, would half close his eyes, drOwsily, playing that tnls sunshine spot was a white bird's-nest, until he had mOmentary dream Of glittering little bird that dwelt there and wore a blue soldier cap on It's head. And Ramsey would bring out of his memory thoughts that the old man had got into the cAild's head that day. we knew that armies fighting for the Freedom of Man had to win. in the long run. We were on the side or Gods Plan. Long ago we began to see hints of His Plan. Man has to win his freedom from himself men in the light have to fight against men in the dark |. That light is the answer We had the light that made us never doubt"
 A long while Dora sat with the let ter in her hand before she answered it and took it upon her heart to wear. That was the place for it, since it was already within her heart, where he would find it when he came home again. And she beheld the revelation sent to her. This ordinary life of Ram sey's was but the outward glinting of a high and splendid spirit, as high and splendid as earth can show. And yet 1t was only the lie of an everyday American boy. The streets of the town were full, now, of boys like Ram sey.
 At first they were just boys in unl- form; then one saw that they were boys no more.
 They were soldiers.
 rTEJI1 ENn