The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1929-01-11
Continued from first page)

49, -
then, of course, there was the war
The war bungled a lot of things
Sybil just missed being a wal
bride. AT Miss Middleton's select
boarding school all through the
winter of 1917 she folded Red
Cross %bandages and made innum.
cradle bags of cretonne with draw
strings. In each bag she put a
knit face cloth of uncertain
dimensions, a package of cigarets,
a bar of sweet chocolate, a pair
of socks and a sleeveless sweater.
During vacation she rebelled.
TITS so SIMPLEi" she fumed.
Crazy old : sweaters and socks
that don't match! Afghans and
wash rags!"
She threw her knitting needles
away. and Miss Middleton put her
down IS a Bolshevist.
I'm a conscientious objector,"
Sybil used to say; and that, In
those days, was regarded as a
great heresy. One night at dinner
she threw a verbal bombshell into
the family gathering.
I'm sick to DEATH" she told
her astonished parents, "of the
futility of the life I lead. I want
to DO something. I'm going
across"
Her father choked on his rice
Notwithstanding of the sort"
he objected, when he caught his
breath. "Are you crazy, Sybil?"
Her mother was quite unmoved.
Don't you think dear" she
questioned mildly, that your poor
father and I have enough to worry
about as it is?"
Mrs. Thorne's eyes we're blue
and faded: She knit from morn
ing until night and denied herself
all Injuries. Tad, the child of her
heart, was at Toul with Battery A
of the 101st, and there were ter
rible tidings those days of slaugh-
tering in Seichprey and the
Somme.
Mrs. Thorne had two records
that she played over and over on
the photograph There's a Long,
Long Trail A'Winding, Into the
Land of My Dreams" and cover
There" She thought Tad probab-
ly sang them in France. and it
made her feel nearer to him.
AS she wound the machine and
adjusted the needle, the same
thought was always in her mind
Perhaps this very minute Tad
is listening to these same words"
The thought saddened and com
forted her UNNECESSARILY, after the !
strange fashion of women in
anguish. q
She regarded Sybil mournfuIly. e
Come to Mrs. Wards with I
me tonight, dear" she invited. t
There's a new way of making {
bandages-not cutting at adjust a
threads. A woman from y
the Metropolitan Chapter is com n
ing out to show us"
Sybil declined with scant grace. n
I'm sick of Red Cross ~soirees," c
she said. d
Tears flooded her mothers
ayes. h
g" really think" she began ire Il
nulously-"I really think, Sybil, il
you ought to have a little more f
onsideration-with Tad over there d
and everything" She stumbled L
rom the room and the next mo- al
they heard her at the T
monograph lover There = Over
There" h
sybil put her fingers in her q
ears. =
"Oh. Lord" she muttered. d
"You must remember" her
.ather told her sternly, chat your h
Mothers nerves are all on edge.
Don't let her hear any more of II
his talk about going across. It's 81
lonsense-utter n~onsense!" Il,
He never knew that the next 81
lay Sybil went to Y. M. c. A. m
headquarters and volunteered for II.
,verseas service, for presently hi
here was a ruling that no relative II
If soldiers would be accepted, and h,
Sybil resigned to the inevitable. n
81 tried" she told herself saw
lgely. God knows I don't want r.
o play with gauze while Tad and 4,
he rest of them! N
She choked on the very thought. W
often at night she saw Tad lying VI,
n a pool of blood. His face was f.
,lown away sometimes. Or there tr
vas a great hole in his chest. or
md, if he wasn't quite dead, he IL
vas gasping-trying to say some or
hing.
She and Tad were such pals. It w
vas hard on a girl to cut band te
ges back in 1918 and do nothing bi
1ore valiant than knit like an old
Particularly if a girl and it
er brother at the front meant as
luch to each other as Tad and
ybil Thorne.
Then something happened that lit
Iade it even harder.
Suddenly, in~explicably, Sybil fell hi