The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-12-05

suddenly, please please. ="
And then all at once Karen
was in the door. Margit ran TO
her. What happened"
She felt Karen cling, sobbing,
to her shoulders.
What happened?" she kept
asking. What happened?"
Karen broke free and ran out
again. The soldier was gone.
Margit followed her. Karen,
what happened?"
But Karen would not look at
her. II never want to see him
again." she whispered. Never,
never" Then she whirled round
and cried passionately, I'VE are
Norwegians. I don't like him
Do /, Margit? Do T."
NO" Margit said, and went
to her, shyly at first, then
bravely, took her and held her
close, stroking her hair. mo
Karen" she said. Over and over
again. mo, no, of course not"
The hotel was a rambling, ga
bled structure of dark brown
wood, that stood in grassy
clearing half a mile up. the hill
An enormous red and black
swastika flag rippled gently
from a pole on the porch roof
From the broad steps, one could
see down over the pine tops to
the village itself, and westward
out beyond, to the sea, spark
ling in summer sunlight.
In peacetime, the town had
been something of a tourist re-
sort, and Englishmen and Amer
leans had come up on the excur-
sion boats from Trondheim and
Bergen, and on summer eve
nings gathered at the hotel
where there we're music on the
veranda and japanese lanterns
strung between the trees.
But now everything w a
changed. The gray green uni,
formed troops were quartereo
there, and milled about the res.
taurant evenings, talking and
drinking beer. During the day
when they were down in the
village on duty, or else goinl
through maneuvers back in the
hills, the place was deserted.
There was still the same scru-
pulous cleanliness, but tn
checkered cloths were gone
from the dining room tables
The bright green awning hao
been taken down from over the
porch, and only the flag wa:
there. The cushions from the
porch chairs were stored in the
attic. The floor was no Longer
waxed for dancing, but scrub
bed down instead with a we
brush three mornings a week
The pictures, ford scenes, pho
tographs of ski matches, were
down from the walls. Ease hac
given way to military. baroness
the hotel was run according to
strictly regulated plan.
In the hotel restaurant, some
25 or 80 soldiers were sitting a
the round tables playing cards
or talking in low voices. The
room, broad, with a beamet
ceiling, was warm and haz!
from cigaret smoke. Gerd Bjar
nesen sat stern and decorous II
her alcove under the stairs ant
watched.
Even at this hour the mer
were in regulation uniform
complete and ready for inspec
ton. She marveled sometimes a
their adherence to rule, even Il
conversation. Tonight, for ex
ample, not a word had been salt
about the debacle of Stoksunt
! Git was forbidden), even though
they could hardly have hat
much else on their minds. 1T i
as bad for Them she thought
"as for us. not to know"
One thing she had notices
over and over again, how ever
in the midst of laughter, man.
eyes would be fixed on hi
neighbours lips as if to drag on
something that lay beyond tn
words. They we're tense, ever
when resting. 1t showed in thei
quick, nervous reactions whel
one of them mentioned the war
Yet they were the battle-train
ed troops who had marched int
Prague and Numbered over tn
bloody plains of Poland, VIII
had fought six of the great ar
mics of Europe and never lost.
She feared and hated and re
spected them with a silence ant
fixedness that not even the.
could have altered. For she saw
them not as manifestations II
themselves, not as episode, blu
as climax to all of her unevent
full 40 years. She forgot in he
hatred of them her own plain
ness and barrenness, the loneli
ness, and the still ranking fea
of her stern father that had op
L