The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-12-06
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, came Vehement. wei, laAS one S
not different and I'm thankful we
know it. I'm plenty tired of every
body pretending to believe what ev-
erybody knows isn't true. =
81 wonder what your mother and
father would say Julia suggested,
"if they could hear. you talk like
that"
"Oh, they wouldn't mind" said
Cherry. ''They're very intelligent
people, really
"They've got some old-fashioned
IDEAS" said Dick, like everybody
their age, but generally speaking
they're very liberal for older people.
They don't go around being always
shocked about things"
Outside on the balcony, Elizabeth
stood with her hands gripping the
rail. She was thinking, every word
they are saying is my fault, mine
and Spratt's. They're our children
and we taught them to think this
way. Or at least, if we didn't teach
them to be cynics, we didn't do any
thing to stop it. We ran away from
the last war as fast as we could. In
what Spratt called the world's hang
over, we didn't say anything but
never again. And now there's an
other war, and Dick will have to
fight it-and listen to him! Is that
how they all feel? If it is, their
children will have to do it again.
Oh, what have told him? What can
tell him now"
Little as she liked to admit it,
she knew she had been a coward
and that she was still a coward.
She had refused to face what was
there, and she still lacked the cour-
age to face it. Could she go into
the house right now and say to Dick,
"This war is a glorious crusade, and
you must get into it now. Why wait
till next year? They will take you
at seventeen. Oh yes, know, thou
sands of men have already been
killed, but go ahead What are you
waiting for? It's worth it."
No, she could not say it. If she be-
heved this war was worth winning,
that was what she ought to say, but
the truth was that she simply did
not believe 1t that much. That was
what had held them all back during
the accommodating horrors of the past
twenty years. They knew what war
was like, they could let anything
happen in the world if only they
could keep out of another. She need
not blame herself, Elizabeth thought,
as though she was the only one. She
stood there on the balcony, epitomiz-
ing her country.
Turning around, she walked into
the house, entering through a hall
so as to avoid meeting the children
in the den. With the disappearance
of the sun the air had grown chilly.
A fire might be welcome. She. stood
by window in the living Toom,
looking at the darkness as it gath
cred swiftly over the lawn. A maid
came in to turn on the lights.
Don't you want me to draw those
curtains too, Mrs. Herlong?" she
asked,
Elizabeth turned. "Why yes. I'd
forgotten them. I'll do this win
dow" She pulled the cord that
drew the curtains together, and as
the maid went out she turned from
the window. How well-ordered ev-
erything looked, and was. Nothing
had happened this afternoon. Moth
ing had happened except within her
self. Everything that had made her
feel so strong and happy as she
drove home through the canyon was
still there. A voice in the doorway
startled her.
"Say, mother, we're getting FAM
ished. Isn't the boss home YETI"
mot yet, Dick. He's very busy
these days, you know, on the new
picture"
''I know, but I'm starving"
eff the boss isn't here by seven
thirty, we'll sit down without him,
she promised. ITS getting cold,
Dick, will you light The fire?"
"Sure will" Dick knelt down and
applied a match to the gas rod un-
der the logs. He glanced at the