produced by sheila perkins .

html version by al haines

rilla of ingleside

by

lucy maud montgomery

contents

xxxiv mr . hyde goes to his own place and susan takes a honeymoon xxxv " rilla-my-rilla ! "

chapter i

glen " notes " and other matters

it was a warm , golden-cloudy , lovable afternoon .

susan just then was perfectly happy ; everything had gone almost uncannily well in the kitchen that day .

oh , here it was " jottings from glen st . mary . "

susan settled down keenly , reading each one over aloud to extract all possible gratification from it .

wherever rilla blythe was , there was laughter .

all cats are mysterious but dr jekyll-and-mr .

hyde " doc " for short was trebly so .

he was a cat of double personality or else , as susan vowed , he was possessed by the devil .

to begin with , there had been something uncanny about the very dawn of his existence .

susan disliked jack frost , though she could not or would not give any valid reason therefor .

" but why do you think so ? "

mrs blythe would ask .

" i do not think i know , " was all the answer susan would vouchsafe .

and then a domestic tragedy took place at ingleside .

jack frost had kittens !

it would be vain to try to picture susan 's triumph .

had she not always insisted that that cat would turn out to be a delusion and a snare ?

now they could see for themselves !

so they continually used the masculine pronoun , although the result was ludicrous .

" it is not decent , mrs dr dear , " poor susan would say bitterly .

hyde .

especially did he love to lie on his back and have his sleek , cream-coloured throat stroked gently while he purred in somnolent satisfaction .

he was a notable purrer ; never had there been an ingleside cat who purred so constantly and so ecstatically .

" the only thing i envy a cat is its purr , " remarked dr blythe once , listening to doc 's resonant melody .

" it is the most contented sound in the world . "

doc was very handsome ; his every movement was grace ; his poses magnificent .

when the mr hyde mood came upon him which it invariably did before rain , or wind he was a wild thing with changed eyes .

the transformation always came suddenly .

he would spring fiercely from a reverie with a savage snarl and bite at any restraining or caressing hand .

his fur seemed to grow darker and his eyes gleamed with a diabolical light .

there was really an unearthly beauty about him .

if the change happened in the twilight all the ingleside folk felt a certain terror of him .

at such times he was a fearsome beast and only rilla defended him , asserting that he was " such a nice prowly cat . "

certainly he prowled .

dr jekyll loved new milk ; mr hyde would not touch milk and growled over his meat .

dr jekyll came down the stairs so silently that no one could hear him .

mr hyde made his tread as heavy as a man 's .

several evenings , when susan was alone in the house , he " scared her stiff , " as she declared , by doing this .

he would sit in the middle of the kitchen floor , with his terrible eyes fixed unwinkingly upon hers for an hour at a time .

this played havoc with her nerves , but poor susan really held him in too much awe to try to drive him out .

once she had dared to throw a stick at him and he had promptly made a savage leap towards her .

james blythe , who was graduated in arts in @number@ had just completed his first year in medicine . ' "

" faith meredith has really got to be the most handsomest creature i ever saw , " commented miss cornelia above her filet crochet .

" it 's amazing how those children came on after rosemary west went to the manse .

people have almost forgotten what imps of mischief they were once .

anne , dearie , will you ever forget the way they used to carry on ?

it 's really surprising how well rosemary got on with them .

she 's more like a chum than a step-mother .

they all love her and una adores her .

as for that little bruce , una just makes a perfect slave of herself to him .

of course , he is a darling .

but did you ever see any child look as much like an aunt as he looks like his aunt ellen ?

he 's just as dark and just as emphatic .

i can't see a feature of rosemary in him .

" bruce adores jem , " said mrs blythe .

he would do anything for jem , i verily believe . "

" are jem and faith going to make a match of it ? "

mrs blythe smiled .

" they are only good friends yet , miss cornelia . "

" very good friends , believe me , " said miss cornelia emphatically .

" i hear all about the doings of the young fry . "

" children !

jem is twenty-one and faith is nineteen , " retorted miss cornelia .

" you must not forget , susan , that we old folks are not the only grown-up people in the world . "

" ' carl meredith and shirley blythe came home last friday evening from queen 's academy .

" he will teach the children all there is to know about bugs , anyhow , " said miss cornelia .

he 'll be all the better for it . "

" ' walter blythe , who has been teaching for the past two years at lowbridge , has resigned , ' " read susan .

" ' he intends going to redmond this fall . ' "

" is walter quite strong enough for redmond yet ? " queried miss cornelia anxiously .

" we hope that he will be by the fall , " said mrs blythe .

" an idle summer in the open air and sunshine will do a great deal for him . "

i think he 'd do well to stay out of college another year .

but then he 's so ambitious .

are di and nan going too ? "

" yes .

they both wanted to teach another year but gilbert thinks they had better go to redmond this fall . "

" i 'm glad of that .

they 'll keep an eye on walter and see that he doesn't study too hard .

susan ignored this and mrs blythe laughed again .

" dear miss cornelia , i have my hands full , haven't i ? with all these boys and girls sweethearting around me ?

if i took it seriously it would quite crush me .

but i don't it is too hard yet to realize that they 're grown up .

wasn't jem the dearest baby in the old house of dreams ? and now he 's a b.a . and accused of courting . "

" we 're all growing older , " sighed miss cornelia .

i have an ache in it when the wind is east .

i won't admit that it is rheumatism , but it does ache .

as for the children , they and the merediths are planning a gay summer before they have to go back to studies in the fall .

they are such a fun-loving little crowd .

they keep this house in a perpetual whirl of merriment . "

" is rilla going to queen 's when shirley goes back ? "

" it isn't decided yet .

i rather fancy not .

her father thinks she is not quite strong enough she has rather outgrown her strength she 's really absurdly tall for a girl not yet fifteen .

susan and i would fall to fighting with each other to break the monotony . "

susan smiled at this pleasantry .

the idea of her fighting with " mrs dr dear ! "

" does rilla herself want to go ? " asked miss cornelia .

" no .

the truth is , rilla is the only one of my flock who isn't ambitious .

i really wish she had a little more ambition .

she has no serious ideals at all her sole aspiration seems to be to have a good time . "

" a young girl should have a good time , and that i will maintain .

there will be time enough for her to think of latin and greek . "

" i should like to see a little sense of responsibility in her , susan .

and you know yourself that she is abominably vain . "

" she has something to be vain about , " retorted susan .

" she is the prettiest girl in glen st . mary .

do you think that all those over-harbour macallisters and crawfords and elliotts could scare up a skin like rilla 's in four generations ?

they could not .

no , mrs dr dear , i know my place but i cannot allow you to run down rilla .

listen to this , mrs marshall elliott . "

susan had found a chance to get square with miss cornelia for her digs at the children 's love affairs .

she read the item with gusto .

" ' miller douglas has decided not to go west .

he says old p.e.i. is good enough for him and he will continue to farm for his aunt , mrs alec davis . ' "

susan looked keenly at miss cornelia .

" i have heard , mrs marshall elliott , that miller is courting mary vance . "

this shot pierced miss cornelia 's armour .

her sonsy face flushed .

" i won't have miller douglas hanging round mary , " she said crisply .

" he comes of a low family .

" i think i have heard , mrs marshall elliott , that mary vance 's own parents were not what you could call aristocratic . "

" mary vance has had a good bringing up and she is a smart , clever , capable girl , " retorted miss cornelia .

" she is not going to throw herself away on miller douglas , believe me !

she knows my opinion on the matter and mary has never disobeyed me yet . "

" ' we are pleased to hear that miss oliver has been engaged as teacher for another year .

miss oliver will spend her well-earned vacation at her home in lowbridge . ' "

" i 'm so glad gertrude is going to stay , " said mrs blythe .

" we would miss her horribly .

and she has an excellent influence over rilla who worships her .

they are chums , in spite of the difference in their ages . "

" i thought i heard she was going to be married ? "

" i believe it was talked of but i understand it is postponed for a year . "

" who is the young man ? "

" robert grant .

he is a young lawyer in charlottetown .

i hope gertrude will be happy .

she has had a sad life , with much bitterness in it , and she feels things with a terrible keenness .

her first youth is gone and she is practically alone in the world .

when her marriage had to be put off she was quite in despair though it certainly wasn't mr grant 's fault .

there were complications in the settlement of his father 's estate his father died last winter and he could not marry till the tangles were unravelled .

but i think gertrude felt it was a bad omen and that her happiness would somehow elude her yet . "

" it does not do , mrs dr dear , to set your affections too much on a man , " remarked susan solemnly .

" mr grant is quite as much in love with gertrude as she is with him , susan .

it is not he whom she distrusts it is fate .

she has a little mystic streak in her i suppose some people would call her superstitious .

she has an odd belief in dreams and we have not been able to laugh it out of her .

what have you found of much interest , susan ? "

susan had given an exclamation .

" listen to this , mrs dr . dear .

why that is my own cousin sophia , mrs dr dear .

and now she is coming to live right across the road from us . "

" you will have to make up the old quarrel , susan .

it will never do to be at outs with your neighbours . "

" cousin sophia began the quarrel , so she can begin the making up also , mrs dr dear , " said susan loftily .

" if she does i hope i am a good enough christian to meet her half-way .

she is not a cheerful person and has been a wet blanket all her life .

the last time i saw her , her face had a thousand wrinkles maybe more , maybe less from worrying and foreboding .

she howled dreadful at her first husband 's funeral but she married again in less than a year .

the next note , i see , describes the special service in our church last sunday night and says the decorations were very beautiful . "

" speaking of that reminds me that mr pryor strongly disapproves of flowers in church , " said miss cornelia .

" i always said there would be trouble when that man moved here from lowbridge .

he should never have been put in as elder it was a mistake and we shall live to rue it , believe me !

" who in the world ever gave him that ridiculous nickname ? " asked mrs blythe .

it does not do for anyone to call him that in his hearing , though , and that you may tie to .

but worse than his whiskers , mrs dr dear , he is a very unreasonable man and has a great many queer ideas .

yes , indeed , i have not forgotten that , and i always think of it when he is praying in meeting .

well , that is all the notes and there is not much else in the paper of any importance .

i never take much interest in foreign parts .

who is this archduke man who has been murdered ? "

" somebody is always murdering or being murdered in those balkan states .

it 's their normal condition and i don't really think that our papers ought to print such shocking things .

the enterprise is getting far too sensational with its big headlines .

well , i must be getting home .

no , anne dearie , it 's no use asking me to stay to supper .

marshall has got to thinking that if i 'm not home for a meal it 's not worth eating just like a man .

so off i go .

merciful goodness , anne dearie , what is the matter with that cat ?

" oh , no .

he 's merely turning into mr hyde which means that we shall have rain or high wind before morning .

doc is as good as a barometer . "

" well , i am thankful he has gone on the rampage outside this time and not into my kitchen , " said susan .

" and i am going out to see about supper .

with such a crowd as we have at ingleside now it behooves us to think about our meals betimes . "

chapter ii

dew of morning

outside , the ingleside lawn was full of golden pools of sunshine and plots of alluring shadows .

she , who had been so plump and roly-poly in the old rainbow valley days , was incredibly slim now , in the arms-and-legs period .

jem and shirley harrowed her soul by calling her " spider . "

yet she somehow escaped awkwardness .

there was something in her movements that made you think she never walked but always danced .

miss oliver , who was going home that night for vacation , had boarded for a year at ingleside .

gertrude oliver was twenty-eight and life had been a struggle for her .

she was not pretty but there was a certain charm of interest and mystery in her face , and rilla found her fascinating .

even her occasional moods of gloom and cynicism had allurement for rilla .

these moods came only when miss oliver was tired .

walter and rilla were her favourites and she was the confidante of the secret wishes and aspirations of both .

in the plural , at that !

she knew his passionate love of beauty and his equally passionate hatred of ugliness ; she knew his strength and his weakness .

walter was , as ever , the handsomest of the ingleside boys .

glossy black hair , brilliant dark grey eyes , faultless features .

and a poet to his fingertips !

that sonnet sequence was really a remarkable thing for a lad of twenty to write .

miss oliver was no partial critic and she knew that walter blythe had a wonderful gift .

rilla loved walter with all her heart .

he never teased her as jem and shirley did .

he never called her " spider . "

his pet name for her was " rilla-my-rilla " a little pun on her real name , marilla .

she did not mind walter 's version , but nobody else was allowed to call her that , except miss oliver now and then .

" rilla-my-rilla " in walter 's musical voice sounded very beautiful to her like the lilt and ripple of some silvery brook .

she would have died for walter if it would have done him any good , so she told miss oliver .

and i would never tell them to a single soul not even to you , miss oliver .

i tell him everything i even show him my diary .

and it hurts me dreadfully when he doesn't tell me things .

he shows me all his poems , though they are marvellous , miss oliver .

oh , i just live in the hope that some day i shall be to walter what wordsworth 's sister dorothy was to him .

wordsworth never wrote anything like walter 's poems nor tennyson , either . "

" i wouldn't say just that .

both of them wrote a great deal of trash , " said miss oliver dryly .

then , repenting , as she saw a hurt look in rilla 's eye , she added hastily ,

" when walter was in the hospital with typhoid last year i was almost crazy , " sighed rilla , a little importantly .

" they never told me how ill he really was until it was all over father wouldn't let them .

i 'm glad i didn't know i couldn't have borne it .

i cried myself to sleep every night as it was .

he really belonged to jem but was much attached to walter also .

he was lying beside walter now with nose snuggled against his arm , thumping his tail rapturously whenever walter gave him an absent pat .

monday was not a collie or a setter or a hound or a newfoundland .

he was just , as jem said , " plain dog " very plain dog , uncharitable people added .

certainly , monday 's looks were not his strong point .

black spots were scattered at random over his yellow carcass , one of them , apparently , blotting out an eye .

his ears were in tatters , for monday was never successful in affairs of honour .

but he possessed one talisman .

he knew that not all dogs could be handsome or eloquent or victorious , but that every dog could love .

on this particular afternoon rilla had no quarrel on hand with existing conditions .

" we 've had such lovely times and such lovely weather .

it has just been perfect every way . "

" i don't half like that , " said miss oliver , with a sigh .

" it 's ominous somehow .

a perfect thing is a gift of the gods a sort of compensation for what is coming afterwards .

i 've seen that so often that i don't care to hear people say they 've had a perfect time .

june has been delightful , though . "

" of course , it hasn't been very exciting , " said rilla .

" the only exciting thing that has happened in the glen for a year was old miss mead fainting in church .

sometimes i wish something dramatic would happen once in a while . "

" don't wish it .

dramatic things always have a bitterness for some one .

what a nice summer all you gay creatures will have !

and me moping at lowbridge ! "

" you 'll be over often , won't you ?

isn't it horrid when people think you 're a little girl when you're not ? "

" there 's plenty of time for you to be grown up , rilla .

don't wish your youth away .

it goes too quickly .

you 'll begin to taste life soon enough . "

" taste life !

i want to eat it , " cried rilla , laughing .

" i want everything everything a girl can have .

i 'll be fifteen in another month , and then nobody can say i 'm a child any longer .

i heard someone say once that the years from fifteen to nineteen are the best years in a girl 's life .

i 'm going to make them perfectly splendid just fill them with fun . "

" there 's no use thinking about what you 're going to do you are tolerably sure not to do it . "

" oh , but you do get a lot of fun out of the thinking , " cried rilla .

" well , what else is fifteen for ?

but have you any notion of going to college this fall ? "

" no nor any other fall .

i don't want to .

i never cared for all those ologies and isms nan and di are so crazy about .

and there 's five of us going to college already .

surely that 's enough .

there 's bound to be one dunce in every family .

i 'm quite willing to be a dunce if i can be a pretty , popular , delightful one .

i can't be clever .

i have no talent at all , and you can't imagine how comfortable it is .

nobody expects me to do anything so i 'm never pestered to do it .

and i can't be a housewifely , cookly creature , either .

i hate sewing and dusting , and when susan couldn't teach me to make biscuits nobody could .

father says i toil not neither do i spin .

therefore , i must be a lily of the field , " concluded rilla , with another laugh .

" you are too young to give up your studies altogether , rilla . "

" oh , mother will put me through a course of reading next winter .

it will polish up her b.a . degree .

luckily i like reading .

don't look at me so sorrowfully and so disapprovingly , dearest .

i can't be sober and serious everything looks so rosy and rainbowy to me .

next month i 'll be fifteen and next year sixteen and the year after that seventeen .

could anything be more enchanting ? "

" rap wood , " said gertrude oliver , half laughingly , half seriously .

" rap wood , rilla-my-rilla . "

chapter iii

moonlit mirth

" the new day is knocking at the window .

what will it bring us , i wonder . "

miss oliver shivered a little .

she never greeted the days with rilla 's enthusiasm .

she had lived long enough to know that a day may bring a terrible thing .

" i think the nicest thing about days is their unexpectedness , " went on rilla .

" it 's jolly to wake up like this on a golden-fine morning and wonder what surprise packet the day will hand you .

i always day-dream for ten minutes before i get up , imagining the heaps of splendid things that may happen before night . "

" i hope something very unexpected will happen today , " said gertrude .

" i hope the mail will bring us news that war has been averted between germany and france . "

" oh yes , " said rilla vaguely .

" it will be dreadful if it isn't , i suppose .

but it won't really matter much to us , will it ?

i think a war would be so exciting .

the boer war was , they say , but i don't remember anything about it , of course .

miss oliver , shall i wear my white dress tonight or my new green one ?

and will you do my hair the new way ?

none of the other girls in the glen wear it yet and it will make such a sensation . "

" how did you induce your mother to let you go to the dance ? "

" oh , walter coaxed her over .

he knew i would be heart-broken if i didn't go .

it 's my first really-truly grown-up party , miss oliver , and i 've just lain awake at nights for a week thinking it over .

when i saw the sun shining this morning i wanted to whoop for joy .

it would be simply terrible if it rained tonight .

i think i 'll wear the green dress and risk it .

i want to look my nicest at my first party .

besides , it 's an inch longer than my white one .

and i 'll wear my silver slippers too .

mrs ford sent them to me last christmas and i 've never had a chance to wear them yet .

they 're the dearest things .

oh , miss oliver , i do hope some of the boys will ask me to dance .

i shall die of mortification truly i will , if nobody does and i have to sit stuck up against the wall all the evening .

" you 'll have plenty of partners all the over-harbour boys are coming there 'll be far more boys than girls . "

" i 'm glad i 'm not a minister 's daughter , " laughed rilla .

" poor faith is so furious because she won't dare to dance tonight .

una doesn't care , of course .

she has never hankered after dancing .

somebody told faith there would be a taffy-pull in the kitchen for those who didn't dance and you should have seen the face she made .

she and jem will sit out on the rocks most of the evening , i suppose .

won't it just be absolutely divine ? "

" when i was fifteen i talked in italics and superlatives too , " said miss oliver sarcastically .

" i think the party promises to be pleasant for young fry .

i expect to be bored .

none of those boys will bother dancing with an old maid like me .

jem and walter will take me out once out of charity .

so you can't expect me to look forward to it with your touching young rapture . "

" didn't you have a good time at your first party , though , miss oliver ? "

" no .

i had a hateful time .

i was shabby and homely and nobody asked me to dance except one boy , homelier and shabbier than myself .

he was so awkward i hated him and even he didn't ask me again .

i had no real girlhood , rilla .

it 's a sad loss .

that 's why i want you to have a splendid , happy girlhood .

and i hope your first party will be one you 'll remember all your life with pleasure . "

" i woke up with a gasp of horror . "

" speaking of dreams i had an odd one , " said miss oliver absently .

" what was your dream ? "

" i was standing on the veranda steps , here at ingleside , looking down over the fields of the glen .

all at once , far in the distance , i saw a long , silvery , glistening wave breaking over them .

it came nearer and nearer just a succession of little white waves like those that break on the sandshore sometimes .

the glen was being swallowed up .

i tried to draw back and i saw that the edge of my dress was wet with blood and i woke shivering .

i don't like the dream .

there was some sinister significance in it .

that kind of vivid dream always ' comes true ' with me . "

" i hope it doesn't mean there 's a storm coming up from the east to spoil the party , " murmured rilla .

" incorrigible fifteen ! " said miss oliver dryly .

" no , rilla-my-rilla , i don't think there is any danger that it foretells anything so awful as that . "

there had been an undercurrent of tension in the ingleside existence for several days .

only rilla , absorbed in her own budding life , was unaware of it .

dr blythe had taken to looking grave and saying little over the daily paper .

jem and walter were keenly interested in the news it brought .

jem sought walter out in excitement that evening .

" oh , boy , germany has declared war on france .

" it wasn't a fancy , " said walter slowly .

" it was a presentiment a vision jem , i really saw him for a moment that evening long ago .

suppose england does fight ? "

" why , we 'll all have to turn in and help her , " cried jem gaily .

" we couldn't let the ' old grey mother of the northern sea ' fight it out alone , could we ?

but you can't go the typhoid has done you out of that .

sort of a shame , eh ? "

walter did not say whether it was a shame or not .

he looked silently over the glen to the dimpling blue harbour beyond .

" what an adventure it would be !

but i suppose grey or some of those wary old chaps will patch matters up at the eleventh hour .

it 'll be a rotten shame if they leave france in the lurch , though .

if they don't , we 'll see some fun .

well , i suppose it 's time to get ready for the spree at the light . "

there was a little frown on his forehead .

this had all come up with the blackness and suddenness of a thundercloud .

a few days ago nobody had even thought of such a thing .

it was absurd to think of it now .

some way out would be found .

war was a hellish , horrible , hideous thing too horrible and hideous to happen in the twentieth century between civilized nations .

the mere thought of it was hideous , and made walter unhappy in its threat to the beauty of life .

he would not think of it he would resolutely put it out of his mind .

how beautiful the old glen was , in its august ripeness , with its chain of bowery old homesteads , tilled meadows and quiet gardens .

the western sky was like a great golden pearl .

far down the harbour was frosted with a dawning moonlight .

the world was steeped in maddening loveliness of sound and colour .

he would think only of these things and of the deep , subtle joy they gave him .

" anyhow , no one will expect me to go , " he thought .

" as jem says , typhoid has seen to that . "

rilla was leaning out of her room window , dressed for the dance .

a yellow pansy slipped from her hair and fell out over the sill like a falling star of gold .

she caught at it vainly but there were enough left .

miss oliver had woven a little wreath of them for her pet 's hair .

" it's so beautifully calm isn't that splendid ?

we 'll have a perfect night .

listen , miss oliver i can hear those old bells in rainbow valley quite clearly .

they 've been hanging there for over ten years . "

" we used to have such fun in rainbow valley when we were children , " said rilla dreamily .

nobody ever played in rainbow valley now .

it was very silent on summer evenings .

walter liked to go there to read .

and rilla had a beloved little sylvan dell of her own there where she liked to sit and dream .

" i must run down to the kitchen before i go and show myself off to susan .

she would never forgive me if i didn't . "

rilla whirled into the shadowy kitchen at ingleside , where susan was prosaically darning socks , and lighted it up with her beauty .

she wore her green dress with its little pink daisy garlands , her silk stockings and silver slippers .

she had golden pansies in her hair and at her creamy throat .

susan did not always welcome her rapturously for cousin sophia was not what could be called an exhilarating companion .

everything about her seemed long and thin and pale .

she looked mournfully upon rilla blythe and said sadly ,

" is your hair all your own ? "

" of course it is , " cried rilla indignantly .

" ah , well ! "

cousin sophia sighed .

" it might be better for you if it wasn't !

such a lot of hair takes from a person 's strength .

it 's a sign of consumption , i 've heard , but i hope it won't turn out like that in your case .

i s'pose you 'll all be dancing tonight even the minister 's boys most likely .

i s'pose his girls won't go that far .

ah , well , i never held with dancing .

i knew a girl once who dropped dead while she was dancing .

how any one could ever dance aga ' after a judgment like that i cannot comprehend . "

" did she ever dance again ? " asked rilla pertly .

" i told you she dropped dead .

of course she never danced again , poor creature .

she was a kirke from lowbridge .

you ain't a-going off like that with nothing on your bare neck , are you ? "

" it 's a hot evening , " protested rilla .

" but i 'll put on a scarf when we go on the water . "

i hope nothing like that 'll happen to you tonight .

do you ever try anything for the freckles ?

i used to find plantain juice real good . "

" you certainly should be a judge of freckles , cousin sophia , " said susan , rushing to rilla 's defence .

" you were more speckled than any toad when you was a girl .

you look real nice , rilla , and that way of fixing your hair is becoming .

but you are not going to walk to the harbour in those slippers , are you ? "

" oh , no .

we 'll all wear our old shoes to the harbour and carry our slippers .

do you like my dress , susan ? "

" it minds me of a dress i wore when i was a girl , " sighed cousin sophia before susan could reply .

" it was green with pink posies on it , too , and it was flounced from the waist to the hem .

we didn't wear the skimpy things girls wear nowadays .

ah me , times has changed and not for the better i 'm afraid .

i tore a big hole in it that night and someone spilled a cup of tea all over it .

ruined it completely .

but i hope nothing will happen to your dress .

it orter to be a bit longer i 'm thinking your legs are so terrible long and thin . "

but rilla felt insulted .

a little girl indeed !

she whisked out of the kitchen in high dudgeon .

another time she wouldn't go down to show herself off to susan susan , who thought nobody was grown up until she was sixty !

and that horrid cousin sophia with her digs about freckles and legs !

what business had an old an old beanpole like that to talk of anybody else being long and thin ?

rilla felt all her pleasure in herself and her evening clouded and spoiled .

the very teeth of her soul were set on edge and she could have sat down and cried .

but later on her spirits rose again when she found herself one of the gay crowd bound for the four winds light .

they picked up the merediths in the village , and others joined them as they walked down the old harbour road .

rilla was not very fond of mary vance .

she had never forgotten the humiliating day when mary had chased her through the village with a dried codfish .

mary vance , to tell the truth , was not exactly popular with any of her set .

still , they enjoyed her society she had such a biting tongue that it was stimulating .

most of the little crowd were paired off after a fashion .

jem walked with faith meredith , of course , and jerry meredith with nan blythe .

di and walter were together , deep in confidential conversation which rilla envied .

carl meredith was walking with miranda pryor , more to torment joe milgrave than for any other reason .

joe was known to have a strong hankering for the said miranda , which shyness prevented him from indulging on all occasions .

so he trailed along after the procession and thought things not lawful to be uttered of carl meredith .

she would much rather have walked with joe than with carl , with whom she did not feel in the least at home .

shirley blythe was with una meredith and both were rather silent because such was their nature .

shirley was a lad of sixteen , sedate , sensible , thoughtful , full of a quiet humour .

he was susan 's " little brown boy " yet , with his brown hair , brown eyes , and clear brown skin .

he liked to walk with una meredith because she never tried to make him talk or badgered him with chatter .

she had a secret , carefully-hidden fancy for walter blythe that nobody but rilla ever suspected .

rilla sympathized with it and wished walter would return it .

she liked una better than faith , whose beauty and aplomb rather overshadowed other girls and rilla did not enjoy being overshadowed .

but just now she was very happy .

meadows of sunset afterlight were behind the westerning hills .

before them was the shining harbour .

a bell was ringing in the little church over-harbour and the lingering dream-notes died around the dim , amethystine points .

the gulf beyond was still silvery blue in the afterlight .

oh , it was all glorious the clear air with its salt tang , the balsam of the firs , the laughter of her friends .

it was her first party and she was going to have a splendid time .

it was beautiful and satisfying just to be alive to be fifteen to be pretty .

rilla drew a long breath of rapture and caught it midway rather sharply .

jem was telling some story to faith something that had happened in the balkan war .

" the doctor lost both his legs they were smashed to pulp and he was left on the field to die .

some hero , wasn't he , faith ?

i tell you when i read that "

jem and faith moved on out of hearing .

gertrude oliver suddenly shivered .

rilla pressed her arm sympathetically .

" wasn't it dreadful , miss oliver ?

i don't know why jem tells such gruesome things at a time like this when we 're all out for fun . "

" do you think it dreadful , rilla ?

i thought it wonderful beautiful .

such a story makes one ashamed of ever doubting human nature .

that man 's action was godlike .

and how humanity responds to the ideal of self-sacrifice .

as for my shiver , i don't know what caused it .

the evening is certainly warm enough .

perhaps someone is walking over the dark , starshiny spot that is to be my grave .

that is the explanation the old superstition would give .

well , i won't think of that on this lovely night .

do you know , rilla , that when night-time comes i 'm always glad i live in the country .

we know the real charm of night here as town dwellers never do .

every night is beautiful in the country even the stormy ones .

i love a wild night storm on this old gulf shore .

as for a night like this , it is almost too beautiful it belongs to youth and dreamland and i 'm half afraid of it . "

" i feel as if i were part of it , " said rilla .

" ah yes , you 're young enough not to be afraid of perfect things .

well , here we are at the house of dreams .

it seems lonely this summer .

the fords didn't come ? "

" mr and mrs. ford and persis didn't .

kenneth did but he stayed with his mother 's people over-harbour .

we haven't seen a great deal of him this summer .

he 's a little lame , so didn't go about very much . "

" lame ?

what happened to him ? "

" he broke his ankle in a football game last fall and was laid up most of the winter .

he has limped a little ever since but it is getting better all the time and he expects it will be all right before long .

he has been up to ingleside only twice . "

" ethel reese is simply crazy about him , " said mary vance .

" she hasn't got the sense she was born with where he is concerned .

as if a toronto boy like ken ford would ever really think of a country girl like ethel ! "

rilla flushed .

it did not matter to her if kenneth ford walked home with ethel reese a dozen times it did not !

nothing that he did mattered to her .

he was ages older than she was .

as for mary vance , she was getting to be an out-and-out gossip and thought of nothing but who walked home with people !

there was a little pier on the harbour shore below the house of dreams , and two boats were moored there .

they raced down the harbour and joe 's boat won .

more boats were coming down from the harbour head and across the harbour from the western side .

everywhere there was laughter .

the big white tower on four winds point was overflowing with light , while its revolving beacon flashed overhead .

as jem 's boat swung in below the lighthouse rilla desperately snatched off her shoes and donned her silver slippers behind miss oliver 's screening back .

it was a delightful spot , roofed over with fir-boughs and hung with lanterns .

how cool and fresh the gulf breeze blew ; how white and wonderful the moonlight was over everything !

this was life enchanting life .

rilla felt as if her feet and her soul both had wings .

chapter iv

the piper pipes

rilla 's first party was a triumph or so it seemed at first .

she had so many partners that she had to split her dances .

irene howard fastened it up for her and gave her some over-sweet , condescending compliments .

rilla felt flattered by irene 's condescension .

but rilla thought irene quite wonderful and loved her for her patronage .

irene was pretty and stylish ; she sang divinely and spent every winter in charlottetown taking music lessons .

rilla felt that irene 's compliments crowned her evening .

she ran gaily back to the pavilion and lingered for a moment in the glow of the lanterns at the entrance looking at the dancers .

a momentary break in the whirling throng gave her a glimpse of kenneth ford standing at the other side .

rilla 's heart skipped a beat or , if that be a physiological impossibility , she thought it did .

so he was here , after all .

she had concluded he was not coming not that it mattered in the least .

would he see her ?

would he take any notice of her ?

of course , he wouldn't ask her to dance that couldn't be hoped for .

he thought her just a mere child .

he had called her " spider " not three weeks ago when he had been at ingleside one evening .

she had cried about it upstairs afterwards and hated him .

but her heart skipped a beat when she saw that he was edging his way round the side of the pavilion towards her .

was he coming to her was he ? was he ? yes , he was !

he was reported to be awesomely clever , with the glamour of a far-away city and a big university hanging around him .

he had also the reputation of being a bit of a lady-killer .

" is this rilla-my-rilla ? " he asked in a low tone .

rilla had lisped in early childhood ; but she had grown out of it .

only on occasions of stress and strain did the tendency re-assert itself .

the party was spoiled .

everything had turned to dust and ashes .

it would have been so nice if she had not made a fool of herself .

she dared not look up lest she should see laughter in his eyes .

he wanted to make her look up to catch again that little , demure , questioning glance .

she was the prettiest thing at the party , there was no doubt of that .

what was he saying ?

rilla could hardly believe her ears .

" can we have a dance ? "

" yes , " said rilla .

she said it with such a fierce determination not to lisp that she fairly blurted the word out .

then she writhed in spirit again .

it sounded so bold so eager as if she were fairly jumping at him !

what would he think of her ?

oh , why did dreadful things like this happen , just when a girl wanted to appear at her best ?

kenneth drew her in among the dancers .

" i think this game ankle of mine is good for one hop around , at least , " he said .

" how is your ankle ? " said rilla .

oh , why couldn't she think of something else to say ?

she knew he was sick of inquiries about his ankle .

and now she must go and ask this stale question again .

kenneth was tired of inquiries about his ankle .

but then he had not often been asked about it by lips with such an adorable kissable dent just above them .

" they tell me it will be as strong as ever in time , but i 'll have to cut football out this fall . "

they danced together and rilla knew every girl in sight envied her .

kenneth talked to her as he had talked to nan and di .

" ' a merry lilt o ' moonlight for mermaiden revelry , ' " quoted kenneth softly from one of walter 's poems .

and just he and she alone together in the glamour of sound and sight !

but words would not come , she could only listen and murmur little commonplace sentences now and again .

but perhaps her dreamy eyes and her dented lip and her slender throat talked eloquently for her .

at any rate kenneth seemed in no hurry to suggest going back and when they did go back supper was in progress .

rilla looked about her and thought how lovely her first party had been .

she would never forget it .

the room re-echoed to laughter and jest .

beautiful young eyes sparkled and shone .

from the pavilion outside came the lilt of the fiddle and the rhythmic steps of the dancers .

it was jack elliott from over-harbour a mcgill medical student , a quiet chap not much addicted to social doings .

yet here he was and he carried a folded paper in his hand .

gertrude oliver looked at him from her corner and shivered again .

in the pleasure of his society she had forgotten some of her misgivings of the day .

now they suddenly returned to her .

what news did jack elliott bring ?

lines from an old poem flashed unbidden into her mind " there was a sound of revelry by night " " hush !

hark !

a deep sound strikes like a rising knell " why should she think of that now ?

why didn't jack elliott speak if he had anything to tell ?

why did he just stand there , glowering importantly ?

" ask him ask him , " she said feverishly to allan daly .

but somebody else had already asked him .

the room grew very silent all at once .

outside the fiddler had stopped for a rest and there was silence there too .

afar off they heard the low moan of the gulf the presage of a storm already on its way up the atlantic .

a girl 's laugh drifted up from the rocks and died away as if frightened out of existence by the sudden stillness .

" england declared war on germany today , " said jack elliott slowly .

" the news came by wire just as i left town . "

" god help us , " whispered gertrude oliver under her breath .

" my dream my dream !

the first wave has broken . "

she looked at allan daly and tried to smile .

" is this armageddon ? " she asked .

" i am afraid so , " he said gravely .

a chorus of exclamations had arisen round them light surprise and idle interest for the most part .

few there realized the import of the message fewer still realized that it meant anything to them .

before long the dancing was on again and the hum of pleasure was as loud as ever .

gertrude and allan daly talked the news over in low , troubled tones .

walter blythe had turned pale and left the room .

outside he met jem , hurrying up the rock steps .

" have you heard the news , jem ? "

" yes .

the piper has come .

hurrah !

i knew england wouldn't leave france in the lurch .

i 've been trying to get captain josiah to hoist the flag but he says it isn't the proper caper till sunrise .

jack says they 'll be calling for volunteers tomorrow . "

" what a fuss to make over nothing , " said mary vance disdainfully as jem dashed off .

she was sitting out with miller douglas on a lobster trap which was not only an unromantic but an uncomfortable seat .

but mary and miller were both supremely happy on it .

" what does it matter if there 's going to be a war over there in europe ?

i 'm sure it doesn't concern us . "

walter looked at her and had one of his odd visitations of prophecy .

you will weep tears of blood over it .

the piper has come and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistible music .

it will be years before the dance of death is over years , mary .

and in those years millions of hearts will break . "

" fancy now ! " said mary who always said that when she couldn't think of anything else to say .

she didn't know what walter meant but she felt uncomfortable .

walter blythe was always saying odd things .

that old piper of his she hadn't heard anything about him since their playdays in rainbow valley and now here he was bobbing up again .

she didn't like it , and that was the long and short of it .

" aren't you painting it rather strong , walter ? " asked harvey crawford , coming up just then .

" this war won't last for years it 'll be over in a month or two .

england will just wipe germany off the map in no time . "

" this isn't a paltry struggle in a balkan corner , harvey .

it is a death grapple .

germany comes to conquer or to die .

and do you know what will happen if she conquers ?

canada will be a german colony . "

" well , i guess a few things will happen before that , " said harvey shrugging his shoulders .

no germans need apply for this old country , eh ? "

harvey ran down the steps laughing .

" i declare , i think all you boys talk the craziest stuff , " said mary vance in disgust .

she got up and dragged miller off to the rock-shore .

they left walter standing alone on the rock steps , looking out over the beauty of four winds with brooding eyes that saw it not .

the best of the evening was over for rilla , too .

ever since jack elliott 's announcement , she had sensed that kenneth was no longer thinking about her .

she felt suddenly lonely and unhappy .

it was worse than if he had never noticed her at all .

was life like this something delightful happening and then , just as you were revelling in it , slipping away from you ?

rilla told herself pathetically that she felt years older than when she had left home that evening .

perhaps she did perhaps she was .

who knows ?

it does not do to laugh at the pangs of youth .

they are very terrible because youth has not yet learned that " this , too , will pass away . "

rilla sighed and wished she were home , in bed , crying into her pillow .

" tired ? " said kenneth , gently but absently oh , so absently .

he really didn't care a bit whether she were tired or not , she thought .

" matter ?

of course it will matter to the lucky fellows who will be able to take a hand .

i won't thanks to this confounded ankle .

rotten luck , i call it . "

" i don't see why we should fight england 's battles , " cried rilla .

" she 's quite able to fight them herself . "

" that isn't the point .

we are part of the british empire .

it 's a family affair .

we 've got to stand by each other .

the worst of it is , it will be over before i can be of any use . "

" do you mean that you would really volunteer to go if it wasn't for your ankle ? asked rilla incredulously .

" sure i would .

you see they 'll go by thousands .

jem 'll be off , i 'll bet a cent walter won't be strong enough yet , i suppose .

and jerry meredith he 'll go !

and i was worrying about being out of football this year ! "

rilla was too startled to say anything .

jem and jerry !

nonsense !

why father and mr meredith wouldn't allow it .

they weren't through college .

oh , why hadn't jack elliott kept his horrid news to himself ?

mark warren came up and asked her to dance .

rilla went , knowing kenneth didn't care whether she went or stayed .

an hour ago on the sand-shore he had been looking at her as if she were the only being of any importance in the world .

and now she was nobody .

women , thought rilla miserably , just had to sit and cry at home .

but all this was foolishness .

kenneth couldn't go he admitted that himself and walter couldn't thank goodness for that and jem and jerry would have more sense .

she wouldn't worry she would enjoy herself .

but how awkward mark warren was !

how he bungled his steps !

there , he had bumped her into somebody !

she would never dance with him again !

kenneth seemed to have gone at least nothing was to be seen of him .

her first party was spoiled , though it had seemed so beautiful at one time .

her head ached her toes burned .

and worse was yet to come .

she had gone down with some over-harbour friends to the rock-shore where they all lingered as dance after dance went on above them .

it was cool and pleasant and they were tired .

rilla sat silent , taking no part in the gay conversation .

she was glad when someone called down that the over-harbour boats were leaving .

a laughing scramble up the lighthouse rock followed .

a few couples still whirled about in the pavilion but the crowd had thinned out .

rilla looked about her for the glen group .

she could not see one of them .

she ran into the lighthouse .

still , no sign of anybody .

in dismay she ran to the rock steps , down which the over-harbour guests were hurrying .

she could see the boats below where was jem 's where was joe 's ?

" where are the rest ? " gasped rilla .

" why , they 're gone jem went an hour ago una had a headache .

and the rest went with joe about fifteen minutes ago .

see they 're just going around birch point .

i didn't go because it 's getting rough and i knew i 'd be seasick .

i don't mind walking home from here .

it 's only a mile and a half .

i s'posed you 'd gone .

where were you ? "

" down on the rocks with jem and mollie crawford .

oh , why didn't they look for me ? "

" they did but you couldn't be found .

then they concluded you must have gone in the other boat .

don't worry .

you can stay all night with me and we 'll ' phone up to ingleside where you are . "

rilla realized that there was nothing else to do .

her lips trembled and tears came into her eyes .

she blinked savagely she would not let mary vance see her crying .

but to be forgotten like this !

to think nobody had thought it worth while to make sure where she was not even walter .

then she had a sudden dismayed recollection .

" my shoes , " she exclaimed .

" i left them in the boat . "

" well , i never , " said mary .

" you 're the most thoughtless kid i ever saw .

you 'll have to ask hazel lewison to lend you a pair of shoes . "

" i won't . " cried rilla , who didn't like the said hazel .

" i 'll go barefoot first . "

mary shrugged her shoulders .

" just as you like .

pride must suffer pain .

it 'll teach you to be more careful .

well , let's hike . "

accordingly they hiked .

rilla managed to limp and totter along until they reached the harbour road ; but she could go no farther in those detestable slippers .

she took them and her dear silk stockings off and started barefoot .

that was not pleasant either ; her feet were very tender and the pebbles and ruts of the road hurt them .

her blistered heels smarted .

but physical pain was almost forgotten in the sting of humiliation .

this was a nice predicament !

if kenneth ford could see her now , limping along like a little girl with a stone bruise !

oh , what a horrid way for her lovely party to end !

she just had to cry it was too terrible .

nobody cared for her nobody bothered about her at all .

well , if she caught cold from walking home barefoot on a dew-wet road and went into a decline perhaps they would be sorry .

she furtively wiped her tears away with her scarf handkerchiefs seemed to have vanished like shoes ! but she could not help sniffling .

worse and worse !

" you 've got a cold , i see , " said mary .

" you ought to have known you would , sitting down in the wind on those rocks .

your mother won't let you go out again in a hurry i can tell you .

it 's certainly been something of a party .

the lewisons know how to do things , i 'll say that for them , though hazel lewison is no choice of mine .

my , how black she looked when she saw you dancing with ken ford .

and so did that little hussy of an ethel reese .

what a flirt he is ! "

" i don't think he 's a flirt , " said rilla as defiantly as two desperate sniffs would let her .

" you 'll know more about men when you 're as old as i am , " said mary patronizingly .

" mind you , it doesn't do to believe all they tell you .

don't let ken ford think that all he has to do to get you on a string is to drop his handkerchief .

have more spirit than that , child . "

to be thus hectored and patronized by mary vance was unendurable !

and it was unendurable to walk on stony roads with blistered heels and bare feet !

and it was unendurable to be crying and have no handkerchief and not to be able to stop crying !

" i 'm not thinking " sniff " about kenneth " sniff " ford " two sniffs " at all , " cried tortured rilla .

" there 's no need to fly off the handle , child .

you ought to be willing to take advice from older people .

i saw how you slipped over to the sands with ken and stayed there ever so long with him .

your mother wouldn't like it if she knew . "

" i 'll tell my mother all about it and miss oliver and walter , " rilla gasped between sniffs .

" you sat for hours with miller douglas on that lobster trap , mary vance !

what would mrs elliott say to that if she knew ? "

" oh , i 'm not going to quarrel with you , " said mary , suddenly retreating to high and lofty ground .

" all i say is , you should wait until you 're grown-up before you do things like that . "

rilla gave up trying to hide the fact that she was crying .

everything was spoiled even that beautiful , dreamy , romantic , moonlit hour with kenneth on the sands was vulgarized and cheapened .

she loathed mary vance .

" why , whatever 's wrong ? " cried mystified mary .

" what are you crying for ? "

" my feet hurt so " sobbed rilla clinging to the last shred of her pride .

" i daresay they do , " said mary , not unkindly .

" never mind .

i know where there 's a pot of goose-grease in cornelia 's tidy pantry and it beats all the fancy cold creams in the world .

i 'll put some on your heels before you go to bed . "

goose-grease on your heels !

so this was what your first party and your first beau and your first moonlit romance ended in !

rilla gave over crying in sheer disgust at the futility of tears and went to sleep in mary vance 's bed in the calm of despair .

chapter v

" the sound of a going "

rilla ran down through the sunlit glory of the maple grove behind ingleside , to her favourite nook in rainbow valley .

was she could she be the same rilla blythe who had danced at four winds light six days ago only six days ago ?

that evening , with its hopes and fears and triumphs and humiliations , seemed like ancient history now .

could she really ever have cried just because she had been forgotten and had to walk home with mary vance ?

ah , thought rilla sadly , how trivial and absurd such a cause of tears now appeared to her .

she could cry now with a right good will but she would not she must not .

" when our women fail in courage , shall our men be fearless still ? "

yes , that was it .

how sweet and woodsey the ferns smelled !

how softly the great feathery boughs of the firs waved and murmured over her !

how elfinly rang the bells of the " tree lovers " just a tinkle now and then as the breeze swept by !

how purple and elusive the haze where incense was being offered on many an altar of the hills !

how the maple leaves whitened in the wind until the grove seemed covered with pale silvery blossoms !

everything was just the same as she had seen it hundreds of times ; and yet the whole face of the world seemed changed .

" how wicked i was to wish that something dramatic would happen ! " she thought .

" oh , if we could only have those dear , monotonous , pleasant days back again !

i would never , never grumble about them again . "

rilla 's world had tumbled to pieces the very day after the party .

as they lingered around the dinner table at ingleside , talking of the war , the telephone had rung .

it was a long-distance call from charlottetown for jem .

when he had finished talking he hung up the receiver and turned around , with a flushed face and glowing eyes .

before he had said a word his mother and nan and di had turned pale .

" they are calling for volunteers in town , father , " said jem .

" scores have joined up already .

i 'm going in tonight to enlist . "

" oh little jem , " cried mrs blythe brokenly .

she had not called him that for many years not since the day he had rebelled against it .

" oh no no little jem . "

" i must , mother .

i 'm right am i not , father ? " said jem .

dr blythe had risen .

he was very pale , too , and his voice was husky .

but he did not hesitate .

" yes , jem , yes if you feel that way , yes "

mrs blythe covered her face .

walter stared moodily at his plate .

nan and di clasped each others ' hands .

shirley tried to look unconcerned .

susan sat as if paralysed , her piece of pie half-eaten on her plate .

that was wilful waste , hens to the contrary notwithstanding .

jem turned to the phone again .

" i must ring the manse .

jerry will want to go , too . "

at this nan had cried out " oh ! " as if a knife had been thrust into her , and rushed from the room .

di followed her .

rilla turned to walter for comfort but walter was lost to her in some reverie she could not share .

" all right , " jem was saying , as coolly as if he were arranging the details of a picnic .

" i thought you would yes , tonight the seven o'clock meet me at the station .

so long . "

" mrs dr dear , " said susan .

" i wish you would wake me up .

am i dreaming or am i awake ?

does that blessed boy realize what he is saying ?

does he mean that he is going to enlist as a soldier ?

you do not mean to tell me that they want children like him !

it is an outrage .

surely you and the doctor will not permit it . "

" we can't stop him , " said mrs blythe , chokingly .

" oh , gilbert ! "

they both thought of that other time the day years ago in the house of dreams when little joyce had died .

" no no !

but oh our first-born son he 's only a lad gilbert i 'll try to be brave after a while just now i can't .

it 's all come so suddenly .

give me time . "

the doctor and his wife went out of the room .

jem had gone walter had gone shirley got up to go .

rilla and susan remained staring at each other across the deserted table .

rilla had not yet cried she was too stunned for tears .

then she saw that susan was crying susan , whom she had never seen shed a tear before .

" oh , susan , will he really go ? " she asked .

" it it it is just ridiculous , that is what it is , " said susan .

she wiped away her tears , gulped resolutely and got up .

" i am going to wash the dishes .

that has to be done , even if everybody has gone crazy .

there now , dearie , do not you cry .

jem will go , most likely but the war will be over long before he gets anywhere near it .

let us take a brace and not worry your poor mother . "

" in the enterprise today it was reported that lord kitchener says the war will last three years , " said rilla dubiously .

so just let us be calm and trust in the almighty and get this place tidied up .

i am done with crying which is a waste of time and discourages everybody . "

jem and jerry went to charlottetown that night and two days later they came back in khaki .

the glen hummed with excitement over it .

life at ingleside had suddenly become a tense , strained , thrilling thing .

mrs blythe and nan were brave and smiling and wonderful .

already mrs blythe and miss cornelia were organizing a red cross .

the doctor and mr meredith were rounding up the men for a patriotic society .

rilla , after the first shock , reacted to the romance of it all , in spite of her heartache .

jem certainly looked magnificent in his uniform .

it was splendid to think of the lads of canada answering so speedily and fearlessly and uncalculatingly to the call of their country .

rilla carried her head high among the girls whose brothers had not so responded .

in her diary she wrote :

" he goes to do what i had done had douglas 's daughter been his son , "

and was sure she meant it .

if she were a boy of course she would go , too !

she hadn't the least doubt of that .

" i couldn't bear to have walter go , " she wrote .

he seems so changed these days .

he hardly ever talks to me .

i suppose he wants to go , too , and feels badly because he can't .

he doesn't go about with jem and jerry at all .

i shall never forget susan 's face when jem came home in his khaki .

jem laughed .

he never minds because susan thinks him just a child still .

everybody seems busy but me .

i wish there was something i could do but there doesn't seem to be anything .

mother and nan and di are busy all the time and i just wander about like a lonely ghost .

what hurts me terribly , though , is that mother 's smiles , and nan 's , just seem put on from the outside .

mother 's eyes never laugh now .

it makes me feel that i shouldn't laugh either that it 's wicked to feel laughy .

and it 's so hard for me to keep from laughing , even if jem is going to be a soldier .

but when i laugh i don't enjoy it either , as i used to do .

there 's something behind it all that keeps hurting me especially when i wake up in the night .

it would make me feel as if it were really going to happen .

the other day nan said , ' nothing can ever be quite the same for any of us again . '

it made me feel rebellious .

why shouldn't things be the same again when everything is over and jem and jerry are back ?

we 'll all be happy and jolly again and these days will seem just like a bad dream .

" the coming of the mail is the most exciting event of every day now .

but she never relents towards doc .

susan is funny , but she is an old dear .

shirley says she is one half angel and the other half good cook .

but then shirley is the only one of us she never scolds .

" faith meredith is wonderful .

i think she and jem are really engaged now .

she goes about with a shining light in her eyes , but her smiles are a little stiff and starched , just like mother 's .

i wonder if i could be as brave as she is if i had a lover and he was going to the war .

it is bad enough when it is your brother .

bruce meredith cried all night , mrs meredith says , when he heard jem and jerry were going .

and he wanted to know if the ' k of k . ' his father talked about was the king of kings .

he is the dearest kiddy .

i just love him though i don't really care much for children .

i don't like babies one bit though when i say so people look at me as if i had said something perfectly shocking .

well , i don't , and i 've got to be honest about it .

gertrude oliver says she just feels the same .

( she is the most honest person i know .

she never pretends anything . )

she says babies bore her until they are old enough to talk and then she likes them but still a good ways off .

mother and nan and di all adore babies and seem to think i 'm unnatural because i don't .

" i haven't seen kenneth since the night of the party .

he was here one evening after jem came back but i happened to be away .

all that matters absolutely nothing to me now .

oh , i 'm so proud of him !

" i suppose kenneth would enlist too if it weren't for his ankle .

i think that is quite providential .

he is his mother 's only son and how dreadful she would feel if he went .

only sons should never think of going ! "

walter came wandering through the valley as rilla sat there , with his head bent and his hands clasped behind him .

when he saw rilla he turned abruptly away ; then as abruptly he turned and came back to her .

" rilla-my-rilla , what are you thinking of ? "

" everything is so changed , walter , " said rilla wistfully .

" even you you 're changed .

a week ago we were all so happy and and now i just can't find myself at all .

i 'm lost . "

walter sat down on a neighbouring stone and took rilla 's little appealing hand .

" i 'm afraid our old world has come to an end , rilla .

we 've got to face that fact . "

" it 's so terrible to think of jem , " pleaded rilla .

" i envy jem ! " said walter moodily .

" envy jem !

oh , walter you you don't want to go too . "

that 's just the trouble .

rilla , i 'm afraid to go .

i 'm a coward . "

" you 're not ! "

rilla burst out angrily .

" why , anybody would be afraid to go .

you might be why , you might be killed . "

" i wouldn't mind that if it didn't hurt , " muttered walter .

rilla , i 've always been afraid of pain you know that .

i can't help it i shudder when i think of the possibility of being mangled or or blinded .

rilla , i cannot face that thought .

i ought to go i ought to want to go but i don't i hate the thought of it i 'm ashamed ashamed . "

" but , walter , you couldn't go anyhow , " said rilla piteously .

she was sick with a new terror that walter would go after all .

" you 're not strong enough . "

" i am .

i 've felt as fit as ever i did this last month .

i 'd pass any examination i know it .

everybody thinks i 'm not strong yet and i 'm skulking behind that belief .

i i should have been a girl , " walter concluded in a burst of passionate bitterness .

" even if you were strong enough , you oughtn't to go , " sobbed rilla .

" what would mother do ?

she 's breaking her heart over jem .

it would kill her to see you both go . "

" oh , i 'm not going don't worry .

i tell you i 'm afraid to go afraid .

i don't mince the matter to myself .

it 's a relief to own up even to you , rilla .

i wouldn't confess it to anybody else nan and di would despise me .

but i hate the whole thing the horror , the pain , the ugliness .

war isn't a khaki uniform or a drill parade everything i 've read in old histories haunts me .

i lie awake at night and see things that have happened see the blood and filth and misery of it all .

and a bayonet charge !

if i could face the other things i could never face that .

walter writhed and shuddered .

" i think of these things all the time and it doesn't seem to me that jem and jerry ever think of them .

they laugh and talk about ' potting huns ' !

but it maddens me to see them in the khaki .

and they think i 'm grumpy because i 'm not fit to go . "

walter laughed bitterly .

" it is not a nice thing to feel yourself a coward . "

but rilla got her arms about him and cuddled her head on his shoulder .

she was so glad he didn't want to go for just one minute she had been horribly frightened .

and it was so nice to have walter confiding his troubles to her to her , not di .

she didn't feel so lonely and superfluous any longer .

" don't you despise me , rilla-my-rilla ? " asked walter wistfully .

somehow , it hurt him to think rilla might despise him hurt him as much as if it had been di .

he realized suddenly how very fond he was of this adoring kid sister with her appealing eyes and troubled , girlish face .

" no , i don't .

why , walter , hundreds of people feel just as you do .

you know what that verse of shakespeare in the old fifth reader says ' the brave man is not he who feels no fear . ' "

" no but it is ' he whose noble soul its fear subdues . '

i don't do that .

we can't gloss it over , rilla .

i 'm a coward . "

" you 're not .

think of how you fought dan reese long ago . "

" one spurt of courage isn't enough for a lifetime . "

" walter , one time i heard father say that the trouble with you was a sensitive nature and a vivid imagination .

you feel things before they really come feel them all alone when there isn't anything to help you bear them to take away from them .

it isn't anything to be ashamed of .

as for this horrid old war , there 'll be plenty to go without you .

it won't last long . "

" i wish i could believe it .

well , it 's supper-time , rilla .

you 'd better run .

i don't want anything . "

" neither do i . i couldn't eat a mouthful .

let me stay here with you , walter .

it 's such a comfort to talk things over with someone .

the rest all think that i 'm too much of a baby to understand . "

they comforted and strengthened each other .

she was of importance to somebody .

when they went back to ingleside they found callers sitting on the veranda .

mr and mrs. meredith had come over from the manse , and mr and mrs. norman douglas had come up from the farm .

cousin sophia was there also , sitting with susan in the shadowy background .

it was a very calm evening with a dim , golden afterlight irradiating the glen .

she felt happier than at any time in the dreadful week that had passed .

she was no longer haunted by the fear that walter would go .

" i 'd go myself if i was twenty years younger , " norman douglas was shouting .

norman always shouted when he was excited .

" i 'd show the kaiser a thing or two !

did i ever say there wasn't a hell ?

of course there 's a hell dozens of hells hundreds of hells where the kaiser and all his brood are bound for . "

" i knew this war was coming , " said mrs norman triumphantly .

" i saw it coming right along .

i could have told all those stupid englishmen what was ahead of them .

i told you , john meredith , years ago what the kaiser was up to but you wouldn't believe it .

you said he would never plunge the world in war .

who was right about the kaiser , john ?

you or i ?

tell me that . "

" you were , i admit , " said mr meredith .

" thank god , england 's navy is ready , " said the doctor .

" amen to that , " nodded mrs norman .

" bat-blind as most of them were somebody had foresight enough to see to that . "

" maybe england 'll manage not to get into trouble over it , " said cousin sophia plaintively .

" i dunno .

but i 'm much afraid . "

" one would suppose that england was in trouble over it already , up to her neck , sophia crawford , " said susan .

" but your ways of thinking are beyond me and always were .

it is my opinion that the british navy will settle germany in a jiffy and that we are all getting worked up over nothing . "

susan spat out the words as if she wanted to convince herself more than anybody else .

what had an honest , hard-working , presbyterian old maid of glen st mary to do with a war thousands of miles away ?

susan felt that it was indecent that she should have to be disturbed by it .

" the british army will settle germany , " shouted norman .

" britain hasn't got an army , " said mrs norman emphatically .

" you needn't glare at me , norman .

glaring won't make soldiers out of timothy stalks .

a hundred thousand men will just be a mouthful for germany 's millions . "

" there 'll be some tough chewing in the mouthful , i reckon , " persisted norman valiantly .

" germany 'll break her teeth on it .

don't you tell me one britisher isn't a match for ten foreigners .

i could polish off a dozen of ' em myself with both hands tied behind my back ! "

" i am told , " said susan , " that old mr pryor does not believe in this war .

" i believe he 's been talking some such rot , " said norman .

" i haven't heard him .

when i do , whiskers-on-the-moon won't know what happened to him .

that precious relative of mine , kitty alec , holds forth to the same effect , i understand .

not before me , though somehow , folks don't indulge in that kind of conversation in my presence .

lord love you , they 've a kind of presentiment , so to speak , that it wouldn't be healthy for their complaint . "

" ' the world is very evil the times are waxing late . ' "

" parson here 's got something of the same idea , " chuckled norman .

" haven't you , parson ?

that 's why you preached t'other night on the text ' without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins . '

i never have any fun sassing parsons since i got married . "

" everything , it seems to me , has to be purchased by self-sacrifice .

our race has marked every step of its painful ascent with blood .

and now torrents of it must flow again .

no , mrs crawford , i don't think the war has been sent as a punishment for sin .

" now , never mind kicking me in the shins , ellen .

i want to see if parson meant what he said or if it was just a pulpit frill . "

mr meredith 's face quivered .

he had had a terrible hour alone in his study on the night jem and jerry had gone to town .

but he answered quietly .

" you do mean it , parson .

i can always tell when people mean what they say .

it 's a gift that was born in me .

makes me a terror to most parsons , that !

but i 've never caught you yet saying anything you didn't mean .

i 'm always hoping i will that 's what reconciles me to going to church .

it 'd be such a comfort to me such a weapon to batter ellen here with when she tries to civilize me .

well , i 'm off over the road to see ab .

crawford a minute .

the gods be good to you all . "

" the old pagan ! " muttered susan , as norman strode away .

she did not care if ellen douglas did hear her .

susan could never understand why fire did not descend from heaven upon norman douglas when he insulted ministers the way he did .

but the astonishing thing was mr meredith seemed really to like his brother-in-law .

rilla wished they would talk of something besides war .

she had heard nothing else for a week and she was really a little tired of it .

now that she was relieved from her haunting fear that walter would want to go it made her quite impatient .

but she supposed with a sigh that there would be three or four months of it yet .

chapter vi

susan , rilla , and dog monday make a resolution

the big living-room at ingleside was snowed over with drifts of white cotton .

word had come from red cross headquarters that sheets and bandages would be required .

nan and di and rilla were hard at work .

mrs blythe and susan were upstairs in the boys ' room , engaged in a more personal task .

with dry , anguished eyes they were packing up jem 's belongings .

he must leave for valcartier the next morning .

they had been expecting the word but it was none the less dreadful when it came .

rilla was basting the hem of a sheet for the first time in her life .

" mother , i want to do something .

i 'm only a girl i can't do anything to win the war but i must do something to help at home . "

" the cotton has come up for the sheets , " said mrs blythe .

" you can help nan and di make them up .

and rilla , don't you think you could organize a junior red cross among the young girls ?

i think they would like it better and do better work by themselves than if mixed up with the older people . "

" but , mother i 've never done anything like that . "

" well " rilla took the plunge " i 'll try , mother if you 'll tell me how to begin .

mrs blythe did not smile at rilla 's italics .

perhaps she did not feel like smiling or perhaps she detected a real grain of serious purpose behind rilla 's romantic pose .

it was interesting and rilla discovered a certain aptitude in herself for it that surprised her .

who would be president ?

not she .

the older girls would not like that .

irene howard ?

no , somehow irene was not quite as popular as she deserved to be .

marjorie drew ?

no , marjorie hadn't enough backbone .

she was too prone to agree with the last speaker .

betty mead calm , capable , tactful betty the very one !

and una meredith for treasurer ; and , if they were very insistent , they might make her , rilla , secretary .

" you have basted the top hem of that sheet on one side and the bottom hem on the other , " said di .

rilla picked out her stitches and reflected that she hated sewing .

running the junior reds would be much more interesting .

" susan , i keep thinking today of once when he cried for me in the night .

he was just a few months old .

but i went and took him up i can feel that tight clinging of his little arms round my neck yet .

" i do not know how we are going to face it anyhow , mrs dr dear .

but do not tell me that it will be the final farewell .

he will be back on leave before he goes overseas , will he not ? "

" we hope so but we are not very sure .

i am making up my mind that he will not , so that there will be no disappointment to bear .

susan , i am determined that i will send my boy off tomorrow with a smile .

i hope none of us will cry . "

have you room there for this fruit-cake ?

and the shortbread ?

and the mince-pie ?

that blessed boy shall not starve , whether they have anything to eat in that quebec place or not .

everything seems to be changing all at once , does it not ?

even the old cat at the manse has passed away .

he breathed his last at a quarter to ten last night and bruce is quite heart-broken , they tell me . "

" it 's time that pussy went where good cats go .

he must be at least fifteen years old .

he has seemed so lonely since aunt martha died . "

" i should not have lamented , mrs dr dear , if that hyde-beast had died also .

he has been mr hyde most of the time since jem came home in khaki , and that has a meaning i will maintain .

i do not know what monday will do when jem is gone .

the creature just goes about with a human look in his eyes that takes all the good out of me when i see it .

this tray is packed , mrs dr dear , and i will go down and put in my best licks preparing supper .

i wish i knew when i would cook another supper for jem but such things are hidden from our eyes . "

jem blythe and jerry meredith left next morning .

the blythe family and the meredith family were all smiling .

even susan , as providence did ordain , wore a smile , though the effect was somewhat more painful than tears would have been .

faith and nan were very pale and very gallant .

dog monday was there , too .

jem had tried to say good-bye to him at ingleside but monday implored so eloquently that jem relented and let him go to the station .

he kept close to jem 's legs and watched every movement of his beloved master .

" i can't bear that dog 's eyes , " said mrs meredith .

" the beast has more sense than most humans , " said mary vance .

" well , did we any of us ever think we 'd live to see this day ?

i bawled all night to think of jem and jerry going like this .

i think they 're plumb deranged .

miller got a maggot in his head about going but i soon talked him out of it likewise his aunt said a few touching things .

for once in our lives kitty alec and i agree .

it 's a miracle that isn't likely to happen again .

there 's ken , rilla . "

rilla knew kenneth was there .

she had been acutely conscious of it from the moment he had sprung from leo west 's buggy .

now he came up to her smiling .

" doing the , i see .

what a crowd for the glen to muster !

well , i 'm off home in a few days myself . "

a queer little wind of desolation that even jem 's going had not caused blew over rilla 's spirit .

" why ?

you have another month of vacation . "

" yes but i can't hang around four winds and enjoy myself when the world 's on fire like this .

it 's me for little old toronto where i 'll find some way of helping in spite of this bally ankle .

i 'm not looking at jem and jerry makes me too sick with envy .

you girls are great no crying , no grim endurance .

the boys 'll go off with a good taste in their mouths .

i hope persis and mother will be as game when my turn comes . "

" oh , kenneth the war will be over before your turn cometh . "

there !

she had lisped again .

another great moment of life spoiled !

well , it was her fate .

and anyhow , nothing mattered .

what on earth had ethel to cry about ?

none of the reeses were in khaki .

rilla wanted to cry , too but she would not .

what was that horrid old mrs drew saying to mother , in that melancholy whine of hers ?

" i don't know how you can stand this , mrs blythe .

i couldn't if it was my pore boy . "

and mother oh , mother could always be depended on !

how her grey eyes flashed in her pale face .

" it might have been worse , mrs drew .

i might have had to urge him to go . "

mrs drew did not understand but rilla did .

she flung up her head .

her brother did not have to be urged to go .

rilla found herself standing alone and listening to disconnected scraps of talk as people walked up and down past her .

" i told mark to wait and see if they asked for a second lot of men .

if they did i 'd let him go but they won't , " said mrs palmer burr .

" i think i 'll have it made with a crush girdle of velvet , " said bessie clow .

" i 'm scared stiff , " said whimsical mrs jim howard .

" i 'm scared jim will enlist and i 'm scared he won't . "

" the war will be over by christmas , " said joe vickers .

" let them european nations fight it out between them , " said abner reese .

" yes , sir , i walloped him well , big gun as he is now . "

" the existence of the british empire is at stake , " said the methodist minister .

" there 's certainly something about uniforms , " sighed irene howard .

" the blythe family are taking it easy , " said kate drew .

" them young fools are just going for adventure , " growled nathan crawford .

" i have absolute confidence in kitchener , " said the over-harbour doctor .

in these ten minutes rilla passed through a dizzying succession of anger , laughter , contempt , depression and inspiration .

oh , people were funny !

how little they understood .

" taking it easy , " indeed when even susan hadn't slept a wink all night !

kate drew always was a minx .

rilla felt as if she were in some fantastic nightmare .

were these the people who , three weeks ago , were talking of crops and prices and local gossip ?

there the train was coming mother was holding jem's hand dog monday was licking it everybody was saying good-bye the train was in !

they had gone .

rilla came to herself with a gasp .

there was a sudden quiet .

nothing to do now but to go home and wait .

the doctor and mrs blythe walked off together so did nan and faith so did john meredith and rosemary .

walter and una and shirley and di and carl and rilla went in a group .

susan had put her bonnet back on her head , hindside foremost , and stalked grimly off alone .

nobody missed dog monday at first .

when they did shirley went back for him .

he found dog monday curled up in one of the shipping-sheds near the station and tried to coax him home .

dog monday would not move .

he wagged his tail to show he had no hard feelings but no blandishments availed to budge him .

this was exactly what dog monday had done .

ay , wait there , little faithful dog with the soft , wistful , puzzled eyes .

but it will be many a long bitter day before your boyish comrade comes back to you .

she paused solemnly at the foot of the bed and solemnly declared ,

" mrs dr dear , i have made up my mind to be a heroine . "

but that should not make any vital difference .

was it not the spirit that counted ?

yet mrs blythe was hard put to it not to laugh .

whining and shirking and blaming providence do not get us anywhere .

we have just got to grapple with whatever we have to do whether it is weeding the onion patch , or running the government .

i shall grapple .

chapter vii

a war-baby and a soup tureen

" liege and namur and now brussels ! "

the doctor shook his head .

" i don't like it i don't like it . "

" do not you lose heart , dr . dear ; they were just defended by foreigners , " said susan superbly .

" it it can't be true , " gasped nan , taking a brief refuge in temporary incredulity .

" ' a broken , a beaten , but not a demoralized , army , ' " muttered the doctor , from a london dispatch .

" can it be england 's army of which such a thing is said ? "

" it will be a long time now before the war is ended , " said mrs blythe despairingly .

susan 's faith , which had for a moment been temporarily submerged , now reappeared triumphantly .

" remember , mrs dr dear , that the british army is not the british navy .

never forget that .

" the russians will not be in time to save paris , " said walter gloomily .

" paris is the heart of france and the road to it is open .

oh , i wish " he stopped abruptly and went out .

after a paralysed day the ingleside folk found it was possible to " carry on " even in the face of ever-darkening bad news .

rilla felt that this , coupled with the fact that the germans were only fifty miles from paris , was hardly to be endured .

but she started off gallantly on an errand fraught with amazing results .

the andersons were desperately poor and it was not likely mrs anderson had anything to give .

so possibly mrs anderson might feel hurt if she were overlooked .

rilla decided to call .

there were times afterwards when she wished she hadn't , but in the long run she was very thankful that she did .

rilla tied her grey nag to the rickety fence and went to the door .

it was open ; and the sight she saw bereft her temporarily of the power of speech or motion .

rilla knew the woman by sight and reputation .

rilla 's first impulse was to turn and flee .

but that would never do .

" come in , " said mrs conover , removing her pipe and staring at rilla with her little , rat-like eyes .

" is is mrs anderson really dead ? " asked rilla timidly , as she stepped over the sill .

" dead as a door nail , " responded mrs conover cheerfully .

" kicked the bucket half an hour ago .

i 've sent jen conover to ' phone for the undertaker and get some help up from the shore .

you 're the doctor 's miss , ain't ye ?

have a cheer ? "

rilla did not see any chair which was not cluttered with something .

she remained standing .

" wasn't it very sudden ? "

" well , she 's been a-pining ever since that worthless jim lit out for england which i say it 's a pity as he ever left .

it 's my belief she was took for death when she heard the news .

" is there anything i can do to to help ? " hesitated rilla .

" bless yez , no unless ye 've a knack with kids .

i haven't .

that young un there never lets up squalling , day or night .

i 've just got that i take no notice of it . "

rilla tiptoed gingerly over to the cradle and more gingerly still pulled down the dirty blanket .

she had no intention of touching the baby she had no " knack with kids " either .

she saw an ugly midget with a red , distorted little face , rolled up in a piece of dingy old flannel .

she had never seen an uglier baby .

" what is going to become of the baby ? " she asked .

" lord knows , " said mrs conover candidly .

" min worried awful over that before she died .

she kept on a-saying ' oh , what will become of my pore baby ' till it really got on my nerves .

i ain't a-going to trouble myself with it , i can tell yez .

i told min it 'd have to be sent to an orphan asylum till we 'd see if jim ever came back to look after it .

would yez believe it , she didn't relish the idee .

but that 's the long and short of it . "

" but who will look after it until it can be taken to the asylum ? " persisted rilla .

somehow the baby 's fate worried her .

" s'pose i 'll have to , " grunted mrs . conover .

she put away her pipe and took an unblushing swig from a black bottle she produced from a shelf near her .

" it 's my opinion the kid won't live long .

it 's sickly .

min never had no gimp and i guess it hain't either .

likely it won't trouble any one long and good riddance , sez i . "

rilla drew the blanket down a little farther .

" why , the baby isn't dressed ! " she exclaimed , in a shocked tone .

" who was to dress him i 'd like to know , " demanded mrs conover truculently .

" i hadn't time took me all the time there was looking after min .

' sides , as i told yez , i don't know nithing about kids .

the critter is warm enough .

this weather would melt a brass monkey . "

rilla was silent , looking down at the crying baby .

she had never encountered any of the tragedies of life before and this one smote her to the core of her heart .

if she had only come a little sooner !

yet what could she have done what could she do now ?

she didn't know , but she must do something .

" i can't stay , " thought rilla .

" mr crawford said i must be home by supper-time because he wanted the pony this evening himself .

oh , what can i do ? "

she made a sudden , desperate , impulsive resolution .

" i 'll take the baby home with me , " she said .

" can i ? "

" sure , if yez wants to , " said mrs conover amiably .

" i hain't any objection .

take it and welcome . "

" i i can't carry it , " said rilla .

" i have to drive the horse and i 'd be afraid i 'd drop it .

is there a a basket anywhere that i could put it in ? "

" not as i knows on .

there ain't much here of anything , i kin tell yez .

min was pore and as shiftless as jim .

ef ye opens that drawer over there yez'll find a few baby clo'es .

best take them along . "

rilla got the clothes the cheap , sleazy garments the poor mother had made ready as best she could .

but this did not solve the pressing problem of the baby 's transportation .

rilla looked helplessly round .

oh , for mother or susan !

her eyes fell on an enormous blue soup tureen at the back of the dresser .

" may i have this to to lay him in ? " she asked .

" well , ' tain't mine but i guess yez kin take it .

he brung that old tureen out from england with him said it 'd always been in the family .

him and min never used it never had enough soup to put in it but jim thought the world of it .

then she put it in the soup tureen .

" is there any fear of it smothering ? " she asked anxiously .

" not much odds if it do , " said mrs conover .

horrified rilla loosened the blanket round the baby 's face a little .

the mite had stopped crying and was blinking up at her .

it had big dark eyes in its ugly little face .

" better not let the wind blow on it , " admonished mrs conover .

" take its breath if it do . "

rilla wrapped the tattered little quilt around the soup tureen .

" will you hand this to me after i get into the buggy , please ? "

" sure i will , " said mrs conover , getting up with a grunt .

rilla thought she would never get to ingleside .

in the soup tureen there was an uncanny silence .

suppose it were smothered !

she was a thankful girl when at last she reached harbour at ingleside .

rilla carried the soup tureen to the kitchen , and set it on the table under susan 's eyes .

susan looked into the tureen and for once in her life was so completely floored that she had not a word to say .

" what in the world is this ? " asked the doctor , coming in .

rilla poured out her story .

" i just had to bring it , father , " she concluded .

" i couldn't leave it there . "

" what are you going to do with it ? " asked the doctor coolly .

rilla hadn't exactly expected this kind of question .

" we we can keep it here for awhile can't we until something can be arranged ? " she stammered confusedly .

presently the doctor confronted rilla .

" a young baby means a great deal of additional work and trouble in a household , rilla .

if you want to keep that baby here you must attend to it yourself . "

" me ! "

rilla was dismayed into being ungrammatical .

" why father i i couldn't ! "

" younger girls than you have had to look after babies .

my advice and susan 's is at your disposal .

if you cannot , then the baby must go back to meg conover .

its lease of life will be short if it does for it is evident that it is a delicate child and requires particular care .

i doubt if it would survive even if sent to an orphans ' home .

but i cannot have your mother and susan over-taxed . "

the doctor walked out of the kitchen , looking very stern and immovable .

rilla sat looking blankly at the baby .

it was absurd to think she could take care of it .

but that poor little , frail , dead mother who had worried about it that dreadful old meg conover .

" susan , what must be done for a baby ? " she asked dolefully .

if it has colic , you put hot things on its stomach , " said susan , rather feebly and flatly for her .

the baby began to cry again .

" it must be hungry it has to be fed anyhow , " said rilla desperately .

" tell me what to get for it , susan , and i 'll get it . "

under susan 's directions a ration of milk and water was prepared , and a bottle obtained from the doctor 's office .

then rilla lifted the baby out of the soup tureen and fed it .

she brought down the old basket of her own infancy from the attic and laid the now sleeping baby in it .

she put the soup tureen away in the pantry .

then she sat down to think things over .

the result of her thinking things over was that she went to susan when the baby woke .

" i 'm going to see what i can do , susan .

i can't let that poor little thing go back to mrs conover .

tell me how to wash and dress it . "

under susan 's supervision rilla bathed the baby .

susan dared not help , other than by suggestion , for the doctor was in the living-room and might pop in at any moment .

susan had learned by experience that when dr blythe put his foot down and said a thing must be , that thing was .

rilla set her teeth and went ahead .

in the name of goodness , how many wrinkles and kinks did a baby have ?

why , there wasn't enough of it to take hold of .

oh , suppose she let it slip into the water it was so wobbly !

if it would only stop howling like that !

how could such a tiny morsel make such an enormous noise .

its shrieks could be heard over ingleside from cellar to attic .

" am i really hurting it much , susan , do you suppose ? " she asked piteously .

" no , dearie .

most new babies hate like poison to be washed .

you are real knacky for a beginner .

keep your hand under its back , whatever you do , and keep cool . "

keep cool !

rilla was oozing perspiration at every pore .

when the baby was dried and dressed and temporarily quieted with another bottle she was as limp as a rag .

" what must i do with it tonight , susan ? "

a baby by day was dreadful enough ; a baby by night was unthinkable .

" set the basket on a chair by your bed and keep it covered .

you will have to feed it once or twice in the night , so you would better take the oil heater upstairs .

if you cannot manage it call me and i will go , doctor or no doctor . "

" but , susan , if it cries ? "

the baby , however , did not cry .

it was surprisingly good perhaps because its poor little stomach was filled with proper food .

it slept most of the night but rilla did not .

she was afraid to go to sleep for fear something would happen to the baby .

she prepared its three o'clock ration with a grim determination that she would not call susan .

oh , was she dreaming ?

was it really she , rilla blythe , who had got into this absurd predicament ?

babies did have convulsions , didn't they ?

oh , why had she forgotten to ask susan what she must do if the baby had convulsions ?

she reflected rather bitterly that father was very considerate of mother 's and susan 's health , but what about hers ?

did he think she could continue to exist if she never got any sleep ?

but she was not going to back down now not she .

she would look after this detestable little animal if it killed her .

she would get a book on baby hygiene and be beholden to nobody .

she would never go to father for advice she wouldn't bother mother and she would only condescend to susan in dire extremity .

they would all see !

" she 's upstairs , mrs dr dear , putting her baby to bed . "

chapter viii

rilla decides

families and individuals alike soon become used to new conditions and accept them unquestioningly .

by the time a week had elapsed it seemed as it the anderson baby had always been at ingleside .

after the first three distracted nights rilla began to sleep again , waking automatically to attend to her charge on schedule time .

she bathed and fed and dressed it as skilfully as if she had been doing it all her life .

shirley , nan , and di did not tease her as much as she had expected .

they all seemed rather stunned by the mere fact of rilla adopting a war-baby ; perhaps , too , the doctor had issued instructions .

walter , of course , never had teased her over anything ; one day he told her she was a brick .

i wish i had half your pluck , " he said ruefully .

rilla was very proud of walter 's approval ; nevertheless , she wrote gloomily in her diary that night :

" i wish i could like the baby a little bit .

it would make things easier .

but i don't .

i 've heard people say that when you took care of a baby you got fond of it but you don't i don't , anyway .

and it 's a nuisance it interferes with everything .

it just ties me down and now of all times when i 'm trying to get the junior reds started .

and i couldn't go to alice clow 's party last night and i was just dying to .

i suppose it was just as well , because the thing did take colic or something about one o'clock .

i was afraid i had burnt it but i don't believe i did .

then i walked the floor with it although ' morgan on infants ' says that should never be done .

i walked miles , and oh , i was so tired and discouraged and mad yes , i was .

i could have shaken the creature if it had been big enough to shake , but it wasn't .

" finally , miss oliver came in .

she has rooms with nan now , not me , all because of the baby , and i am broken-hearted about it .

i miss our long talks after we went to bed , so much .

it was the only time i ever had her to myself .

i hated to think the baby 's yells had wakened her up , for she has so much to bear now .

mr grant is at valcartier , too , and miss oliver feels it dreadfully , though she is splendid about it .

she thinks he will never come back and her eyes just break my heart they are so tragic .

i didn't i was too worn out .

" i 'm having a perfectly dreadful time getting the junior reds started .

and she is sly and two-faced .

una doesn't mind , of course .

she is willing to do anything that comes to hand and never minds whether she has an office or not .

she is just a perfect angel , while i am only angelic in spots and demonic in other spots .

she is too .

" just as i expected , olive was determined we should have lunch served at our meetings .

we had a battle royal over it .

the majority was against eats and now the minority is sulking .

irene howard was on the eats side and she has been very cool to me ever since and it makes me feel miserable .

i wonder if mother and mrs elliott have problems in the senior society too .

i suppose they have , but they just go on calmly in spite of everything .

i never sulk .

i detest people who sulk .

anyhow , we 've got the society started and we 're to meet once a week , and we 're all going to learn to knit .

" shirley and i went down to the station again to try to induce dog monday to come home but we failed .

all the family have tried and failed .

then monday went on a hunger strike and howled like a banshee night and day .

we had to let him out or he would have starved to death .

besides , one of us goes down nearly every day to take him something .

mr gray , the station master , says there are times when he can hardly help crying from sheer sympathy .

nobody has molested monday since .

" kenneth ford has gone back to toronto .

he came up two evenings ago to say good-bye .

" fred arnold was at the manse and walked home with me .

he is the new methodist minister 's son and very nice and clever , and would be quite handsome if it were not for his nose .

it is a really dreadful nose .

he wants to enlist , too , but can't because he is only seventeen .

mrs elliott detests the methodists and all their works .

father says it is an obsession with her . "

about @date@ there was an exodus from ingleside and the manse .

faith , nan , di and walter left for redmond ; carl betook himself to his harbour head school and shirley was off to queen 's .

rilla was left alone at ingleside and would have been very lonely if she had had time to be .

for a moment rilla was tempted to say " yes . "

the baby could be sent to hopetown it would be decently looked after she could have her free days and untrammelled nights back again .

but but that poor young mother who hadn't wanted it to go to the asylum !

rilla couldn't get that out of her thoughts .

and that very morning she discovered that the baby had gained eight ounces since its coming to ingleside .

rilla had felt such a thrill of pride over this .

" you you said it mightn't live if it went to hopetown , " she said .

" it mightn't .

somehow , institutional care , no matter how good it may be , doesn't always succeed with delicate babies .

but you know what it means if you want it kept here , rilla . "

" i 've taken care of it for a fortnight and it has gained half a pound , " cried rilla .

" i think we 'd better wait until we hear from its father anyhow .

he mightn't want to have it sent to an orphan asylum , when he is fighting the battles of his country . "

the doctor and mrs blythe exchanged amused , satisfied smiles behind rilla 's back ; and nothing more was said about hopetown .

then the smile faded from the doctor 's face ; the germans were twenty miles from paris .

horrible tales were beginning to appear in the papers of deeds done in martyred belgium .

life was very tense at ingleside for the older people .

" we eat up the war news , " gertrude oliver told mrs meredith , trying to laugh and failing .

" we study the maps and nip the whole hun army in a few well-directed strategic moves .

but papa joffre hasn't the benefit of our advice and so paris must fall . "

" will they reach it will not some mighty hand yet intervene ? " murmured john meredith .

i am wearing a path right across nan 's carpet .

we are so horribly near this war . "

" them german men are at senlis .

nothing nor nobody can save paris now , " wailed cousin sophia .

" i have not such a poor opinion of the almighty , or of kitchener , " said susan stubbornly .

" why ain't the british navy doing more ? " persisted cousin sophia .

" even the british navy cannot sail on dry land , sophia crawford .

i have not given up hope , and i shall not , tomascow and mobbage and all such barbarous names to the contrary notwithstanding .

mrs dr dear , can you tell me if r-h-e-i-m-s is rimes or reems or rames or rems ? "

" i believe it 's really more like ' rhangs , ' susan . "

" oh , those french names , " groaned susan .

" they tell me the germans has about ruined the church there , " sighed cousin sophia .

" i always thought the germans was christians . "

" a church is bad enough but their doings in belgium are far worse , " said susan grimly .

" tomorrow tomorrow will bring the news that the germans are in paris , " said gertrude oliver , through her tense lips .

she had one of those souls that are always tied to the stake , burning in the suffering of the world around them .

but on the morrow and the next morrow came the news of the miracle of the marne .

rilla rushed madly home from the office waving the enterprise with its big red headlines .

susan ran out with trembling hands to hoist the flag .

the doctor stalked about muttering " thank god . "

mrs blythe cried and laughed and cried again .

" god just put out his hand and touched them ' thus far no farther ' , " said mr meredith that evening .

rilla was singing upstairs as she put the baby to bed .

paris was saved the war was over germany had lost there would soon be an end now jem and jerry would be back .

the black clouds had rolled by .

" don't you dare have colic this joyful night , " she told the baby .

" if you do i 'll clap you back into your soup tureen and ship you off to hopetown by freight on the early train .

why will you be so slippery ?

no , i don't like you and i never will but for all that i 'm going to make a decent , upstanding infant of you .

you are going to get as fat as a self-respecting child should be , for one thing .

if i can't love you i mean to be proud of you at least . "

chapter ix

doc has a misadventure

rilla was murmuring " knit four , purl one " under her breath , and rocking the baby 's cradle with one foot .

the rilla of two months before would have rushed off to rainbow valley and cried .

miss oliver sighed and mrs blythe clasped her hands for a moment .

then susan said briskly , " well , we must just gird up our loins and pitch in .

i shall make the same kind of pudding today i always make on saturday .

it is a good deal of trouble to make , and that is well , for it will employ my thoughts .

i will remember that kitchener is at the helm and joffer is doing very well for a frenchman .

i shall get that box of cake off to little jem and finish that pair of socks today likewise .

a sock a day is my allowance .

old mrs albert mead of harbour head manages a pair and a half a day but she has nothing to do but knit .

do you know that rick macallister has enlisted , mrs dr dear ?

and they say joe milgrave would too , only he is afraid that if he does that whiskers-on-the-moon will not let him have miranda .

" even billy andrews ' boy is going and jane 's only son and diana 's little jack , " said mrs blythe .

" priscilla 's son has gone from japan and stella 's from vancouver and both the rev jo 's boys .

philippa writes that her boys ' went right away , not being afflicted with her indecision . ' "

" that is not fair , " said susan indignantly .

" has sir sam hughes no regard for our feelings ?

the idea of whisking that blessed boy away to europe without letting us even have a last glimpse of him !

if i were you , doctor dear , i would write to the papers about it . "

" perhaps it is as well , " said the disappointed mother .

oh , if only but no , i won't say it !

like susan and rilla , " concluded mrs blythe , achieving a laugh , " i am determined to be a heroine . "

" you 're all good stuff , " said the doctor , " i 'm proud of my women folk .

that 's a good piece of work .

rilla , daughter of anne , what are you going to call your war-baby ? "

" i 'm waiting to hear from jim anderson , " said rilla .

" he may want to name his own child . "

eventually rilla decided to call the baby james , and susan opined that kitchener should be added thereto .

so james kitchener anderson became the possessor of a name somewhat more imposing than himself .

the ingleside family promptly shortened it to jims , but susan obstinately called him " little kitchener " and nothing else .

" jims is no name for a christian child , mrs dr dear , " she said disapprovingly .

it is not often that susan baker is flabbergasted , but flabbergasted i was then , and that you may tie to .

for one awful moment i thought my mind had given way and that i was seeing visions .

but you see what has happened and it is making a woman of her .

when we have to do a thing , mrs dr dear , we can do it . "

susan added another proof to this concluding dictum of hers one day in october .

the doctor and his wife were away .

rilla was presiding over jims ' afternoon siesta upstairs , purling four and knitting one with ceaseless vim .

susan was seated on the back veranda , shelling beans , and cousin sophia was helping her .

peace and tranquility brooded over the glen ; the sky was fleeced over with silvery , shining clouds .

rainbow valley lay in a soft , autumnal haze of fairy purple .

" things is too calm to last , " she said .

as if in confirmation of her assertion , a most unearthly din suddenly arose behind them .

susan and cousin sophia stared at each other in dismay .

" what upon airth has bruk loose in there ? " gasped cousin sophia .

" it must be that hyde-cat gone clean mad at last , " muttered susan .

" i have always expected it . "

rilla came flying out of the side door of the living-room .

" what has happened ? " she demanded .

" it is beyond me to say , but that possessed beast of yours is evidently at the bottom of it , " said susan .

" do not go near him , at least .

i will open the door and peep in .

there goes some more of the crockery .

i have always said that the devil was in him and that i will tie to . "

" it is my opinion that the cat has hydrophobia , " said cousin sophia solemnly .

undismayed by this , susan opened the door and looked in .

around the kitchen tore a frantic cat , with his head wedged tightly in an old salmon can .

the sight was so funny that rilla doubled up with laughter .

susan looked at her reproachfully .

" i see nothing to laugh at .

that beast has broken your ma's big blue mixing-bowl that she brought from green gables when she was married .

that is no small calamity , in my opinion .

but the thing to consider now is how to get that can off hyde 's head . "

" don't you dast go touching it , " exclaimed cousin sophia , galvanized into animation .

" it might be your death .

shut the kitchen up and send for albert . "

" i am not in the habit of sending for albert during family difficulties , " said susan loftily .

" that beast is in torment , and whatever my opinion of him may be , i cannot endure to see him suffering pain .

you keep away , rilla , for little kitchener 's sake , and i will see what i can do . "

then she proceeded to saw the can loose with a can-opener , while rilla held the squirming animal , rolled in the coat .

anything like doc 's shrieks while the process was going on was never heard at ingleside .

susan was in mortal dread that the albert crawfords would hear it and conclude she was torturing the creature to death .

doc was a wrathful and indignant cat when he was freed .

evidently he thought the whole thing was a put-up job to bring him low .

susan swept up her broken dishes grimly .

" the huns themselves couldn't have worked more havoc here , " she said bitterly .

chapter x

the troubles of rilla

october passed out and the dreary days of november and december dragged by .

" a few months ago , " said miss oliver , " we thought and talked in terms of glen st . mary .

now , we think and talk in terms of military tactics and diplomatic intrigue . "

there was just one great event every day the coming of the mail .

" i must take up my knitting then and knit hard till the papers come , mrs dr dear .

the idea of him doing that when we are at war with turkey ?

well , i must bestir myself this afternoon and get little jem 's christmas cake packed up for him .

he will enjoy it , if the blessed boy is not drowned in mud before that time . "

jem was in camp on salisbury plain and was writing gay , cheery letters home in spite of the mud .

walter was at redmond and his letters to rilla were anything but cheerful .

she never opened one without a dread tugging at her heart that it would tell her he had enlisted .

his unhappiness made her unhappy .

she wanted to put her arm round him and comfort him , as she had done that day in rainbow valley .

she hated everybody who was responsible for walter 's unhappiness .

walter wrote that some one had sent him an envelope containing a white feather .

" i deserved it , rilla .

i felt that i ought to put it on and wear it proclaiming myself to all redmond the coward i know i am .

the boys of my year are going going .

every day two or three of them join up .

i can't face even the thought of it .

how could i face the reality ?

there are times when i wish i had never been born .

life has always seemed such a beautiful thing to me and now it is a hideous thing .

and una 's !

una is really a little brick , isn't she ?

there 's a wonderful fineness and firmness under all that shy , wistful girlishness of her .

not that she ever says a word about my going or hints that i ought to go she isn't that kind .

it 's just the spirit of them the personality that is in them .

well , i can't go .

you have a brother and una has a friend who is a coward . "

" oh , i wish walter wouldn't write such things , " sighed rilla .

" it hurts me .

he isn't a coward he isn't he isn't ! "

she looked wistfully about her at the little woodland valley and the grey , lonely fallows beyond .

how everything reminded her of walter !

walter had once written a poem describing them .

the wind was sighing and rustling among the frosted brown bracken ferns , then lessening sorrowfully away down the brook .

walter had said once that he loved the melancholy of the autumn wind on a november day .

oh , how happy they had been then !

well rilla scrambled to her feet time was up .

she was busy these days from morning till night .

that little monkey of a jims took so much time .

but he was growing he was certainly growing .

sometimes she felt quite proud of him ; and sometimes she yearned to spank him .

but she never kissed him or wanted to kiss him .

" this war is at least extending my knowledge of geography .

schoolma'am though i am , three months ago i didn't know there was such a place in the world such as lodz .

had i heard it mentioned i would have known nothing about it and cared as little .

i know all about it now its size , its standing , its military significance .

yesterday the news that the germans have captured it in their second rush to warsaw made my heart sink into my boots .

i woke up in the night and worried over it .

i don't wonder babies always cry when they wake up in the night .

everything presses on my soul then and no cloud has a silver lining . "

last night i fried him in boiling oil and a great comfort it was to me , remembering those belgian babies . "

" would i ? " cried outraged susan .

" would i , miss oliver ?

i would rub him down with coal oil , miss oliver and leave it to blister .

that is what i would do and that you may tie to .

a pain in his shoulder , indeed !

he will have pains all over him before he is through with what he has started . "

" we are told to love our enemies , susan , " said the doctor solemnly .

" yes , our enemies , but not king george 's enemies , doctor dear , " retorted susan crushingly .

she was so well pleased with herself over this flattening out of the doctor completely that she even smiled as she polished her glasses .

" can you tell me , miss oliver , how to pronounce m-l-a-w-a and b-z-u-r-a and p-r-z-e-m-y-s-l ? "

" that last is a conundrum which nobody seems to have solved yet , susan .

and i can make only a guess at the others . "

" these foreign names are far from being decent , in my opinion , " said disgusted susan .

" i dare say the austrians and russians would think saskatchewan and musquodoboit about as bad , susan , " said miss oliver .

" the serbians have done wonderfully of late .

they have captured belgrade . "

it says here that the slaughter was terrible .

rilla was upstairs relieving her over-charged feelings by writing in her diary .

" things have all ' gone catawampus , ' as susan says , with me this week .

part of it was my own fault and part of it wasn't , and i seem to be equally unhappy over both parts .

" i went to town the other day to buy a new winter hat .

and i found the dearest hat it was simply bewitching .

it was a velvet hat , of the very shade of rich green that was made for me .

only once before in my life have i come across that precise shade of green .

when i was twelve i had a little beaver hat of it , and all the girls in school were wild over it .

well , as soon as i saw this hat i felt that i simply must have it and have it i did .

the price was dreadful .

" when i got home and tried on the hat again in my room i was assailed by qualms .

it hadn't seemed so at the milliner 's but here in my little white room it did .

and that dreadful price tag !

and the starving belgians !

when mother saw the hat and the tag she just looked at me .

mother is some expert at looking .

but let me return to my mutton that is to say , my new green velvet hat .

" ' i paid for it out of my own allowance , mother , ' i exclaimed .

" ' that is not the point .

your allowance is based on the principle of a reasonable amount for each thing you need .

if you pay too much for one thing you must cut off somewhere else and that is not satisfactory .

but if you think you did right , rilla , i have no more to say .

i leave it to your conscience . '

" i wish mother would not leave things to my conscience !

and anyway , what was i to do ?

i couldn't take that hat back i had worn it to a concert in town i had to keep it !

i was so uncomfortable that i flew into a temper a cold , calm , deadly temper .

" ' mother , ' i said haughtily , ' i am sorry you disapprove of my hat '

" ' but i have to keep it now .

" i hate that hat already .

but three years or the duration of the war , i said , and three years or the duration of the war it shall be .

i vowed and i shall keep my vow , cost what it will .

" that is one of the ' catawampus ' things .

the other is that i have quarrelled with irene howard or she quarrelled with me or , no , we both quarrelled .

" the junior red cross met here yesterday .

irene hasn't been a bit nice to me since the fuss about the eats ; and besides i feel sure she resents not being president .

" but as soon as we sat down irene began to rub me the wrong way .

i saw her cast a look at my new knitting-bag .

all the girls have always said irene was jealous-minded and i would never believe them before .

but now i feel that perhaps she is .

now , irene knows perfectly well that i don't like to have jims kissed like that .

it is not hygienic .

" ' why , rilla , darling , you look as if you thought i was poisoning the baby . '

" ' dear me , am i so full of germs ? ' said irene plaintively .

i knew she was making fun of me and i began to boil inside but outside no sign of a simmer .

i was determined i would not scrap with irene .

" then she began to bounce jims .

now , morgan says bouncing is almost the worst thing that can be done to a baby .

i never allow jims to be bounced .

but irene bounced him and that exasperating child liked it .

he smiled for the very first time .

he is four months old and he has never smiled once before .

not even mother or susan have been able to coax that thing to smile , try as they would .

and here he was smiling because irene howard bounced him !

talk of gratitude !

" i admit that smile made a big difference in him .

two of the dearest dimples came out in his cheeks and his big brown eyes seemed full of laughter .

the way irene raved over those dimples was silly , i consider .

you would have supposed she thought she had really brought them into existence .

but i sewed steadily and did not enthuse , and soon irene got tired of bouncing jims and put him back in his cradle .

" i explained patiently that children have to cry so many minutes per day in order to expand their lungs .

morgan says so .

" ' if jims didn't cry at all i 'd have to make him cry for at least twenty minutes , ' i said .

" ' oh , indeed ! ' said irene , laughing as if she didn't believe me .

' morgan on the care of infants ' was upstairs or i would soon have convinced her .

then she said jims didn't have much hair she had never seen a four months ' old baby so bald .

" it went on like that the rest of the hour irene kept giving me little digs all the time .

but i corked up my feelings and sewed away for dear life on a belgian child 's nightgown .

" then irene told me the meanest , most contemptible thing that someone had said about walter .

i won't write it down i can't .

she simply did it to hurt me .

" i just exploded .

' how dare you come here and repeat such a thing about my brother , irene howard ? '

i exclaimed .

' i shall never forgive you never .

your brother hasn't enlisted hasn't any idea of enlisting . '

" ' why rilla , dear , i didn't say it , ' said irene .

' i told you it was mrs george burr .

and i told her '

" ' i don't want to hear what you told her .

don't you ever speak to me again , irene howard . '

" oh course , i shouldn't have said that .

but it just seemed to say itself .

irene paired off with olive kirk all the rest of the afternoon and went away without so much as a look .

but i feel unhappy over it for all that .

" father got old joe mead to build a kennel for dog monday in the corner of the shipping-shed today .

we thought perhaps monday would come home when the cold weather came but he wouldn't .

no earthly influence can coax monday away from that shed even for a few minutes .

there he stays and meets every train .

so we had to do something to make him comfortable .

joe built the kennel so that monday could lie in it and still see the platform , so we hope he will occupy it .

" monday has become quite famous .

a reporter of the enterprise came out from town and photographed him and wrote up the whole story of his faithful vigil .

it was published in the enterprise and copied all over canada .

" jims is snoring beside me in his cradle .

it is just a cold that makes him snore not adenoids .

irene had a cold yesterday and i know she gave it to him , kissing him .

oh , shall i ever forget those first two months !

i don't know how i lived through them .

but here i am and here is jims and we both are going to ' carry on . '

and he did and out popped the dimples .

what a pity his mother couldn't have seen them !

" i finished my sixth pair of socks today .

with the first three i got susan to set the heel for me .

then i thought that was a bit of shirking , so i learned to do it myself .

i hate it but i have done so many things i hate since 4th of august that one more or less doesn't matter .

i just think of jem joking about the mud on salisbury plain and i go at them . "

chapter xi

dark and bright

at christmas the college boys and girls came home and for a little while ingleside was gay again .

but all were not there for the first time one was missing from the circle round the christmas table .

wait you till the big push comes in the spring and the war will be over in a jiffy . "

they tried to think so , but a shadow stalked in the background of their determined merrymaking .

walter , too , was quiet and dull , all through the holidays .

he showed rilla a cruel , anonymous letter he had received at redmond a letter far more conspicuous for malice than for patriotic indignation .

" nevertheless , all it says is true , rilla . "

rilla had caught it from him and thrown it into the fire .

" there isn't one word of truth in it , " she declared hotly .

" walter , you 've got morbid as miss oliver says she gets when she broods too long over one thing . "

" i can't get away from it at redmond , rilla .

the whole college is aflame over the war .

a perfectly fit fellow , of military age , who doesn't join up is looked upon as a shirker and treated accordingly .

" it 's not fair you're not fit . "

" physically i am .

sound as a bell .

the unfitness is in the soul and it 's a taint and a disgrace .

there , don't cry , rilla .

i 'm not going if that 's what you 're afraid of .

the piper 's music rings in my ears day and night but i cannot follow . "

" you would break mother 's heart and mine if you did , " sobbed rilla .

" oh , walter , one is enough for any family . "

the holidays were an unhappy time for her .

still , having nan and di and walter and shirley home helped in the enduring of things .

" my ankle is about as good as new .

i 'll be fit to join up in a couple of months more , rilla-my-rilla .

it will be some feeling to get into khaki all right .

little ken will be able to look the whole world in the face then and owe not any man .

it 's been rotten lately , since i 've been able to walk without limping .

people who don't know look at me as much as to say ' slacker ! '

well , they won't have the chance to look it much longer . "

" nineteen-fourteen has gone , " said dr blythe on new year 's day .

" its sun , which rose fairly , has set in blood .

what will nineteen-fifteen bring ? "

" victory ! " said susan , for once laconic .

" do you really believe we 'll win the war , susan ? " said miss oliver drearily .

she had come over from lowbridge to spend the day and see walter and the girls before they went back to redmond .

she was in a rather blue and cynical mood and inclined to look on the dark side .

" ' believe ' we 'll win the war ! " exclaimed susan .

" no , miss oliver , dear , i do not believe i know .

that does not worry me .

what does worry me is the trouble and expense of it all .

but then you cannot make omelets without breaking eggs , so we must just trust in god and make big guns . "

" sometimes i think the big guns are better to trust in than god , " said miss oliver defiantly .

" no , no , dear , you do not .

the germans had the big guns at the marne , had they not ?

but providence settled them .

do not ever forget that .

just hold on to that when you feel inclined to doubt .

my cousin sophia is , like you , somewhat inclined to despond .

' oh , dear me , what will we do if the germans ever get here , ' she wailed to me yesterday .

' bury them , ' said i , just as off-hand as that .

' there is plenty of room for the graves . '

i am like old mr william pollock of the harbour head .

now , that , miss oliver , dear , " concluded susan , " is the kind of spirit i admire . "

" i admire it but i can't emulate it , " sighed gertrude .

but i can't escape from this . "

" nor i , " said mrs blythe .

" i hate going to bed now .

all my life i 've liked going to bed , to have a gay , mad , splendid half-hour of imagining things before sleeping .

now i imagine them still .

but such different things . "

" i am rather glad when the time comes to go to bed , " said miss oliver .

" i like the darkness because i can be myself in it i needn't smile or talk bravely .

but sometimes my imagination gets out of hand , too , and i see what you do terrible things terrible years to come . "

" i am very thankful that i never had any imagination to speak of , " said susan .

" i have been spared that .

i see by this paper that the crown prince is killed again .

do you suppose there is any hope of his staying dead this time ?

and i also see that woodrow wilson is going to write another note .

in january jims was five months old and rilla celebrated the anniversary by shortening him .

" he weighs fourteen pounds , " she announced jubilantly .

" just exactly what he should weigh at five months , according to morgan . "

there was no longer any doubt in anybody 's mind that jims was getting positively pretty .

he had even begun to grow hair , much to rilla 's unspoken relief .

there was a pale golden fuzz all over his head that was distinctly visible in some lights .

he was a good infant , generally sleeping and digesting as morgan decreed .

occasionally he smiled but he had never laughed , in spite of all efforts to make him .

this worried rilla also , because morgan said that babies usually laughed aloud from the third to the fifth month .

jims was five months and had no notion of laughing .

why hadn't he ?

wasn't he normal ?

one night rilla came home late from a recruiting meeting at the glen where she had been giving patriotic recitations .

rilla had never been willing to recite in public before .

she was afraid of her tendency to lisp , which had a habit of reviving if she were doing anything that made her nervous .

when she had first been asked to recite at the upper glen meeting she had refused .

then she began to worry over her refusal .

was it cowardly ?

what would jem think if he knew ?

after two days of worry rilla phoned to the president of the patriotic society that she would recite .

she did , and lisped several times , and lay awake most of the night in an agony of wounded vanity .

then two nights after she recited again at harbour head .

she had been at lowbridge and over-harbour since then and had become resigned to an occasional lisp .

nobody except herself seemed to mind it .

and she was so earnest and appealing and shining-eyed !

even stolid miller douglas was so fired one night that it took mary vance a good hour to talk him back to sense .

she was just getting warm and drowsy when jims suddenly began to cry and kept on crying .

rilla curled herself up in her bed and determined she would let him cry .

she had morgan behind her for justification .

jims was warm , physically comfortable his cry wasn't the cry of pain and had his little tummy as full as was good for him .

under such circumstances it would be simply spoiling him to fuss over him , and she wasn't going to do it .

he could cry until he got good and tired and ready to go to sleep again .

then rilla 's imagination began to torment her .

wouldn't i cry , too ?

wouldn't i feel just so lonely and forsaken and frightened that i 'd have to cry ?

rilla hopped out .

she picked jims out of his basket and took him into her own bed .

his hands were cold , poor mite .

but he had promptly ceased to cry .

" oh , you dear little thing ! " exclaimed rilla .

" are you so pleased at finding you 're not all alone , lost in a huge , big , black room ? "

then she knew she wanted to kiss him and she did .

she kissed his silky , scented little head , she kissed his chubby little cheek , she kissed his little cold hands .

she wanted to squeeze him to cuddle him , just as she used to squeeze and cuddle her kittens .

something delightful and yearning and brooding seemed to have taken possession of her .

she had never felt like this before .

" he has got to be such a darling , " she thought drowsily , as she drifted off to slumberland herself .

in february jem and jerry and robert grant were in the trenches and a little more tension and dread was added to the ingleside life .

in march " yiprez , " as susan called it , had come to have a bitter significance .

no one at ingleside ever got up in the morning without a sudden piercing wonder over what the day might bring .

" and i used to welcome the mornings so , " thought rilla .

" i wonder if the boys in the trenches are warm . "

" how everything comes back to this war , " cried gertrude oliver .

" we can't get away from it not even when we talk of the weather .

i never go out these dark cold nights myself without thinking of the men in the trenches not only our men but everybody 's men .

i would feel the same if there were nobody i knew at the front .

when i snuggle down in my comfortable bed i am ashamed of being comfortable .

it seems as if it were wicked of me to be so when many are not . "

he has cried himself to sleep for a week , over the starving belgians .

just say the babies are not hungry , mother . '

and she cannot say it because it would not be true , and she is at her wits ' end .

they try to keep such things from him but he finds them out and then they cannot comfort him .

but we must carry on .

jack crawford says he is going to the war because he is tired of farming .

i hope he will find it a pleasant change .

and mrs richard elliott over-harbour is worrying herself sick because she used to be always scolding her husband about smoking up the parlour curtains .

now that he has enlisted she wishes she had never said a word to him .

you know josiah cooper and william daley , mrs dr dear .

they used to be fast friends but they quarrelled twenty years ago and have never spoken since .

well , the other day josiah went to william and said right out , ' let us be friends .

' tain't any time to be holding grudges . '

william was real glad and held out his hand , and they sat down for a good talk .

and now they are madder at each other than ever and william says josiah is as bad a pro-german as whiskers-on-the-moon .

whiskers-on-the-moon vows he is no pro-german but calls himself a pacifist , whatever that may be .

it is nothing proper or whiskers would not be it and that you may tie to .

joe vickers told me in the store that he saw a very queer looking thing in the sky tonight over lowbridge way .

do you suppose it could have been a zeppelin , mrs dr dear ? "

" i do not think it very likely , susan . "

" well , i would feel easier about it if whiskers-on-the-moon were not living in the glen .

they say he was seen going through strange manoeuvres with a lantern in his back yard one night lately .

some people think he was signalling . "

" to whom or what ? "

" ah , that is the mystery , mrs dr dear .

now i shall just look over the papers a minute before going to write a letter to little jem .

two things i never did , mrs dr dear , were write letters and read politics .

yet here i am doing both regular and i find there is something in politics after all .

whatever woodrow wilson means i cannot fathom but i am hoping i will puzzle it out yet . "

" that devilish kaiser has only a boil after all . "

" don't swear , susan , " said dr blythe , pulling a long face .

" ' devilish ' is not swearing , doctor , dear .

i have always understood that swearing was taking the name of the almighty in vain ? "

" well , it isn't ahem refined , " said the doctor , winking at miss oliver .

" no , doctor , dear , the devil and the kaiser if so be that they are really two different people are not refined .

and you cannot refer to them in a refined way .

a boil , indeed !

i wish he was covered with them . "

" we 're in an old wine cellar tonight , dad , " he wrote , " in water to our knees .

rats everywhere no fire a drizzling rain coming down rather dismal .

but it might be worse .

i got susan 's box today and everything was in tip-top order and we had a feast .

jerry is up the line somewhere and he says the rations are rather worse than aunt martha 's ditto used to be .

but here they 're not bad only monotonous .

" we have been under fire since the last week in february .

one boy he was a nova scotian was killed right beside me yesterday .

a shell burst near us and when the mess cleared away he was lying dead not mangled at all he just looked a little startled .

we 're in an absolutely different world .

the only things that are the same are the stars and they are never in their right places , somehow .

" tell mother not to worry i 'm all right fit as a fiddle and glad i came .

they don't realize yet what it is has broken loose i didn't when i first joined up .

i thought it was fun .

well , it isn't !

but i 'm in the right place all right make no mistake about that .

there were gardens over here beautiful gardens with the beauty of centuries and what are they now ?

mangled , desecrated things !

" whenever any of you go to the station be sure to give dog monday a double pat for me .

fancy the faithful little beggar waiting there for me like that !

" mrs dr dear , " whispered susan solemnly , " what are cooties ? "

mrs blythe whispered back and then said in reply to susan 's horrified ejaculations , " it 's always like that in the trenches , susan . "

chapter xii

in the days of langemarck

" how can spring come and be beautiful in such a horror , " wrote rilla in her diary .

but they are !

our canadian boys have done splendidly general french says they ' saved the situation , ' when the germans had all but broken through .

but i can't feel pride or exultation or anything but a gnawing anxiety over jem and jerry and mr grant .

the casualty lists are coming out in the papers every day oh , there are so many of them .

that moment seemed a hundred years long , for i was always dreading to hear ' there is a telegram for dr blythe . '

but it never gets any easier .

her eyes haunt me .

" and kenneth is in khaki now , too .

he has got a lieutenant 's commission and expects to go overseas in midsummer , so he wrote me .

there wasn't much else in the letter he seemed to be thinking of nothing but going overseas .

i shall not see him again before he goes perhaps i will never see him again .

sometimes i ask myself if that evening at four winds was all a dream .

it might as well be it seems as if it happened in another life lived years ago and everybody has forgotten it but me .

" walter and nan and di came home last night from redmond .

when walter stepped off the train dog monday rushed to meet him , frantic with joy .

i suppose he thought jem would be there , too .

and monday said he did !

' i am very sorry but i can't .

i 've got a date to meet jem here , you know , and there 's a train goes through at eight . '

" it 's lovely to have walter back again though he seems quiet and sad , just as he was at christmas .

but i 'm going to love him hard and cheer him up and make him laugh as he used to .

it seems to me that every day of my life walter means more to me .

" the other evening susan happened to say that the mayflowers were out in rainbow valley .

i chanced to be looking at mother when susan spoke .

her face changed and she gave a queer little choked cry .

' mayflowers ! ' she said .

' jem brought me mayflowers last year ! ' and she got up and went out of the room .

i would have rushed off to rainbow valley and brought her an armful of mayflowers , but i knew that wasn't what she wanted .

and after walter got home last night he slipped away to the valley and brought mother home all the mayflowers he could find .

it shows how tender and thoughtful he is .

and yet there are people who send him cruel letters !

but we can and do .

we have been practising for a month and having no end of trouble and bother with cranky people .

i am not blaming miranda exactly , but i do think she might have a little more spunk sometimes .

if i were in miranda 's shoes i 'd find some way of managing whiskers-on-the-moon .

i would horse-whip him , or bite him , if nothing else would serve .

but miranda is a meek and obedient daughter whose days should be long in the land .

" i couldn't get anyone else to take the part , because nobody liked it , so finally i had to take it myself .

olive kirk is on the concert committee and goes against me in every single thing .

but i got my way in asking mrs channing to come out from town and sing for us , anyhow .

she is a beautiful singer and will draw such a crowd that we will make more than we will have to pay her .

and minnie is the only good alto we have !

just at present i am racked with worry for fear the isaac reeses are taking whooping-cough .

i 've been toiling for weeks to train them in it , and now it seems likely that all my trouble will go for nothing .

" jims cut his first tooth today .

he has begun to creep but doesn't crawl as most babies do .

he trots about on all fours and carries things in his mouth like a little dog .

he is so cute , it will be a shame if his dad never sees him .

his hair is coming on nicely too , and i am not without hope that it will be curly .

now it all rushes back , worse than ever .

oh , if we could just know that jem is all right !

i used to be so furious with jem when he called me spider .

rilla put away her diary and went out to the garden .

the spring evening was very lovely .

the long , green , seaward-looking glen was filled with dusk , and beyond it were meadows of sunset .

the harbour was radiant , purple here , azure there , opal elsewhere .

the maple grove was beginning to be misty green .

rilla looked about her with wistful eyes .

who said that spring was the joy of the year ?

it was the heart-break of the year .

and the pale-purply mornings and the daffodil stars and the wind in the old pine were so many separate pangs of the heart-break .

would life ever be free from dread again ?

" it 's good to see p.e.i. twilight once more , " said walter , joining her .

" i didn't really remember that the sea was so blue and the roads so red and the wood nooks so wild and fairy haunted .

yes , the fairies still abide here .

i vow i could find scores of them under the violets in rainbow valley . "

rilla was momentarily happy .

this sounded like the walter of yore .

she hoped he was forgetting certain things that had troubled him .

" and isn't the sky blue over rainbow valley ? " she said , responding to his mood .

" blue blue you 'd have to say ' blue ' a hundred times before you could express how blue it is . "

susan wandered by , her head tied up with a shawl , her hands full of garden implements .

doc , stealthy and wild-eyed , was shadowing her steps among the spirea bushes .

" it may rain but don't think rheumatism , susan think violets , " said walter gaily rather too gaily , rilla thought .

susan considered him unsympathetic .

" oh , my god , no ! " exclaimed walter passionately .

he turned and went back to the house .

susan shook her head .

she disapproved entirely of such ejaculations .

rilla was standing among the budding daffodils with tear-filled eyes .

her evening was spoiled ; she detested susan , who had somehow hurt walter ; and jem had jem been gassed ?

had he died in torture ?

" i can't endure this suspense any longer , " said rilla desperately .

but she endured it as the others did for another week .

then a letter came from jem .

he was all right .

" i 've come through without a scratch , dad .

don't know how i or any of us did it .

you 'll have seen all about it in the papers i can't write of it .

but the huns haven't got through they won't get through .

jerry was knocked stiff by a shell one time , but it was only the shock .

he was all right in a few days .

grant is safe , too . "

nan had a letter from jerry meredith .

" i came back to consciousness at dawn , " he wrote .

" couldn't tell what had happened to me but thought that i was done for .

i was all alone and afraid terribly afraid .

dead men were all around me , lying on the horrible grey , slimy fields .

i was woefully thirsty and i thought of david and the bethlehem water and of the old spring in rainbow valley under the maples .

and i didn't care .

honestly , i didn't care .

then they found me and carted me off and before long i discovered that there wasn't really anything wrong with me .

i 'm going back to the trenches tomorrow .

every man is needed there that can be got . "

" laughter is gone out of the world , " said faith meredith , who had come over to report on her letters .

" i remember telling old mrs taylor long ago that the world was a world of laughter .

but it isn't so any longer . "

" it 's a shriek of anguish , " said gertrude oliver .

" we must keep a little laughter , girls , " said mrs blythe .

" a good laugh is as good as a prayer sometimes only sometimes , " she added under her breath .

and what hurt most was that rilla 's laughter had grown so rare rilla whom she used to think laughed over-much .

was all the child 's girlhood to be so clouded ?

yet how strong and clever and womanly she was growing !

how patiently she knitted and sewed and manipulated those uncertain junior reds !

and how wonderful she was with jims .

" little did i ever expect it of her on the day she landed here with that soup tureen . "

chapter xiii

a slice of humble pie

whiskers-on-the-moon came off the train from charlottetown and he was looking pleased .

i do not remember that i ever saw him with a smile on in public before .

" but i will say that i wouldn't have minded throwing a few stones myself .

norman douglas is fairly foaming at the mouth over it all .

bruce meredith is worrying over the babies who were drowned .

and it seems he prayed for something very special last friday night and didn't get it , and was feeling quite disgruntled over it .

that child 's brain is a hundred years older than his body , mrs dr . dear .

as for the lusitania , it is an awful occurrence , whatever way you look at it .

but woodrow wilson is going to write a note about it , so why worry ?

a pretty president ! " and susan banged her pots about wrathfully .

president wilson was rapidly becoming anathema in susan 's kitchen .

mary vance dropped in one evening to tell the ingleside folks that she had withdrawn all opposition to miller douglas 's enlisting .

" this lusitania business was too much for me , " said mary brusquely .

" when the kaiser takes to drowning innocent babies it 's high time somebody told him where he gets off at .

this thing must be fought to a finish .

it 's been soaking into my mind slow but i 'm on now .

so i up and told miller he could go as far as i was concerned .

old kitty alec won't be converted though .

if every ship in the world was submarined and every baby drowned , kitty wouldn't turn a hair .

but i flatter myself that it was me kept miller back all along and not the fair kitty .

i may have deceived myself but we shall see . "

they did see .

the next sunday miller douglas walked into the glen church beside mary vance in khaki .

and mary was so proud of him that her white eyes fairly blazed .

walter blythe did not sigh .

but rilla , scanning his face anxiously , saw a look that cut into her heart .

the reese cold had not developed into whooping-cough , so that tangle was straightened out .

her son , who was in kingsport with his regiment , was seriously ill with pneumonia , and she must go to him at once .

the members of the concert committee looked at each other in blank dismay .

what was to be done ?

" this comes of depending on outside help , " said olive kirk , disagreeably .

" we must do something , " said rilla , too desperate to care for olive 's manner .

we must get some one to sing in mrs channing 's place . "

" i don't know who you can get at this late date , " said olive .

" irene howard could do it ; but it is not likely she will after the way she was insulted by our society . "

" how did our society insult her ? " asked rilla , in what she called her ' cold-pale tone . '

its coldness and pallor did not daunt olive .

" you insulted her , " she answered sharply .

" irene told me all about it she was literally heart-broken .

that was why she never came to our meetings again but joined in with the lowbridge red cross .

" you don't expect me to ask her ? " giggled amy macallister , the other member of the committee .

" irene and i haven't spoken for a hundred years .

irene is always getting ' insulted ' by somebody .

but she is a lovely singer , i 'll admit that , and people would just as soon hear her as mrs channing . "

" it wouldn't do any good if you did ask her , " said olive significantly .

so there it is and here we are , and a nice failure our concert will be . "

rilla went home and shut herself up in her room , her soul in a turmoil .

she would not humiliate herself by apologizing to irene howard !

rilla could never bring herself to tell her side of it .

the fact that a slur at walter was mixed up in it tied her tongue .

so most people believed that irene had been badly used , except a few girls who had never liked her and sided with rilla .

and yet the concert over which she had worked so hard was going to be a failure .

mrs channing 's four solos were the feature of the whole programme .

" miss oliver , what do you think about it ? " she asked in desperation .

" i think irene is the one who should apologize , " said miss oliver .

" but unfortunately my opinion will not fill the blanks in your programme . "

" if i went and apologized meekly to irene she would sing , i am sure , " sighed rilla .

" she really loves to sing in public .

but i know she 'll be nasty about it i feel i 'd rather do anything than go .

rilla 's presentiment proved correct .

rilla did her hair very becomingly and donned a long raincoat for fear of a shower .

but all the while her thoughts were concerned with the coming distasteful interview , and she kept rehearsing mentally her part in it .

after all , disdainful silence would have been much more effective in meeting the slur upon walter .

mrs howard , a plump , voluble dame , met rilla gushingly and left her in the parlour while she went to call irene .

rilla threw off her rain-coat and looked at herself critically in the mirror over the mantel .

hair , hat , and dress were satisfactory nothing there for miss irene to make fun of .

rilla remembered how clever and amusing she used to think irene 's biting little comments about other girls .

well , it had come home to her now .

" why how do you do , miss blythe ? " she said sweetly .

" this is a very unexpected pleasure . "

rilla had risen to take irene 's chilly finger-tips and now , as she sat down again , she saw something that temporarily stunned her .

on one of rilla 's feet was a smart little steel-buckled shoe and a filmy blue silk stocking .

the other was clad in a stout and rather shabby boot and black lisle !

poor rilla !

she had changed , or begun to change her boots and stockings after she had put on her dress .

this was the result of doing one thing with your hands and another with your brain .

and once she had thought irene 's manner perfection !

everything that rilla had prepared to say vanished from her memory .

vainly trying to tuck her unlucky foot under her chair , she blurted out a blunt statement .

" i have come to athk a favour of you , irene . "

there lisping !

oh , she had been prepared for humiliation but not to this extent !

really , there were limits !

rilla gathered herself together .

she would not lisp she would be calm and composed .

rilla enunciated every word so precisely and carefully that she seemed to be reciting a lesson .

" it 's something of a fiddler 's invitation , isn't it ? " said irene , with one of her disagreeable smiles .

" olive kirk asked you to help when we first thought of the concert and you refused , " said rilla .

" why , i could hardly help then could i ? " asked irene plaintively .

" after you ordered me never to speak to you again ?

it would have been very awkward for us both , don't you think ? "

now for the humble pie .

" i want to apologize to you for saying that , irene . " said rilla steadily .

" i should not have said it and i have been very sorry ever since .

will you forgive me ? "

" and sing at your concert ? " said irene sweetly and insultingly .

that is all i can say .

if you feel you can't forgive me i suppose there is nothing more to be said . "

" oh , rilla dear , don't snap me up like that , " pleaded irene .

" of course i 'll forgive you though i did feel awfully about it how awfully i hope you 'll never know .

i cried for weeks over it .

and i hadn't said or done a thing ! "

rilla choked back a retort .

after all , there was no use in arguing with irene , and the belgians were starving .

" don't you think you can help us with the concert , " she forced herself to say .

oh , if only irene would stop looking at that boot !

rilla could just hear her giving olive kirk an account of it .

" i don't see how i really can at the last moment like this , " protested irene .

" there isn't time to learn anything new . "

" they will all be new down there . "

" but i have no accompanist , " protested irene .

" una meredith can accompany you , " said rilla .

" oh , i couldn't ask her , " sighed irene .

" we haven't spoken since last fall .

she was so hateful to me the time of our sunday-school concert that i simply had to give her up . "

dear , dear , was irene at feud with everybody ?

" miss oliver is a beautiful pianist and can play any accompaniment at sight , " said rilla desperately .

" she will play for you and you could run over your songs easily tomorrow evening at ingleside before the concert . "

" but i haven't anything to wear .

my new evening-dress isn't home from charlottetown yet , and i simply cannot wear my old one at such a big affair .

it is too shabby and old-fashioned . "

" our concert , " said rilla slowly , " is in aid of belgian children who are starving to death .

don't you think you could wear a shabby dress once for their sake , irene ? "

" oh , don't you think those accounts we get of the conditions of the belgians are very much exaggerated ? " said irene .

" i 'm sure they can't be actually starving you know , in the twentieth century .

the newspapers always colour things so highly . "

rilla concluded that she had humiliated herself enough .

there was such a thing as self-respect .

no more coaxing , concert or no concert .

she got up , boot and all .

" i am sorry you can't help us , irene , but since you cannot we must do the best we can . "

now this did not suit irene at all .

she desired exceedingly to sing at that concert , and all her hesitations were merely by way of enhancing the boon of her final consent .

besides , she really wanted to be friends with rilla again .

rilla 's whole-hearted , ungrudging adoration had been very sweet incense to her .

and ingleside was a very charming house to visit , especially when a handsome college student like walter was home .

she stopped looking at rilla 's feet .

" rilla , darling , don't be so abrupt .

i really want to help you , if i can manage it .

just sit down and let's talk it over . "

" i 'm sorry , but i can't .

i have to be home soon jims has to be settled for the night , you know . "

" oh , yes the baby you are bringing up by the book .

it 's perfectly sweet of you to do it when you hate children so .

how cross you were just because i kissed him !

but we 'll forget all that and be chums again , won't we ?

i couldn't she 's so dreadfully haughty and supercilious that she simply paralyses poor little me . "

rilla did not waste time or breath defending miss oliver .

she coolly thanked irene , who had suddenly become very amiable and gushing , and got away .

she was very thankful the interview was over .

but she knew now that she and irene could never be the friends they had been .

friendly , yes but friends , no .

nor did she wish it .

all winter she had felt under her other and more serious worries , a little feeling of regret for her lost chum .

now it was suddenly gone .

irene was not as mrs elliott would say , of the race that knew joseph .

rilla did not say or think that she had outgrown irene .

had the thought occurred to her she would have considered it absurd when she was not yet seventeen and irene was twenty .

but it was the truth .

irene was just what she had been a year ago just what she would always be .

rilla blythe 's nature in that year had changed and matured and deepened .

irene had lost for ever her faithful worshipper .

then she stopped under a tall wild plum that was ghostly white and fair in its misty spring bloom and laughed .

" there is only one thing of importance just now and that is that the allies win the war , " she said aloud .

chapter xiv

the valley of decision

susan kept the flag flying at ingleside all the next day , in honour of italy 's declaration of war .

" and not before it was time , mrs dr dear , considering the way things have begun to go on the russian front .

say what you will , those russians are kittle cattle , the grand duke nicholas to the contrary notwithstanding .

however , she will give that old reprobate of a francis joseph something to think about .

walter had gone to town on the early train , and nan offered to look after jims for the day and so set rilla free .

rilla was wildly busy all day , helping to decorate the glen hall and seeing to a hundred last things .

rilla , rushing home from the hall , dressed hurriedly .

it gave her a sense of achievement and victory to have brought her efforts of weeks to such a successful conclusion .

she had shown them !

little snatches of song bubbled up from her lips as she dressed .

she thought she was looking very well .

should she wear crab-apple blossoms in it , or her little fillet of pearls ?

after some agonised wavering she decided on the crab-apple blossoms and tucked the white waxen cluster behind her left ear .

now for a final look at her feet .

yes , both slippers were on .

already it was filling soon it was crowded .

her concert was going to be a brilliant success .

the first three numbers were successfully over .

rilla was in the little dressing-room behind the platform , looking out on the moonlit harbour and rehearsing her own recitations .

she was alone , the rest of the performers being in the larger room on the other side .

suddenly she felt two soft bare arms slipping round her waist , then irene howard dropped a light kiss on her cheek .

" rilla , you sweet thing , you 're looking simply angelic to-night .

i wish i had half your nerve . "

rilla stood perfectly still .

she felt no emotion whatever she felt nothing .

the world of feeling had just gone blank .

" walter enlisting " she heard herself saying then she heard irene 's affected little laugh .

" why , didn't you know ?

i thought you did of course , or i wouldn't have mentioned it .

i am always putting my foot in it , aren't i ?

he isn't in khaki yet they were out of uniforms but he will be in a day or two .

i always said walter had as much pluck as anybody .

i assure you i felt proud of him , rilla , when he told me what he 'd done .

oh , there 's an end of rick macallister 's reading .

i must fly .

i promised i 'd play for the next chorus alice clow has such a headache . "

she was gone oh , thank god , she was gone !

rilla was alone again , staring out at the unchanged , dream-like beauty of moonlit four winds .

feeling was coming back to her a pang of agony so acute as to be almost physical seemed to rend her apart .

" i cannot bear it , " she said .

and then came the awful thought that perhaps she could bear it and that there might be years of this hideous suffering before her .

she must get away she must rush home she must be alone .

she could not go out there and play for drills and give readings and take part in dialogues now .

it would spoil half the concert ; but that did not matter nothing mattered .

was this she , rilla blythe this tortured thing , who had been quite happy a few minutes ago ?

outside , a quartette was singing " we 'll never let the old flag fall " the music seemed to be coming from some remote distance .

why couldn't she cry , as she had cried when jem told them he must go ?

if she could cry perhaps this horrible something that seemed to have seized on her very life might let go .

but no tears came !

where were her scarf and coat ?

she must get away and hide herself like an animal hurt to the death .

was it a coward 's part to run away like this ?

the question came to her suddenly as if someone else had asked it .

she thought of the shambles of the flanders front she thought of her brother and her playmate helping to hold those fire-swept trenches .

but this this was unbearable .

still , she stopped half-way to the door and went back to the window .

irene was singing now ; her beautiful voice the only real thing about her soared clear and sweet through the building .

rilla knew that the girls ' fairy drill came next .

could she go out there and play for it ?

her head was aching now her throat was burning .

oh , why had irene told her just then , when telling could do no good ?

irene had been very cruel .

rilla remembered now that more than once that day she had caught her mother looking at her with an odd expression .

she had been too busy to wonder what it meant .

she understood now .

mother had known why walter went to town but wouldn't tell her until the concert was over .

what spirit and endurance mother had !

" i must stay here and see things through , " said rilla , clasping her cold hands together .

the rest of the evening always seemed like a fevered dream to her .

her body was crowded by people but her soul was alone in a torture-chamber of its own .

yet she played steadily for the drills and gave her readings without faltering .

she even put on a grotesque old irish woman 's costume and acted the part in the dialogue which miranda pryor had not taken .

between her numbers she walked restlessly up and down the little dressing-room .

would the concert never end !

it ended at last .

olive kirk rushed up and told her exultantly that they had made a hundred dollars .

" that 's good , " rilla said mechanically .

he put his arm through hers silently and they went together down the moonlit road .

the frogs were singing in the marshes , the dim , ensilvered fields of home lay all around them .

the spring night was lovely and appealing .

rilla felt that its beauty was an insult to her pain .

she would hate moonlight for ever .

" you know ? " said walter .

" yes .

irene told me , " answered rilla chokingly .

" we didn't want you to know till the evening was over .

i knew when you came out for the drill that you had heard .

little sister , i had to do it .

i couldn't live any longer on such terms with myself as i have been since the lusitania was sunk .

i wanted to get out of the world where such a thing could happen shake its accursed dust from my feet for ever .

then i knew i had to go . "

" there are plenty without you . "

" that isn't the point , rilla-my-rilla .

i 'm going for my own sake to save my soul alive .

it will shrink to something small and mean and lifeless if i don't go .

that would be worse than blindness or mutilation or any of the things i 've feared . "

" ' comes he slow or comes he fast it is but death who comes at last . ' "

quoted walter .

" it 's not death i fear i told you that long ago .

one can pay too high a price for mere life , little sister .

there 's so much hideousness in this war i 've got to go and help wipe it out of the world .

i 'm going to fight for the beauty of life , rilla-my-rilla that is my duty .

there may be a higher duty , perhaps but that is mine .

i owe life and canada that , and i 've got to pay it .

rilla , tonight for the first time since jem left i 've got back my self-respect .

i could write poetry , " walter laughed .

" i 've never been able to write a line since last august .

tonight i 'm full of it .

little sister , be brave you were so plucky when jem went . "

" this is different , " rilla had to stop after every word to fight down a wild outburst of sobs .

" you must be brave to help me , rilla-my-rilla .

" when do you go ? "

she must know the worst at once .

" not for a week then we go to kingsport for training .

i suppose we 'll go overseas about the middle of july we don't know . "

one week only one week more with walter !

the eyes of youth did not see how she was to go on living .

when they turned in at the ingleside gate walter stopped in the shadows of the old pines and drew rilla close to him .

" rilla-my-rilla , there were girls as sweet and pure as you in belgium and flanders .

you even you know what their fate was .

we must make it impossible for such things to happen again while the world lasts .

you 'll help me , won't you ? "

" i 'll try , walter , " she said .

" oh , i will try . "

as she clung to him with her face pressed against his shoulder she knew that it had to be .

she accepted the fact then and there .

he must go her beautiful walter with his beautiful soul and dreams and ideals .

and she had known all along that it would come sooner or later .

no one no one could ever call walter a slacker now .

rilla did not sleep that night .

perhaps no one at ingleside did except jims .

the body grows slowly and steadily , but the soul grows by leaps and bounds .

it may come to its full stature in an hour .

from that night rilla blythe 's soul was the soul of a woman in its capacity for suffering , for strength , for endurance .

when the bitter dawn came she rose and went to her window .

below her was a big apple-tree , a great swelling cone of rosy blossom .

walter had planted it years ago when he was a little boy .

beyond rainbow valley there was a cloudy shore of morning with little ripples of sunrise breaking over it .

the far , cold beauty of a lingering star shone above it .

why , in this world of springtime loveliness , must hearts break ?

rilla felt arms go about her lovingly , protectingly .

it was mother pale , large-eyed mother .

" oh , mother , how can you bear it ? " she cried wildly .

" rilla , dear , i 've known for several days that walter meant to go .

i 've had time to to rebel and grow reconciled .

we must give him up .

there is a call greater and more insistent than the call of our love he has listened to it .

we must not add to the bitterness of his sacrifice . "

" our sacrifice is greater than his , " cried rilla passionately .

" our boys give only themselves .

we give them . "

before mrs blythe could reply susan stuck her head in at the door , never troubling over such frills of etiquette as knocking .

her eyes were suspiciously red but all she said was ,

" will i bring up your breakfast , mrs dr . dear . "

" no , no , susan .

we will all be down presently .

do you know that walter has joined up . "

" yes , mrs dr dear .

the doctor told me last night .

i suppose the almighty has his own reasons for allowing such things .

we must submit and endeavour to look on the bright side .

but thank god , " she muttered in a lower tone , " that shirley is not old enough to go . "

" do not you put words in my mouth that i would never dream of uttering .

i am a plain woman and cannot argue with you , but i do not thank god that anybody has to go .

the huns , dr dear , will never be brought to book by notes .

chapter xv

until the day break

cousin sophia sighed again and said , ' the grand duke nicholas is not the man i took him to be . '

' do not let him know that , ' said i .

' it might hurt his feelings and he has likely enough to worry him as it is .

but you cannot cheer cousin sophia up , no matter how sarcastic you are , mrs dr dear .

they have plenty of room for retreating , have they not ? '

nobody else liked it either ; but all summer the russian retreat went on a long-drawn-out agony .

" they will not , miss oliver dear , " said susan , assuming the role of prophetess .

norman douglas declares he is just luring them on and killing ten of them to one he loses .

walter had gone to kingsport the first of june .

nan , di and faith had gone also to do red cross work in their vacation .

in mid-july walter came home for a week 's leave before going overseas .

he was all her own and she knew that he found strength and comfort in her sympathy and understanding .

when walter had gone she might indulge in the comfort of tears , but not while he was here .

she would not even let herself cry at night , lest her eyes should betray her to him in the morning .

rilla !

how calm and strong they are how patient and changeless like the heart of a good woman .

rilla-my-rilla , do you know what you have been to me the past year ?

i want to tell you before i go .

i could not have lived through it if it had not been for you , little loving , believing heart . "

rilla dared not try to speak .

she slipped her hand into walter 's and pressed it hard .

i know you 'll be as plucky and patient as you have shown yourself to be this past year i 'm not afraid for you .

i know that no matter what happens , you 'll be rilla-my-rilla no matter what happens . "

rilla repressed tear and sigh , but she could not repress a little shiver , and walter knew that he had said enough .

" we won't be happy in the same way , " said rilla .

" no , not in the same way .

nobody whom this war has touched will ever be happy again in quite the same way .

but it will be a better happiness , i think , little sister a happiness we 've earned .

we were very happy before the war , weren't we ?

with a home like ingleside , and a father and mother like ours we couldn't help being happy .

but that happiness was a gift from life and love ; it wasn't really ours life could take it back at any time .

it can never take away the happiness we win for ourselves in the way of duty .

i 've realised that since i went into khaki .

in spite of my occasional funks , when i fall to living over things beforehand , i 've been happy since that night in may .

rilla , be awfully good to mother while i 'm away .

it must be a horrible thing to be a mother in this war the mothers and sisters and wives and sweethearts have the hardest times .

rilla , you beautiful little thing , are you anybody 's sweetheart ?

if you are , tell me before i go . "

" no , " said rilla .

" i see , " said walter .

" and ken 's in khaki , too .

poor little girlie , it 's a bit hard for you all round .

well , i 'm not leaving any girl to break her heart about me thank god for that . "

rilla glanced up at the manse on the hill .

she could see a light in una meredith 's window .

she felt tempted to say something then she knew she must not .

it was not her secret : and , anyway , she did not know she only suspected .

walter looked about him lingeringly and lovingly .

this spot had always been so dear to him .

what fun they all had had here lang syne .

" where are you , walter , " cried rilla , laughing a little .

" come back come back . "

walter came back with a long breath .

" i shall see it so in my dreams , " he said , as he turned away .

they went back to ingleside .

mr and mrs. meredith were there , with gertrude oliver , who had come from lowbridge to say good-bye .

they did not talk about the war at all and they thought of nothing else .

at last they gathered around the piano and sang the grand old hymn :

" oh god , our help in ages past our hope for years to come .

our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home . "

" we all come back to god in these days of soul-sifting , " said gertrude to john meredith .

i believe in him now i have to there 's nothing else to fall back on but god humbly , starkly , unconditionally . "

" ' our help in ages past ' ' the same yesterday , to-day and for ever , ' " said the minister gently .

" when we forget god he remembers us . "

there was no crowd at the glen station the next morning to see walter off .

it was becoming a commonplace for a khaki clad boy to board that early morning train after his last leave .

besides his own , only the manse folk were there , and mary vance .

" the main thing is to smile and act as if nothing was happening , " she informed the ingleside group .

" the boys all hate the sob act like poison .

miller told me i wasn't to come near the station if i couldn't keep from bawling .

miller swore he wouldn't , but you never can tell about those fascinating foreign hussies .

anyhow , the last sight he had of me i was smiling to my limit .

gee , all the rest of the day my face felt as if it had been starched and ironed into a smile . "

but at least no one cried .

" so long , old fellow , " said carl meredith cheerfully , when the good-byes had to be said .

" tell them over there to keep their spirits up i am coming along presently . "

" me too , " said shirley laconically , proffering a brown paw .

susan heard him and her face turned very grey .

una shook hands quietly , looking at him with wistful , sorrowful , dark-blue eyes .

but then una 's eyes had always been wistful .

walter bent his handsome black head in its khaki cap and kissed her with the warm , comradely kiss of a brother .

he had never kissed her before , and for a fleeting moment una 's face betrayed her , if anyone had noticed .

but nobody did ; the conductor was shouting " all aboard " ; everybody was trying to look very cheerful .

walter turned to rilla ; she held his hands and looked up at him .

" good-bye , " she said .

but at the last moment he took her face between his hands and looked deep into her gallant eyes .

" god bless you , rilla-my-rilla , " he said softly and tenderly .

after all it was not a hard thing to fight for a land that bore daughters like this .

he stood on the rear platform and waved to them as the train pulled out .

in the evening she went to a junior red cross committee meeting and was severely businesslike .

but some people really have no depth of feeling .

i often wish i could take things as lightly as rilla blythe . "

chapter xvi

realism and romance

" warsaw has fallen , " said dr blythe with a resigned air , as he brought the mail in one warm august day .

they had thought they were quite resigned to warsaw 's fall but now they knew they had , as always , hoped against hope .

" now , let us take a brace , " said susan .

" it is not the terrible thing we have been thinking .

so let us take the military point of view , doctor dear . "

" i read that dispatch , too , and it has encouraged me immensely , " said gertrude .

" i knew then and i know now that it was a lie from beginning to end .

but i am in that state of mind where even a lie is a comfort , providing it is a cheerful lie . "

" in that case , miss oliver dear , the german official reports ought to be all you need , " said susan sarcastically .

even this news about warsaw has taken the edge off my afternoon 's plans .

misfortunes never come singly .

i spoiled my baking of bread today and now warsaw has fallen and here is little kitchener bent on choking himself to death . "

jims was evidently trying to swallow his spoon , germs and all .

" kenneth ford is down at martin west 's over-harbour , " the doctor was saying .

" i hope he will come up to see us , " exclaimed mrs blythe .

" he only has a day or two off , i believe , " said the doctor absently .

nobody noticed rilla 's flushed face and trembling hands .

even the most thoughtful and watchful of parents do not see everything that goes on under their very noses .

she had not heard from him for a long while .

had he forgotten her completely ?

if he did not come she would know that he had .

perhaps there was even some other girl back there in toronto .

of course there was .

she was a little fool to be thinking about him at all .

she would not think about him .

if he came , well and good .

it would only be courteous of him to make a farewell call at ingleside where he had often been a guest .

if he did not come well and good , too .

it did not matter very much .

nobody was going to fret .

jims himself didn't like it , being a methodical baby , accustomed to swallowing spoonfuls with a decent interval for breath between each .

he protested , but his protests availed him nothing .

rilla , as far as the care and feeding of infants was concerned , was utterly demoralized .

then the telephone-bell rang .

there was nothing unusual about the telephone ringing .

it rang on an average every ten minutes at ingleside .

jims , his patience exhausted , lifted up his voice and wept .

" hello , is this ingleside ? "

" yes . "

" that you , rilla ? "

" yeth yeth . "

oh , why couldn't jims stop howling for just one little minute ?

why didn't somebody come in and choke him ?

" know who 's speaking ? "

oh , didn't she know !

wouldn't she know that voice anywhere at any time ?

" it 's ken isn't it ? "

" sure thing .

i 'm here for a look-in .

can i come up to ingleside tonight and see you ? "

" of courthe . "

had he used " you " in the singular or plural sense ?

presently she would wring jims ' neck oh , what was ken saying ?

" see here , rilla , can you arrange that there won't be more than a few dozen people round ?

understand ?

i can't make my meaning clearer over this bally rural line .

there are a dozen receivers down . "

did she understand !

yes , she understood .

" i 'll try , " she said .

" i 'll be up about eight then .

by-by . "

rilla hung up the ' phone and flew to jims .

but she did not wring that injured infant 's neck .

she sewed at red cross shirts for the rest of the afternoon and built a crystal castle of dreams , all a-quiver with rainbows .

ken wanted to see her to see her alone .

that could be easily managed .

mother couldn't object to that , surely .

oh , how wonderful and romantic it would be !

would ken say anything he must mean to say something or why should he be so particular about seeing her alone ?

what if it rained susan had been complaining about mr hyde that morning !

what if some officious junior red called to discuss belgians and shirts ?

or , worst of all , what if fred arnold dropped in ?

he did occasionally .

the evening came at last and was all that could be desired in an evening .

rilla put on her georgette gown , knotted up her hair and bound a little double string of pearls around it .

then she tucked a cluster of pale pink baby roses at her belt .

would ken ask her for a rose for a keepsake ?

rilla looked very sweet when she met ken in the mingled moonlight and vine shadows of the big veranda .

the hand she gave him was cold and she was so desperately anxious not to lisp that her greeting was prim and precise .

how handsome and tall kenneth looked in his lieutenant 's uniform !

it made him seem older , too so much so that rilla felt rather foolish .

and he would think she had manoeuvred everybody away so that they could be alone together , and he would laugh to himself at her .

" i was sure someone would be hanging about and it was just you i wanted to see , rilla-my-rilla . "

rilla 's dream castle flashed into the landscape again .

this was unmistakable enough certainly not much doubt as to his meaning here .

" there aren't so many of us to poke around as there used to be , " she said softly .

" no , that 's so , " said ken gently .

" jem and walter and the girls away it makes a big blank , doesn't it ?

but " he leaned forward until his dark curls almost brushed her hair " doesn't fred arnold try to fill the blank occasionally .

i 've been told so . "

when jims started in crying like that he made a thorough job of it .

rilla knew that there was no use to sit still and pretend to ignore him .

he wouldn't stop ; and conversation of any kind was out of the question when such shrieks and howls were floating over your head .

besides , she was afraid kenneth would think she was utterly unfeeling if she sat still and let a baby cry like that .

he was not likely acquainted with morgan 's invaluable volume .

she got up .

" jims has had a nightmare , i think .

he sometimes has one and he is always badly frightened by it .

excuse me for a moment . "

rilla flew upstairs , wishing quite frankly that soup tureens had never been invented .

after all , the poor darling was frightened .

she picked him up gently and rocked him soothingly until his sobs ceased and his eyes closed .

then she essayed to lay him down in his crib .

jims opened his eyes and shrieked a protest .

this performance was repeated twice .

rilla grew desperate .

she couldn't leave ken down there alone any longer she had been away nearly half an hour already .

with a resigned air she marched downstairs , carrying jims , and sat down on the veranda .

jims was supremely happy .

he kicked his little pink-soled feet rapturously out under his white nighty and gave one of his rare laughs .

" he 's a decorative kiddy all right , isn't he ? " said ken .

" his looks are very well , " said rilla , bitterly , as if to imply that they were much the best of him .

jims , being an astute infant , sensed trouble in the atmosphere and realized that it was up to him to clear it away .

he turned his face up to rilla , smiled adorably and said , clearly and beguilingly , " will will . "

it was the very first time he had spoken a word or tried to speak .

rilla was so delighted that she forgot her grudge against him .

she forgave him with a hug and kiss .

he carried that picture of her in his heart to the horror of the battlefields of france .

she felt too absurd to try to talk .

evidently ken was completely disgusted , too , since he was sitting there in such stony silence .

" have you got your baby to sleep ? " she asked kindly .

your baby !

really , susan might have more tact .

" yes , " said rilla shortly .

susan laid her parcels on the reed table , as one determined to do her duty .

she was very tired but she must help rilla out .

but susan had come to her rescue susan would do her part no matter how tired she was .

susan had grown used to khaki now , and at sixty-four even a lieutenant 's uniform is just clothes and nothing else .

" it is an amazing thing how fast children do grow up .

rilla here , now , is almost fifteen . "

" i 'm going on seventeen , susan , " cried rilla almost passionately .

she was a whole month past sixteen .

it was intolerable of susan .

" it seems just the other day that you were all babies , " said susan , ignoring rilla 's protest .

do you remember the day i spanked you ? "

" no , " said ken .

i had tried several ways of stopping you but none availed , and i saw that a spanking was the only thing that would serve .

so i picked you up and laid you across my knee and lambasted you well .

you howled at the top of your voice but you left nan alone after that . "

rilla was writhing .

hadn't susan any realization that she was addressing an officer of the canadian army ?

apparently she had not .

oh , what would ken think ?

" i shall never , no never , forget it .

i had a big puncheon of rainwater by the spout which i was reserving for making soap .

and you and walter began quarrelling over the kitten .

you leaned across that puncheon and grabbed the kitten and pulled .

you were always a great hand for taking what you wanted without too much ceremony .

if i had not been on the spot you would both have been drowned .

ah , " said susan with a sigh , " those were happy old days at ingleside . "

" must have been , " said ken .

his voice sounded queer and stiff .

rilla supposed he was hopelessly enraged .

the truth was he dared not trust his voice lest it betray his frantic desire to laugh .

" rilla here , now , " said susan , looking affectionately at that unhappy damsel , " never was much spanked .

she was a real well-behaved child for the most part .

but her father did spank her once .

as it was , they were both sick enough shortly after .

rilla wondered viciously whether susan meant to relate all the family spankings .

but susan had finished with the subject and branched off to another cheerful one .

it was a very sad affair .

he was , " said susan earnestly , " the very cutest little corpse i ever laid my eyes on .

let me see would not tod be some relation of yours ?

your great grandmother west was a macallister .

her brother amos was a macdonaldite in religion .

i am told he used to take the jerks something fearful .

but you look more like your great grandfather west than the macallisters .

he died of a paralytic stroke quite early in life . "

" nobody except mary vance , " said susan , " and she was stepping round as brisk as the irishman 's flea . "

what terrible similes susan used !

would kenneth think she acquired them from the family !

" to hear mary talk about miller douglas you would think he was the only glen boy who had enlisted , " susan went on .

rilla went cold all over with wrath and shame .

were there any more disgraceful scenes in her past that susan could rake up ?

" i paid eleven cents for a bottle of ink tonight , " complained susan .

" ink is twice as high as it was last year .

perhaps it is because woodrow wilson has been writing so many notes .

it must cost him considerable .

my cousin sophia says woodrow wilson is not the man she expected him to be but then no man ever was .

and mrs albert crawford says that of the two things she would have preferred the zeppelin raid . "

rilla sat limply in her chair like one hypnotized .

she knew susan would stop talking when she was ready to stop and that no earthly power could make her stop any sooner .

as a rule , she was very fond of susan but just now she hated her with a deadly hatred .

it was ten o'clock .

her rainbow castle lay in ruins round her .

kenneth got up at last .

he realized that susan was there to stay as long as he did , and it was a three mile walk to martin west 's over-harbour .

rilla got up , too , and walked silently the length of the veranda with him .

they stood there for a moment , ken on the lower step .

the step was half sunk into the earth and mint grew thickly about and over its edge .

ken looked up at rilla , whose hair was shining in the moonlight and whose eyes were pools of allurement .

all at once he felt sure there was nothing in that gossip about fred arnold .

" rilla , " he said in a sudden , intense whisper , " you are the sweetest thing . "

rilla flushed and looked at susan .

ken looked , too , and saw that susan 's back was turned .

he put his arm about rilla and kissed her .

it was the first time rilla had ever been kissed .

she thought perhaps she ought to resent it but she didn't .

instead , she glanced timidly into kenneth 's seeking eyes and her glance was a kiss .

" rilla-my-rilla , " said ken , " will you promise that you won't let anyone else kiss you until i come back ? "

" yes , " said rilla , trembling and thrilling .

susan was turning round .

ken loosened his hold and stepped to the walk .

" good-bye , " he said casually .

rilla heard herself saying it just as casually .

she stood and watched him down the walk , out of the gate , and down the road .

as he reached the turn he stopped and looked back and saw her standing amid the tall white lilies by the gate .

he waved his hand she waved hers he was gone around the turn .

rilla stood there for a little while , gazing across the fields of mist and silver .

she had heard her mother say that she loved turns in roads they were so provocative and alluring .

rilla thought she hated them .

she had seen jem and jerry vanish from her around a bend in the road then walter and now ken .

brothers and playmate and sweetheart they were all gone , never , it might be , to return .

yet still the piper piped and the dance of death went on .

when rilla walked slowly back to the house susan was still sitting by the veranda table and susan was sniffing suspiciously .

it was a very romantic affair and she and your mother were such chums .

to think i should have lived to see her son going to the front .

as if she had not had enough trouble in her early life without this coming upon her !

but we must take a brace and see it through . "

all rilla 's anger against susan had evaporated .

she put her slim white hand into susan 's brown , work-hardened one and gave it a squeeze .

susan was a faithful old dear and would lay down her life for any one of them .

" you are tired , rilla dear , and had better go to bed , " susan said , patting her hand .

" i noticed you were too tired to talk tonight .

i am glad i came home in time to help you out .

it is very tiresome trying to entertain young men when you are not accustomed to it . "

" i wonder , " she said to herself , " if i am , or am not , engaged to kenneth ford . "

chapter xvii

the weeks wear by

after kenneth 's regiment had left kingsport there came a fortnight of dully-aching anxiety and when the congregation sang in church on sunday evenings ,

" oh , hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea , "

then word came that kenneth 's regiment had arrived safely in england ; and now , at last , here was his letter .

kenneth was not the son of a famous novelist for nothing .

rilla went home from rainbow valley as if she flew rather than walked .

but such moments of uplift were rare that autumn .

our boys will be home by christmas now .

hurrah ! "

susan was ashamed of herself for hurrahing the minute she had done it , and apologized meekly for such an outburst of juvenility .

" good news ! " said miss oliver bitterly .

" i wonder if the women whose men have been killed for it will call it good news .

just because our own men are not on that part of the front we are rejoicing as if the victory had cost no lives . "

" now , miss oliver dear , do not take that view of it , " deprecated susan .

" we have not had much to rejoice over of late and yet men were being killed just the same .

do not let yourself slump like poor cousin sophia .

she said , when the word came , ' ah , it is nothing but a rift in the clouds .

we are up this week but we will be down the next . '

but cousin sophia moaned on .

' they are instruments in the hands of the almighty , to purge the garner , ' said sophia .

she was not , i told her , a minister or even an elder .

and for the time being i squelched her , mrs dr dear .

cousin sophia has no spirit .

she is very different from her niece , mrs dean crawford over-harbour .

you know the dean crawfords had five boys and now the new baby is another boy .

do you think i could go and have a girl under such circumstances ? '

there is spirit for you , mrs dr . dear .

but cousin sophia would say the child was just so much more cannon fodder . "

" constantine of greece has a german wife , mrs dr dear , and that fact squelches hope .

to think that i should have lived to care what kind of a wife constantine of greece had !

the miserable creature is under his wife 's thumb and that is a bad place for any man to be .

i am an old maid and an old maid has to be independent or she will be squashed out .

but if i had been a married woman , mrs dr dear , i would have been meek and humble .

it is my opinion that this sophia of greece is a minx . "

susan was furious when the news came that venizelos had met with defeat .

" i could spank constantine and skin him alive afterwards , that i could , " she exclaimed bitterly .

" oh , susan , i 'm surprised at you , " said the doctor , pulling a long face .

" have you no regard for the proprieties ?

skin him alive by all means but omit the spanking . "

" if he had been well spanked in his younger days he might have more sense now , " retorted susan .

" but i suppose princes are never spanked , more is the pity .

i see the allies have sent him an ultimatum .

i could tell them that it will take more than ultimatums to skin a snake like constantine .

they saw what became of serbia , and during the process susan was hardly to be lived with .

in her exasperation she abused everything and everybody except kitchener , and she fell upon poor president wilson tooth and claw .

" maybe , doctor dear maybe !

but that makes me think of the old story of the girl who told her grandmother she was going to be married .

' it is a solemn thing to be married , ' said the old lady .

' yes , but it is a solemner thing not to be , ' said the girl .

and i can testify to that out of my own experience , doctor dear .

on a pale-yellow , windy evening in october carl meredith went away .

he had enlisted on his eighteenth birthday .

john meredith saw him off with a set face .

his two boys were gone there was only little bruce left now .

that was the first time he had realised how much carl 's eyes were like cecilia 's .

now he realised it again once more .

would he ever again see his dead wife 's eyes looking at him from his son 's face ?

what a bonny , clean , handsome lad he was !

it was hard to see him go .

it seemed hardly right somehow that he should be an " able-bodied man " in khaki .

yet john meredith had said no word to dissuade him when carl had told him he must go .

rilla felt carl 's going keenly .

they had always been cronies and playmates .

he was only a little older than she was and they had been children in rainbow valley together .

she recalled all their old pranks and escapades as she walked slowly home alone .

on such a night as this , long ago , carl would come over to ingleside and whistle her out to the gate .

" let's go on a moon-spree , rilla , " he would say , and the two of them would scamper off to rainbow valley .

rilla had never been afraid of his beetles and bugs , though she drew a hard and fast line at snakes .

they did not like the idea at all , hence the mutual vow in rainbow valley .

there was nothing like an ounce of prevention .

rilla laughed over the old memory and then sighed .

if she were only a boy , speeding in khaki by carl 's side to the western front !

she had wished that in a burst of romance when jem had gone , without , perhaps , really meaning it .

she meant it now .

there were moments when waiting at home , in safety and comfort , seemed an unendurable thing .

the moon burst triumphantly through an especially dark cloud and shadow and silver chased each other in waves over the glen .

she thought it looked like that still an agonised , care-worn face , as though it looked down on dreadful sights .

what did it see on the western front ?

in broken serbia ?

on shell-swept gallipoli ?

no , don't look reproachfully at me , mrs blythe .

there 's nothing heroic about me today .

i 've slumped .

oh i shall be ashamed of myself in half an hour but at this very minute i mean every word of it .

will the allies never strike ? "

" patience is a tired mare but she jogs on , " said susan .

" while the steeds of armageddon thunder , trampling over our hearts , " retorted miss oliver .

" don't you think that is a kind of swearing , susan ?

what is the difference between slamming a door viciously and saying d "

" susan , you 're a good soul a very pearl of susans !

but , susan , it would be such a relief to say just one soft , low , little tiny d - "

susan shook her head ominously as she filled the hot-water bottle .

the war was certainly relaxing the standards of behaviour woefully .

here was miss oliver admittedly on the point of profanity .

gertrude rallied and carried on .

lord kitchener went to greece , whereat susan foretold that constantine would soon experience a change of heart .

lloyd george began to heckle the allies regarding equipment and guns and susan said you would hear more of lloyd george yet .

the gallant anzacs withdrew from gallipoli and susan approved the step , with reservations .

the siege of kut-el-amara began and susan pored over maps of mesopotamia and abused the turks .

henry ford started for europe and susan flayed him with sarcasm .

not a move on the great chess-board of king or bishop or pawn escaped susan , who had once read only glen st mary notes .

it may be broadening to the mind , as the doctor said , but it is very painful to the feelings . "

when christmas came again susan did not set any vacant places at the festive board .

two empty chairs were too much even for susan who had thought in september that there would not be one .

" this is the first christmas that walter was not home , " rilla wrote in her diary that night .

" jem used to be away for christmases up in avonlea , but walter never was .

i had letters from ken and him today .

they are still in england but expect to be in the trenches very soon .

and then but i suppose we 'll be able to endure it somehow .

the raindrops streaming over the panes look like tears running down a face , and the wind is shrieking through the maple grove .

" this hasn't been a nice christmas day in any way .

he has had croup twice since october .

but susan was cool as a fish and knew just what to do , and by morning jims was all right .

that child is a cross between a duck and an imp .

he 's a year and four months old , trots about everywhere , and says quite a few words .

he has the cutest little way of calling me " willa-will . "

it always brings back that dreadful , ridiculous , delightful night when ken came to say good-bye , and i was so furious and happy .

jims is pink and white and big-eyed and curly-haired and every now and then i discover a new dimple in him .

nobody has ever heard a word from jim anderson .

if he never comes back i shall keep jims always .

everybody here worships and spoils him or would spoil him if morgan and i didn't stand remorselessly in the way .

doc turned into mr hyde on his way down and landed in a currant bush , spitting and swearing .

her new silk dress was ruined and nobody could blame her for being vexed .

but i kept the lid on till she had waddled away and then i exploded .

" ' the fat , clumsy , horrid old thing , ' i said and oh , what a satisfaction it was to say it .

" ' she has three sons at the front , ' mother said rebukingly .

" ' i suppose that covers all her shortcomings in manners , ' i retorted .

it 's a little hard to remember all the heroines .

" i had to bring out my green velvet hat again lately and begin wearing it .

i hung on to my blue straw sailor as long as i could .

how i hate the green velvet hat !

it is so elaborate and conspicuous .

i don't see how i could ever have liked it .

but i vowed to wear it and wear it i will .

" shirley and i went down to the station this morning to take little dog monday a bang-up christmas dinner .

dog monday waits and watches there still , with just as much hope and confidence as ever .

we never try to coax him home now : we know it is of no use .

" fred arnold was here last night .

he was eighteen in november and is going to enlist just as soon as his mother is over an operation she has to have .

i can't tell him about ken because , after all , what is there to tell ?

and yet i don't like to behave coldly and distantly when he will be going away so soon .

it is very perplexing .

" i am learning to cook .

susan is teaching me .

i tried to learn long ago but no , let me be honest susan tried to teach me , which is a very different thing .

i never seemed to succeed with anything and i got discouraged .

anyhow , i can make dandy short-bread and fruitcake .

i got ambitious last week and attempted cream puffs , but made an awful failure of them .

they came out of the oven flat as flukes .

i thought maybe the cream would fill them up again and make them plump but it didn't .

i think susan was secretly pleased .

i wonder if susan tampered but no , i won't suspect her of such a thing .

susan positively turned pea-green .

i do not want to be narrow-minded , mrs dr dear , but i still think it is better not to mention such things . '

" miranda grew confidential over our vermin shirts and told me all her troubles .

she is desperately unhappy .

she is engaged to joe milgrave and joe joined up in october and has been training in charlottetown ever since .

her father was furious when he joined and forbade miranda ever to have any dealing or communication with him again .

miranda wants to marry him but cannot , and she declares it will break her heart .

" ' why don't you run away and marry him ? '

i said .

it didn't go against my conscience in the least to give her such advice .

but miranda shook her silvery head dolefully .

" ' joe wants me to but i can't .

to picture whiskers-on-the-moon as the hero of an elopement is beyond my power .

but such was the case and mrs pryor at least lived to repent it .

she had a hard life of it with mr pryor , and she thought it was a punishment on her for running away .

so she made miranda promise she would never , for any reason whatever , do it .

but miranda said that couldn't be managed .

" i am not writing like this for lack of any real sympathy with poor miranda .

i wonder if i have .

" i wish i could help miranda .

it would be very romantic to contrive a war-wedding and i should dearly love to get the better of whiskers-on-the-moon .

but at present the oracle has not spoken . "

chapter xviii

a war-wedding

they were all in the big ingleside kitchen .

susan was mixing biscuits for supper .

cousin sophia was also there , knitting .

into this peaceful scene erupted the doctor , wrathful and excited over the burning of the parliament buildings in ottawa .

and susan became automatically quite as wrathful and excited .

" what will those huns do next ? " she demanded .

" coming over here and burning our parliament building !

did anyone ever hear of such an outrage ? "

" we don't know that the germans are responsible for this , " said the doctor much as if he felt quite sure they were .

" fires do start without their agency sometimes .

and uncle mark macallister 's barn was burnt last week .

you can hardly accuse the germans of that , susan . "

" indeed , dr. dear , i do not know . "

susan nodded slowly and portentously .

" whiskers-on-the-moon was there that very day .

the fire broke out half an hour after he was gone .

so much is a fact but i shall not accuse a presbyterian elder of burning anybody 's barn until i have proof .

so no doubt germany is anxious to get square with him . "

" i could never speak at a recruiting meeting , " said cousin sophia solemnly .

" i could never reconcile it to my conscience to ask another woman 's son to go , to murder and be murdered . "

" could you not ? " said susan .

think of that , sophia crawford " susan shook a floury finger at sophia " not one child under eight years of age ! "

" i suppose the germans has et ' em all , " sighed cousin sophia .

" the germans have not turned cannibal yet as far as i know .

they have died of starvation and exposure , the poor little creatures .

there is murdering for you , cousin sophia crawford .

the thought of it poisons every bite and sup i take . "

" i see that fred carson of lowbridge has been awarded a distinguished conduct medal , " remarked the doctor , over his local paper .

" i heard that last week , " said susan .

" he is a battalion runner and he did something extra brave and daring .

his letter , telling his folks about it , came when his old grandmother carson was on her dying-bed .

i want to think over this splendid news and i have not much time left to do it . '

that was almira carson all over .

fred was the apple of her eye .

she was seventy-five years of age and had not a grey hair in her head , they tell me . "

" by the way , that reminds me i found a grey hair this morning my very first , " said mrs blythe .

" i have noticed that grey hair for some time , mrs dr dear , but i did not speak of it .

thought i to myself , ' she has enough to bear . '

but now that you have discovered it let me remind you that grey hairs are honourable . "

" i must be getting old , gilbert . "

mrs blythe laughed a trifle ruefully .

" people are beginning to tell me i look so young .

they never tell you that when you are young .

but i shall not worry over my silver thread .

i never liked red hair .

gilbert , did i ever tell you of that time , years ago at green gables , when i dyed my hair ?

nobody but marilla and i knew about it . "

" was that the reason you came out once with your hair shingled to the bone ? "

" yes .

i bought a bottle of dye from a german jew pedlar .

i fondly expected it would turn my hair black and it turned it green .

so it had to be cut off . "

" you had a narrow escape , mrs dr dear , " exclaimed susan .

" of course you were too young then to know what a german was .

it was a special mercy of providence that it was only green dye and not poison . "

" it seems hundreds of years since those green gables days , " sighed mrs . blythe .

" they belonged to another world altogether .

life has been cut in two by the chasm of war .

what is ahead i don't know but it can't be a bit like the past .

one feels as if one was reading something as ancient as the iliad .

this poem of wordsworth 's the senior class have it in their entrance work i 've been glancing over it .

" there are so many passages in it that seem to me exactly descriptive of the huns .

it would , in my humble opinion , mrs dr dear , be too great an honour for him . "

sir wilfrid grew and flourished and waxed fat ; but miranda spoiled him absurdly and nobody else liked him .

" oh , can't he come , too ? " said miranda wistfully .

" poor wilfy won't be any bother and i wiped his paws so carefully before i brought him in .

" oh , rilla , " sobbed miranda , when they had reached sanctuary .

" i 'm so unhappy .

i can't begin to tell you how unhappy i am .

truly , my heart is breaking . "

rilla sat down on the lounge beside her .

sir wilfrid squatted on his haunches before them , with his impertinent pink tongue stuck out , and listened .

" what is the trouble , miranda ? "

" joe is coming home tonight on his last leave .

" does he still want you to marry him ? " asked rilla .

" oh , yes .

he implored me in his letter to run away and be married .

but i cannot do that , rilla , not even for joe .

my only comfort is that i will be able to see him for a little while tomorrow afternoon .

father has to go to charlottetown on business .

at least we will have one good farewell talk .

but oh afterwards why , rilla , i know father won't even let me go to the station friday morning to see joe off . "

" why in the world don't you and joe get married tomorrow afternoon at home ? " demanded rilla .

miranda swallowed a sob in such amazement that she almost choked .

" why why that is impossible , rilla . "

" why ? " briefly demanded the organizer of the junior red cross and the transporter of babies in soup tureens .

rilla blythe thought hard and rapidly for a few minutes .

" oh , you couldn't . "

" i can and i will .

but you 'll have to do exactly as i tell you . "

" oh i don't think oh , father will kill me "

" nonsense .

he 'll be very angry i suppose .

but are you more afraid of your father 's anger than you are of joe 's never coming back to you ? "

" no , " said miranda , with sudden firmness , " i'm not . "

" will you do as i tell you then ? "

" yes , i will . "

" then get joe on the long-distance at once and tell him to bring out a license and ring tonight . "

" oh , i couldn't , " wailed the aghast miranda , " it it would be so so indelicate . "

rilla shut her little white teeth together with a snap .

" heaven grant me patience , " she said under her breath .

" i 'll do it then , " she said aloud , " and meanwhile , you go home and make what preparations you can .

when i ' phone down to you to come up and help me sew come at once . "

" is that you , joe ?

rilla blythe is speaking rilla rilla oh , never mind .

listen to this .

before you come home tonight get a marriage license a marriage license yes , a marriage license and a wedding-ring .

did you get that ?

and will you do it ?

very well , be sure you do it it is your only chance . "

flushed with triumph for her only fear was that she might not be able to locate joe in time rilla rang the pryor ring .

this time she had not such good luck for she drew whiskers-on-the-moon .

" is that miranda ?

oh mr . pryor !

well , mr pryor , will you kindly ask miranda if she can come up this afternoon and help me with some sewing .

it is very important , or i would not trouble her .

oh thank you . "

" a wedding-cake ! "

susan stared .

rilla had , without any warning , brought her a war-baby once upon a time .

was she now , with equal suddenness , going to produce a husband ?

" yes , a wedding-cake a scrumptious wedding-cake , susan a beautiful , plummy , eggy , citron-peely wedding-cake .

and we must make other things too .

i 'll help you in the morning .

susan felt that she was really too old to be subjected to such shocks .

" who are you going to marry , rilla ? " she asked feebly .

" susan , darling , i am not the happy bride .

miranda pryor is going to marry joe milgrave tomorrow afternoon while her father is away in town .

a war-wedding , susan isn't that thrilling and romantic ?

i never was so excited in my life . "

the excitement soon spread over ingleside , infecting even mrs blythe and susan .

" i 'll go to work on that cake at once , " vowed susan , with a glance at the clock .

" mrs dr dear , will you pick over the fruit and beat up the eggs ?

if you will i can have that cake ready for the oven by the evening .

tomorrow morning we can make salads and other things .

i will work all night if necessary to get the better of whiskers-on-the-moon . "

miranda arrived , tearful and breathless .

" we must fix over my white dress for you to wear , " said rilla .

" it will fit you very nicely with a little alteration . "

to work went the two girls , ripping , fitting , basting , sewing for dear life .

by dint of unceasing effort they got the dress done by seven o'clock and miranda tried it on in rilla 's room .

" it 's very pretty but oh , if i could just have a veil , " sighed miranda .

" i 've always dreamed of being married in a lovely white veil . "

some good fairy evidently waits on the wishes of war-brides .

the door opened and mrs blythe came in , her arms full of a filmy burden .

" miranda dear , " she said , " i want you to wear my wedding-veil tomorrow .

" oh , how sweet of you , mrs blythe , " said miranda , the ready tears starting to her eyes .

the veil was tried on and draped .

susan dropped in to approve but dared not linger .

" i 've got that cake in the oven , " she said , " and i am pursuing a policy of watchful waiting .

the evening news is that the grand duke has captured erzerum .

that is a pill for the turks .

i wish i had a chance to tell the czar just what a mistake he made when he turned nicholas down . "

susan disappeared downstairs to the kitchen , whence a dreadful thud and a piercing shriek presently sounded .

everybody rushed to the kitchen the doctor and miss oliver , mrs blythe , rilla , miranda in her wedding-veil .

" susan , what has happened ? " cried mrs blythe in alarm .

" did you fall ?

are you hurt ? "

susan picked herself up .

" no , " she said grimly , " i am not hurt , though i am jarred all over .

do not be alarmed .

as for what has happened i tried to kick that darned cat with both feet , that is what happened . "

everybody shrieked with laughter .

the doctor was quite helpless .

" oh , susan , susan , " he gasped .

" that i should live to hear you swear . "

" i am sorry , " said susan in real distress , " that i used such an expression before two young girls .

but i said that beast was darned , and darned it is .

it belongs to old nick . "

" do you expect it will vanish some of these days with a bang and the odour of brimstone , susan ? "

" i suppose my plunking down like that has shaken my cake so that it will be as heavy as lead . "

but the cake was not heavy .

it was all a bride 's cake should be , and susan iced it beautifully .

joe soon arrived in his uniform and a state of violent excitement , accompanied by his best man , sergeant malcolm crawford .

mrs dead angus wore a rather disapproving expression , not caring over-much for this alliance with the house of whiskers-on-the-moon .

so miranda pryor was married to private joseph milgrave on his last leave .

it should have been a romantic wedding but it was not .

there were too many factors working against romance , as even rilla had to admit .

in the first place , miranda , in spite of her dress and veil , was such a flat-faced , commonplace , uninteresting little bride .

in the second place , joe cried bitterly all through the ceremony , and this vexed miranda unreasonably .

but it was just because he was thinking all the time of how soon he would have to leave me . "

in the fourth place , sir wilfrid laurier took a fit .

sir wilfrid was entrenched in a corner of the room behind miranda 's piano .

during his seizure he made the weirdest , most unearthly noises .

he would begin with a series of choking , spasmodic sounds , continuing into a gruesome gurgle , and ending up with a strangled howl .

nobody could hear a word mr meredith was saying , except now and then , when sir wilfrid stopped for breath .

nobody looked at the bride except susan , who never dragged her fascinated eyes from miranda 's face all the others were gazing at the dog .

miranda had been trembling with nervousness but as soon as sir wilfrid began his performance she forgot it .

all that she could think of was that her dear dog was dying and she could not go to him .

she never remembered a word of the ceremony .

everybody had brought something .

mrs dead angus had brought a large apple-pie , which she placed on a chair in the dining-room and then absently sat down on it .

neither her temper nor her black silk wedding garment was improved thereby , but the pie was never missed at the gay bridal feast .

mrs dead angus eventually took it home with her again .

whiskers-on-the-moon 's pacifist pig should not get it , anyhow .

" i would really not have minded being a war-bride myself , " remarked susan sentimentally .

but rilla felt rather flat perhaps as a reaction to all the excitement and rush of the past thirty-six hours .

she was disappointed somehow the whole affair had been so ludicrous , and miranda and joe so lachrymose and commonplace .

" if miranda hadn't given that wretched dog such an enormous dinner he wouldn't have had that fit , " she said crossly .

" i warned her but she said she couldn't starve the poor dog he would soon be all she had left , etc .

i could have shaken her . "

" the best man was more excited than joe was , " said susan .

" he wished miranda many happy returns of the day .

she did not look very happy , but perhaps you could not expect that under the circumstances . "

" anyhow , " thought rilla , " i can write a perfectly killing account of it all to the boys .

how jem will howl over sir wilfrid 's part in it ! "

the dawn was white as a pearl , clear as a diamond .

behind the station the balsamy copse of young firs was frost-misted .

the cold moon of dawn hung over the westering snow fields but the golden fleeces of sunrise shone above the maples up at ingleside .

joe took his pale little bride in his arms and she lifted her face to his .

rilla choked suddenly .

it did not matter that miranda was insignificant and commonplace and flat-featured .

it did not matter that she was the daughter of whiskers-on-the-moon .

rilla walked away , realising that she must not spy on such a moment .

she went down to the end of the platform where sir wilfrid and dog monday were sitting , looking at each other .

is it a pose ?

or a fixed idea ? "

whereat dog monday , laconically : " i have a tryst to keep . "

when the train had gone rilla rejoined the little trembling miranda .

i 'm going home . "

" don't you think you had better come with me now ? " asked rilla doubtfully .

nobody knew yet how mr pryor had taken the matter .

" no .

if joe can face the huns i guess i can face father , " said miranda daringly .

" a soldier 's wife can't be a coward .

come on , wilfy .

i 'll go straight home and meet the worst . "

there was nothing very dreadful to face , however .

chapter xix

" they shall not pass "

one cold grey morning in february gertrude oliver wakened with a shiver , slipped into rilla 's room , and crept in beside her .

" rilla i 'm frightened frightened as a baby i 've had another of my strange dreams .

something terrible is before us i know . "

" what was it ? " asked rilla .

i could see its shadow racing before it and when it enveloped me i shivered with icy cold .

then the storm broke and it was a dreadful storm blinding flash after flash and deafening peal after peal , driving torrents of rain .

then i awakened .

i am sure of it .

the germans will try to smash through somewhere . "

" but he told you that they would not pass , " said rilla , seriously .

she never laughed at gertrude 's dreams as the doctor did .

we shall need all our courage before long . "

susan 's deeds were in her spotless kitchen at ingleside , but her thoughts were on the hills around verdun .

susan could have drawn a map of the country around verdun that would have satisfied a chief of staff .

" if the germans capture verdun the spirit of france will be broken , " miss oliver said bitterly .

it seemed to me like biblical times when people dreamed things like that quite frequently .

" i know i know , " said gertrude , walking restlessly about .

" i cling to a persistent faith in my dream , too but every time bad news comes it fails me .

then i tell myself ' mere coincidence ' ' subconscious memory ' and so forth . "

i would rather not be , if it makes anything as simple as that so hard to believe .

but in any case we need not worry over verdun , even if the huns get it .

joffre says it has no military significance . "

" that old sop of comfort has been served up too often already when reverses came , " retorted gertrude .

" it has lost its power to charm . "

" was there ever a battle like this in the world before ? " said mr meredith , one evening in mid-april .

" it 's such a titanic thing we can't grasp it , " said the doctor .

" what were the scraps of a few homeric handfuls compared to this ?

the whole trojan war might be fought around a verdun fort and a newspaper correspondent would give it no more than a sentence .

as susan and joffre say , it has no real military significance ; but it has the tremendous significance of an idea .

if germany wins there she will win the war .

if she loses , the tide will set against her . "

" lose she will , " said mr meredith : emphatically .

" the idea cannot be conquered .

france is certainly very wonderful .

it seems to me that in her i see the white form of civilization making a determined stand against the black powers of barbarism .

i think our whole world realizes this and that is why we all await the issue so breathlessly .

it isn't merely the question of a few forts changing hands or a few miles of blood-soaked ground lost and won . "

is the agony in which the world is shuddering the birth-pang of some wondrous new era ?

or is it merely a futile

struggle of ants in the gleam of a million million of suns ?

we think very lightly , mr meredith , of a calamity which destroys an ant-hill and half its inhabitants .

does the power that runs the universe think us of more importance than we think ants ? "

we are neither , therefore there are things too little as well as too great for us to apprehend .

to the infinitely little an ant is of as much importance as a mastodon .

we are witnessing the birth-pangs of a new era but it will be born a feeble , wailing life like everything else .

i am not one of those who expect a new heaven and a new earth as the immediate result of this war .

that is not the way god works .

but work he does , miss oliver , and in the end his purpose will be fulfilled . "

" sound and orthodox sound and orthodox , " muttered susan approvingly in the kitchen .

susan liked to see miss oliver sat upon by the minister now and then .

in may walter wrote home that he had been awarded a d.c. medal .

he did not say what for , but the other boys took care that the glen should know the brave thing walter had done .

" he should have had the v.c. , " said susan , and was very indignant over it .

rilla was beside herself with delight .

oh , she could see his white beautiful face and wonderful eyes as he did it !

what a thing to be the sister of such a hero !

and he hadn't thought it worth while writing about .

" i 've been thinking of the daffodils in the garden at ingleside , " he wrote .

" by the time you get this they will be out , blowing there under that lovely rosy sky .

are they really as bright and golden as ever , rilla ?

it seems to me that they must be dyed red with blood like our poppies here .

and every whisper of spring will be falling as a violet in rainbow valley .

" there is a young moon tonight a slender , silver , lovely thing hanging over these pits of torment .

will you see it tonight over the maple grove ?

" i 'm enclosing a little scrap of verse , rilla .

i 've had that feeling once or twice before , but very rarely and never so strongly as this time .

that was why i sent it over to the london spectator .

it printed it and the copy came today .

i hope you 'll like it .

it 's the only poem i 've written since i came overseas . "

the poem was a short , poignant little thing .

in a month it had carried walter 's name to every corner of the globe .

a canadian lad in the flanders trenches had written the one great poem of the war .

" the piper , " by pte .

walter blythe , was a classic from its first printing .

i am sure i could never be as splendid as miss oliver was .

" just a week ago today she had a letter from mr grant 's mother in charlottetown .

and it told her that a cable had just come saying that major robert grant had been killed in action a few days before .

" oh , poor gertrude !

at first she was crushed .

then after just a day she pulled herself together and went back to her school .

she did not cry i never saw her shed a tear but oh , her face and her eyes !

" ' i must go on with my work , ' she said .

' that is my duty just now . '

" i could never have risen to such a height .

" she never spoke bitterly except once , when susan said something about spring being here at last , and gertrude said ,

" ' can the spring really come this year ? '

" ' observe my egotism .

because i , gertrude oliver , have lost a friend , it is incredible that the spring can come as usual .

the spring does not fail because of the million agonies of others but for mine oh , can the universe go on ? '

" ' don't feel bitter with yourself , dear , ' mother said gently .

we all feel like that . '

" then that horrid old cousin sophia of susan 's piped up .

she was sitting there , knitting and croaking like an old ' raven of bode and woe ' as walter used to call her .

" ' you ain't as bad off as some , miss oliver , ' she said , ' and you shouldn't take it so hard .

there 's some as has lost their husbands ; that 's a hard blow ; and there 's some as has lost their sons .

you haven't lost either husband or son . '

" ' no , ' said gertrude , more bitterly still .

' it 's true i haven't lost a husband i have only lost the man who would have been my husband .

" ' i suffered the loss of two good kind partners , ' she said , ' but it did not affect me like that . '

" i should think it wouldn't !

those poor men must have been thankful to die .

" i heard gertrude walking up and down her room most of the night .

she walked like that every night .

but never so long as that night .

and once i heard her give a dreadful sudden little cry as if she had been stabbed .

i couldn't sleep for suffering with her ; and i couldn't help her .

i thought the night would never end .

but it did ; and then ' joy came in the morning ' as the bible says .

only it didn't come exactly in the morning but well along in the afternoon .

the telephone rang and i answered it .

they hadn't learned yet how the mistake had happened but supposed there must have been another robert grant .

" i hung up the telephone and flew to rainbow valley .

i 'm sure i did fly i can't remember my feet ever touching the ground .

i ought to have had more sense , of course .

but i was so crazy with joy and excitement that i never stopped to think .

gertrude just dropped there among the golden young ferns as if she had been shot .

the fright it gave me ought to make me sensible in this respect at least for the rest of my life .

i thought i had killed her i remembered that her mother had died very suddenly from heart failure when quite a young woman .

it seemed years to me before i discovered that her heart was still beating .

a pretty time i had !

but i knew theoretically how people in a faint should be treated , and now i know it practically .

luckily the brook was handy , and after i had worked frantically over her for a while gertrude came back to life .

she never said one word about my news and i didn't dare to refer to it again .

i never saw anyone cry so before .

all the tears that she hadn't shed all that week came then .

" di and nan are home for a couple of weeks .

then they go back to red cross work in the training camp at kingsport .

i envy them .

father says i 'm doing just as good work here , with jims and my junior reds .

but it lacks the romance theirs must have .

" kut has fallen .

it was almost a relief when it did fall , we had been dreading it so long .

it crushed us flat for a day and then we picked up and put it behind us .

cousin sophia was as gloomy as usual and came over and groaned that the british were losing everywhere .

" ' they 're good losers , ' said susan grimly .

' when they lose a thing they keep on looking till they find it again !

it will divert your thoughts and keep you from worrying over a campaign that you are not called upon to run . '

" susan is an old brick , and the way she flattens out poor cousin sophia is beautiful to behold .

" as for verdun , the battle goes on and on , and we see-saw between hope and fear .

but i know that strange dream of miss oliver 's foretold the victory of france .

' they shall not pass . ' "

chapter xx

norman douglas speaks out in meeting

anne came back with a little sigh .

it is always so silent now but i was imagining i heard clear voices and gay , childish sounds coming up as i used to .

the doctor did not answer .

sometimes his work tricked him into forgetting for a few moments the western front , but not often .

there was a good deal of grey now in his still thick curls that had not been there two years ago .

susan wandered by with a hoe in her hand and her second best bonnet on her head .

" i have just finished reading a piece in the enterprise which told of a couple being married in an aeroplane .

do you think it would be legal , doctor dear ? " she inquired anxiously .

" i think so , " said the doctor gravely .

but nothing is the same as it used to be .

but all the time i am strafing them i will be thinking about this new worry in the trentino .

i do not like this austrian caper , mrs dr dear . "

" nor i , " said mrs blythe ruefully .

" all the forenoon i preserved rhubarb with my hands and waited for the war news with my soul .

when it came i shrivelled .

well , i suppose i must go and get ready for the prayer-meeting , too . "

they are told at weddings and festivals , and rehearsed around winter firesides .

the union prayer-meeting was mr arnold 's idea .

the county battalion , which had been training all winter in charlottetown , was to leave shortly for overseas .

mr meredith having agreed , the meeting was announced to be held in the methodist church .

glen prayer-meetings were not apt to be too well attended , but on this particular evening the methodist church was crowded .

everybody who could go was there .

even miss cornelia came and it was the first time in her life that miss cornelia had ever set foot inside a methodist church .

it took no less than a world conflict to bring that about .

there is no sense in hating methodists when there is a kaiser or a hindenburg in the world . "

so miss cornelia went .

norman douglas and his wife went too .

and whiskers-on-the-moon strutted up the aisle to a front pew , as if he fully realized what a distinction he conferred upon the building .

people were somewhat surprised that he should be there , since he usually avoided all assemblages connected in any way with the war .

but mr meredith had said that he hoped his session would be well represented , and mr pryor had evidently taken the request to heart .

the prayer-meeting opened conventionally and continued quietly .

mr meredith spoke first with his usual eloquence and feeling .

mr arnold followed with an address which even miss cornelia had to confess was irreproachable in taste and subject-matter .

and then mr arnold asked mr pryor to lead in prayer .

miss cornelia had always averred that mr . arnold had no gumption .

some people expected mr pryor to refuse grumpily and that would have made enough scandal .

but mr pryor bounded briskly to his feet , unctuously said , " let us pray , " and forthwith prayed .

but one man at least in that audience was not hampered by inherited or acquired reverence for the sacred edifice .

norman douglas was , as susan had often vowed crisply , nothing more or less than a " pagan . "

with a positive roar he bounded to his feet in his side pew , facing the audience , and shouted in tones of thunder :

" stop stop stop that abominable prayer !

what an abominable prayer ! "

every head in the church flew up .

a boy in khaki at the back gave a faint cheer .

mr meredith raised a deprecating hand , but norman was past caring for anything like that .

mr pryor 's once ruddy face was ashen .

but he turned at bay .

" i 'll have the law on you for this , " he gasped .

" do do , " roared norman , making another rush .

but mr pryor was gone .

he had no desire to fall a second time into the hands of an avenging militarist .

norman turned to the platform for one graceless , triumphant moment .

" don't look so flabbergasted , parsons , " he boomed .

" you couldn't do it nobody would expect it of the cloth but somebody had to do it .

you know you're glad i threw him out he couldn't be let go on yammering and yodelling and yawping sedition and treason .

sedition and treason somebody had to deal with it .

i was born for this hour i 've had my innings in church at last .

i can sit quiet for another sixty years now !

go ahead with your meeting , parsons .

i reckon you won't be troubled with any more pacifist prayers . "

but the spirit of devotion and reverence had fled .

both ministers realized it and realized that the only thing to do was to close the meeting quietly and let the excited people go .

and he knew that the same picture was in everybody 's mind .

altogether the union prayer-meeting could hardly be called an unqualified success .

but it was remembered in glen st mary when scores of orthodox and undisturbed assemblies were totally forgotten .

" if ellen douglas is not a proud woman this night she should be . "

" norman douglas did a wholly indefensible thing , " said the doctor .

" pryor should have been let severely alone until the meeting was over .

then later on , his own minister and session should deal with him .

that would have been the proper procedure .

chapter xxi

" love affairs are horrible "

ingleside @date@

i feel that i shall be a far greater stickler for propriety in regard to them than i am for myself !

" the first week in june was another dreadful one .

susan was the only one who carried on .

' you need never tell me that the kaiser has defeated the british navy , ' she said , with a contemptuous sniff .

' it is all a german lie and that you may tie to . '

" it took kitchener 's death to finish susan .

for the first time i saw her down and out .

we all felt the shock of it but susan plumbed the depths of despair .

the news came at night by ' phone but susan wouldn't believe it until she saw the enterprise headline the next day .

so the world is not left wholly desolate .

why cry , mrs dr dear ? '

susan continued in this stony , hopeless condition for twenty-four hours , and then cousin sophia appeared and began to condole with her .

" ' this is terrible news , ain't it , susan ?

we might as well prepare for the worst for it is bound to come .

you said once and well do i remember the words , susan baker that you had complete confidence in god and kitchener .

ah well , susan baker , there is only god left now . '

" whereat cousin sophia put her handkerchief to her eyes pathetically as if the world were indeed in terrible straits .

as for susan , cousin sophia was the salvation of her .

she came to life with a jerk .

" ' sophia crawford , hold your peace ! ' she said sternly .

' you may be an idiot but you need not be an irreverent idiot .

it is no more than decent to be weeping and wailing because the almighty is the sole stay of the allies now .

as for kitchener , his death is a great loss and i do not dispute it .

" susan said this so energetically that she convinced herself and cheered up immediately .

but cousin sophia shook her head .

them russians has such a habit of petering out . '

" the russians are doing splendidly , however , and they have saved italy .

but even when the daily news of their sweeping advance comes we don't feel like running up the flag as we used to do .

as gertrude says , verdun has slain all exultation .

we would all feel more like rejoicing if the victories were on the western front .

' when will the british strike ? '

gertrude sighed this morning .

' we have waited so long so long . '

" our greatest local event in recent weeks was the route march the county battalion made through the county before it left for overseas .

they marched from charlottetown to lowbridge , then round the harbour head and through the upper glen and so down to the st mary station .

" it was wonderful and heartbreaking to see that battalion marching past .

there were young men and middle-aged men in it .

there were two south african veterans from lowbridge , and the three eighteen-year-old baxter triplets from harbour head .

at the station dog monday nearly went out of his head .

he tore about and sent messages to jem by them all .

mr meredith read an address and reta crawford recited ' the piper . '

something seems to have touched them and set them apart .

they have heard the piper 's call .

i couldn't help it but i felt as badly as if i could .

he was desperately in earnest and i felt more wretched than i ever did in my life .

there , that is one of the entries i wouldn't want my descendants to read in this journal .

if fred 's nose were as handsome as his eyes and mouth some such thing might have happened .

and then what an unthinkable predicament i should have been in !

" when poor fred became convinced that i couldn't promise him , he behaved beautifully though that rather made things worse .

yet feel remorseful i did and do .

if fred arnold never comes back from overseas , this will haunt me all my life .

" i don't know how i could ever had imagined that love affairs were delightful , interesting things .

they are horrible .

i couldn't even give poor heartbroken fred one little kiss , because of my promise to ken .

it seemed so brutal .

" he said , ' it is is it ken ford ? '

" i nodded .

it seemed dreadful to have to tell it it was such a sacred little secret just between me and ken .

i told her .

but she was so nice and understanding and sympathetic , oh , just so race-of-josephy that i felt indescribably comforted .

mothers are the dearest things .

" ' well , why didn't you kiss him ? ' asked mother coolly .

' considering the circumstances , i think you might have . '

" ' but i couldn't , mother i promised ken when he went away that i wouldn't kiss anybody else until he came back . '

" this was another high explosive for poor mother .

she exclaimed , with the queerest little catch in her voice , ' rilla , are you engaged to kenneth ford ? '

" ' i don't know , ' i sobbed .

" ' you don't know ? ' repeated mother .

i felt idiotic and ashamed by the time i got through .

" mother sat a little while in silence .

then she came over , sat down beside me , and took me in her arms .

" ' don't cry , dear little rilla-my-rilla .

but oh , my baby my last little baby i have lost you the war has made a woman of you too soon . '

" i shall never be too much of a woman to find comfort in mother 's hugs .

nevertheless , when i saw fred marching by two days later in the parade , my heart ached unbearably .

" but i 'm glad mother thinks i 'm really engaged to ken ! "

chapter xxii

little dog monday knows

" it is two years tonight since the dance at the light , when jack elliott brought us news of the war .

do you remember , miss oliver ? "

cousin sophia answered for miss oliver .

didn't i warn you that we could not tell what was before us ?

little did you think that night what was before you . "

" little did any of us think that , " said susan sharply , " not being gifted with the power of prophecy .

i could do as much myself . "

" we all thought the war would be over in a few months then , " said rilla wistfully .

" when i look back it seems so ridiculous that we ever could have supposed it . "

" and now , two years later , it is no nearer the end than it was then , " said miss oliver gloomily .

susan clicked her knitting-needles briskly .

" now , miss oliver , dear , you know that is not a reasonable remark .

you know we are just two years nearer the end , whenever the end is appointed to be . "

but five more years of this ! "

" i 've no faith in furriners , " sighed cousin sophia .

" the french are foreigners , " retorted susan , " and look at verdun .

and think of all the somme victories this blessed summer .

the big push is on and the russians are still going well .

why , general haig says that the german officers he has captured admit that they have lost the war . "

" you can't believe a word the germans say , " protested cousin sophia .

" there is no sense in believing a thing just because you 'd like to believe it , susan baker .

the british have lost millions of men at the somme and how far have they got ?

look facts in the face , susan baker , look facts in the face . "

the huns have not got all the cleverness in the world .

have you not heard the story of alistair maccallum 's son roderick , from the upper glen ?

he is a prisoner in germany and his mother got a letter from him last week .

so he let it pass , never dreaming how he was diddled .

well , i am going to leave the war to haig for the rest of the day and make a frosting for my chocolate cake .

and when it is made i shall put it on the top shelf .

we had company for tea that night and when i went to get my cake what a sight did i behold ! "

" has that pore orphan 's father never been heerd from yet ? " asked cousin sophia .

" yes , i had a letter from him in july , " said rilla .

" it took him two years to begin to think it , " said susan scornfully .

" some people think very slow .

jim anderson has not got a scratch , for all he has been two years in the trenches .

a fool for luck , as the old proverb says . "

" he wrote very nicely about jims and said he 'd like to see him , " said rilla .

" so i wrote and told him all about the wee man , and sent him snapshots .

jims will be two years old next week and he is a perfect duck . "

" you didn't used to be very fond of babies , " said cousin sophia .

" i 'm not a bit fonder of babies in the abstract than ever i was , " said rilla , frankly .

" you wasn't hoping the man would be killed ! " cried cousin sophia in horrified accents .

" no no no !

i just hoped he would go on forgetting about jims , mrs crawford . "

" and then your pa would have the expense of raising him , " said cousin sophia reprovingly .

" you young creeturs are terrible thoughtless . "

jims himself ran in at this juncture , so rosy and curly and kissable , that he extorted a qualified compliment even from cousin sophia .

" he 's a reel healthy-looking child now , though mebbee his colour is a mite too high sorter consumptive looking , as you might say .

i never thought you 'd raise him when i saw him the day after you brung him home .

i reely did not think it was in you and i told albert 's wife so when i got home .

albert 's wife says , says she , ' there 's more in rilla blythe than you 'd think for , aunt sophia . '

them was her very words .

' more in rilla blythe than you 'd think for . '

albert 's wife always had a good opinion of you . "

cousin sophia sighed , as if to imply that albert 's wife stood alone in this against the world .

but cousin sophia really did not mean that .

she was quite fond of rilla in her own melancholy way ; but young creeturs had to be kept down .

if they were not kept down society would be demoralized .

" do you remember your walk home from the light two years ago tonight ? " whispered gertrude oliver to rilla , teasingly .

where would ken be tonight ?

two of them were sleeping under the flanders poppies alec burr from the upper glen , and clark manley of lowbridge .

others were wounded in the hospitals .

but so far nothing had touched the manse and the ingleside boys .

they seemed to bear charmed lives .

yet the suspense never grew any easier to bear as the weeks and months of war went by .

" the danger is just as great and just as real as it was the first day they went into the trenches .

i know this , and it tortures me every day .

and yet i can't help hoping that since they 've come this far unhurt they 'll come through .

i can't picture such a state of things somehow .

and two years ago this morning i woke wondering what delightful gift the new day would give me .

these are the two years i thought would be filled with fun . "

" would you exchange them now for two years filled with fun ? "

" no , " said rilla slowly .

" i wouldn't .

it 's strange isn't it ?

i wouldn't want to go back and be the girl i was two years ago , not even if i could .

not that i think i 've made any wonderful progress but i 'm not quite the selfish , frivolous little doll i was then .

i suppose i had a soul then , miss oliver but i didn't know it .

i know it now and that is worth a great deal worth all the suffering of the past two years .

" we never do , " said miss oliver .

" that is why we are not left to choose our own means and measure of development , i suppose .

no matter how much we value what our lessons have brought us we don't want to go on with the bitter schooling .

rumania did come in and susan remarked approvingly that its king and queen were the finest looking royal couple she had seen pictures of .

so the summer passed away .

early in september word came that the canadians had been shifted to the somme front and anxiety grew tenser and deeper .

" oh , let me work let me work , gilbert , " she entreated feverishly .

" while i 'm working i don't think so much .

if i 'm idle i imagine everything rest is only torture for me .

my two boys are on the frightful somme front and shirley pores day and night over aviation literature and says nothing .

but i see the purpose growing in his eyes .

no , i cannot rest don't ask it of me , gilbert . "

but the doctor was inexorable .

" i can't let you kill yourself , anne-girl , " he said .

" when the boys come back i want a mother here to welcome them .

why , you 're getting transparent .

it won't do ask susan there if it will do . "

" oh , if susan and you are both banded together against me ! " said anne helplessly .

one day the glorious news came that the canadians had taken courcelette and martenpuich , with many prisoners and guns .

susan ran up the flag and said it was plain to be seen that haig knew what soldiers to pick for a hard job .

the others dared not feel exultant .

who knew what price had been paid ?

just at dawn the world looks as it never looks at any other time .

the air was cold with dew and the orchard and grove and rainbow valley were full of mystery and wonder .

over the eastern hill were golden deeps and silvery-pink shallows .

there was no wind , and rilla heard distinctly a dog howling in a melancholy way down in the direction of the station .

was it dog monday ?

and if it were , why was he howling like that ?

rilla shivered ; the sound had something boding and grievous in it .

rilla listened with a curdling fear at her heart .

it was dog monday she felt sure of it .

whose dirge was he howling to whose spirit was he sending that anguished greeting and farewell ?

rilla went back to bed but she could not sleep .

all day she watched and waited in a dread of which she did not speak to anyone .

she went down to see dog monday and the station-master said , " that dog of yours howled from midnight to sunrise something weird .

i dunno what got into him .

i got up once and went out and hollered at him but he paid no ' tention to me .

he never did it afore always slept in his kennel real quiet and canny from train to train .

but he sure had something on his mind last night . "

dog monday was lying in his kennel .

he wagged his tail and licked rilla 's hand .

but he would not touch the food she brought for him .

" i 'm afraid he 's sick , " she said anxiously .

she hated to go away and leave him .

but no bad news came that day nor the next nor the next .

rilla 's fear lifted .

dog monday howled no more and resumed his routine of train meeting and watching .

when five days had passed the ingleside people began to feel that they might be cheerful again .

" ' sing before eating , cry before sleeping , ' i 've always heard . "

but rilla blythe shed no tears before the nightfall .

nor did she waken to her pain for many hours .

chapter xxiii

" and so , goodnight "

the fierce flame of agony had burned itself out and the grey dust of its ashes was over all the world .

rilla 's younger life recovered physically sooner than her mother .

for weeks mrs blythe lay ill from grief and shock .

rilla found it was possible to go on with existence , since existence had still to be reckoned with .

there was work to be done , for susan could not do all .

she clung to miss oliver , who knew what to say and what not to say .

so few people did .

kind , well-meaning callers and comforters gave rilla some terrible moments .

" you 'll get over it in time , " mrs william reese said , cheerfully .

mrs reese had three stalwart sons , not one of whom had gone to the front .

" it 's such a blessing it was walter who was taken and not jem , " said miss sarah clow .

" walter was a member of the church , and jem wasn't .

i 've told mr meredith many a time that he should have spoken seriously to jem about it before he went away . "

" pore , pore walter , " sighed mrs reese .

" he was not poor .

he was richer than any of you .

then she went to work and ironed jims 's little rompers .

rilla scolded her gently for it when she herself came in to do it .

" i am not going to have you kill yourself working for any war-baby , " susan said obstinately .

" oh , i wish i could just keep on working all the time , susan , " cried poor rilla .

" and i wish i didn't have to go to sleep .

do people ever get used to things like this , susan ?

and oh , susan , i can't get away from what mrs reese said .

did walter suffer much he was always so sensitive to pain .

oh , susan , if i knew that he didn't i think i could gather up a little courage and strength . "

this merciful knowledge was given to rilla .

a letter came from walter 's commanding officer , telling them that he had been killed instantly by a bullet during a charge at courcelette .

the same day there was a letter for rilla from walter himself .

rilla carried it unopened to rainbow valley and read it there , in the spot where she had had her last talk with him .

that could not be destroyed these could suffer no eclipse .

it must carry on , though the earthly link with things of earth were broken .

" we 're going over the top tomorrow , rilla-my-rilla , " wrote walter .

" i wrote mother and di yesterday , but somehow i feel as if i must write you tonight .

i hadn't intended to do any writing tonight but i 've got to .

well , that is just how i feel .

it 's ' laid on me ' to write you tonight you , sister and chum of mine .

there are some things i want to say before well , before tomorrow .

" you and ingleside seem strangely near me tonight .

it 's the first time i 've felt this since i came .

always home has seemed so far away so hopelessly far away from this hideous welter of filth and blood .

but tonight it is quite close to me it seems to me i can almost see you hear you speak .

and i can see the moonlight shining white and still on the old hills of home .

i always liked that name better than ' aster ' it was a poem in itself .

" rilla , you know i 've always had premonitions .

you remember the pied piper but no , of course you wouldn't you were too young .

rilla , i saw the piper coming down the valley with a shadowy host behind him .

the others thought i was only pretending but i saw him for just one moment .

and rilla , last night i saw him again .

rilla , i tell you i saw him it was no fancy no illusion .

i heard his music , and then he was gone .

but i had seen him and i knew what it meant i knew that i was among those who followed him .

" rilla , the piper will pipe me ' west ' tomorrow .

i feel sure of this .

and rilla , i 'm not afraid .

when you hear the news , remember that .

i 've won my own freedom here freedom from all fear .

i shall never be afraid of anything again not of death nor of life , if after all , i am to go on living .

and life , i think , would be the harder of the two to face for it could never be beautiful for me again .

there would always be such horrible things to remember things that would make life ugly and painful always for me .

i could never forget them .

but whether it 's life or death , i 'm not afraid , rilla-my-rilla , and i am not sorry that i came .

i 'm satisfied .

yes , i 'm glad i came , rilla .

it isn't only the fate of the little sea-born island i love that is in the balance nor of canada nor of england .

it 's the fate of mankind .

that is what we 're fighting for .

and we shall win never for a moment doubt that , rilla .

for it isn't only the living who are fighting the dead are fighting too .

such an army cannot be defeated .

" is there laughter in your face yet , rilla ?

i hope so .

the world will need laughter and courage more than ever in the years that will come next .

i don't want to preach this isn't any time for it .

but i just want to say something that may help you over the worst when you hear that i 've gone ' west . '

i 've a premonition about you , rilla , as well as about myself .

i think ken will go back to you and that there are long years of happiness for you by-and-by .

this will be part of your work , rilla .

" i meant to write to una tonight , too , but i won't have time now .

read this letter to her and tell her it 's really meant for you both you two dear , fine loyal girls .

yes , you 'll both keep faith i 'm sure of that you and una .

and so goodnight .

we go over the top at dawn . "

rilla read her letter over many times .

for the moment at least , she was lifted above pain and loneliness .

" i will keep faith , walter , " she said steadily .

rilla meant to keep walter 's letter as a a sacred treasure .

but , seeing the look on una meredith 's face when una had read it and held it back to her , she thought of something .

could she do it ?

oh , no , she could not give up walter 's letter his last letter .

surely it was not selfishness to keep it .

a copy would be such a soulless thing .

" una , would you like to have this letter to keep ? " she asked slowly .

" yes if you can give it to me , " una said dully .

" then you may have it , " said rilla hurriedly .

" thank you , " said una .

it was all she said , but there was something in her voice which repaid rilla for her bit of sacrifice .

una took the letter and when rilla had gone she pressed it against her lonely lips .

una knew that love would never come into her life now it was buried for ever under the blood-stained soil " somewhere in france . "

no one but herself and perhaps rilla knew it would ever know it .

she had no right in the eyes of her world to grieve .

she must hide and bear her long pain as best she could alone .

but she , too , would keep faith .

chapter xxiv

mary is just in time

the autumn of @number@ was a bitter season for ingleside .

mrs blythe 's return to health was slow , and sorrow and loneliness were in all hearts .

every one tried to hide it from the others and " carry on " cheerfully .

rilla laughed a good deal .

nobody at ingleside was deceived by her laughter ; it came from her lips only , never from her heart .

" why , after all her pose of being so devoted to walter , she doesn't seem to mind his death at all .

nobody has ever seen her shed a tear or heard her mention his name .

she has evidently quite forgotten him .

poor fellow you 'd really think his family would feel it more .

well , i wish i could take things as calmly but i 'm not made like that .

i 'm so sensitive things hurt me terribly i really never get over them .

i asked rilla right out why she didn't put on mourning for walter .

she said her mother didn't wish it .

but every one is talking about it . "

" rilla doesn't wear colours nothing but white , " protested betty mead .

" white becomes her better than anything else , " said irene significantly .

" and we all know black doesn't suit her complexion at all .

but of course i 'm not saying that is the reason she doesn't wear it .

only , it 's funny .

if my brother had died i 'd have gone into deep mourning .

i wouldn't have had the heart for anything else .

i confess i 'm disappointed in rilla blythe . "

" i am not , then , " cried betty meade , loyally , " i think rilla is just a wonderful girl .

a few years ago i admit i did think she was rather too vain and gigglesome ; but now she is nothing of the sort .

" why , i am not running rilla down , " said irene , opening her eyes widely .

" it was only her lack of feeling i was criticizing .

i suppose she can't help it .

of course , she 's a born manager everyone knows that .

she 's very fond of managing , too and people like that are very necessary i admit .

so don't look at me as if i 'd said something perfectly dreadful , betty , please .

i 'm quite willing to agree that rilla blythe is the embodiment of all the virtues , if that will please you .

and no doubt it is a virtue to be quite unmoved by things that would crush most people . "

some of irene 's remarks were reported to rilla ; but they did not hurt her as they would once have done .

they didn't matter , that was all .

life was too big to leave room for pettiness .

the war news was consistently bad , for germany marched from victory to victory over poor rumania .

" foreigners foreigners , " susan muttered dubiously .

" russians or rumanians or whatever they may be , they are foreigners and you cannot tie to them .

but after verdun i shall not give up hope .

the presidential election in the united states came off in november , and susan was red-hot over that and quite apologetic for her excitement .

" i never thought i would live to see the day when i would be interested in a yankee election , mrs dr . dear .

susan stayed up late on the evening of the eleventh , ostensibly to finish a pair of socks .

" i thought if you were not asleep you would be interested in knowing it .

i believe it is for the best .

perhaps he will just fall to writing notes , too , mrs dr dear , but i hope for better things .

i never was very partial to whiskers , but one cannot have everything . "

when news came in the morning that after all wilson was re-elected , susan tacked to catch another breeze of optimism .

but he is a good letter writer at least , and we do not know if the hughes man is even that .

all things being considered i commend the yankees .

they have shown good sense and i do not mind admitting it .

cousin sophia wanted them to elect roosevelt , and is much disgruntled because they would not give him a chance .

susan fathomed it or thought she did when the asquith ministry went down and lloyd george became premier .

" mrs dr dear , lloyd george is at the helm at last .

i have been praying for this for many a day .

now we shall soon see a blessed change .

there will be no more shilly-shallying .

i consider that the war is as good as won , and that i shall tie to , whether bucharest falls or not . "

bucharest did fall and germany proposed peace negotiations .

whereat susan scornfully turned a deaf ear and absolutely refused to listen to such proposals .

when president wilson sent his famous december peace note susan waxed violently sarcastic .

" woodrow wilson is going to make peace , i understand .

first henry ford had a try at it and now comes wilson .

" lloyd george 's speech will tell the kaiser what is what , and you may keep your peace screeds at home and save postage . "

" what a pity president wilson can't hear you , susan , " said rilla slyly .

" i am thankful christmas is over , " rilla wrote in her diary during the last week of a stormy december .

" we had dreaded it so the first christmas since courcelette .

but we had all the merediths down for dinner and nobody tried to be gay or cheerful .

we were all just quiet and friendly , and that helped .

then , too , i was so thankful that jims had got better so thankful that i almost felt glad almost but not quite .

i wonder if i shall ever feel really glad over anything again .

it seems as if gladness were killed in me shot down by the same bullet that pierced walter 's heart .

perhaps some day a new kind of gladness will be born in my soul but the old kind will never live again .

" winter set in awfully early this year .

ten days before christmas we had a big snowstorm at least we thought it big at the time .

as it happened , it was only a prelude to the real performance .

father and mother went up to avonlea .

they left susan and me to keep house , and father expected to be back the next day .

but he never got back for a week .

that night it began to storm again , and it stormed unbrokenly for four days .

it was the worst and longest storm that prince edward island has known for years .

everything was disorganized the roads were completely choked up , the trains blockaded , and the telephone wires put entirely out of commission .

" and then jims took ill .

i never even took his temperature , and i can't forgive myself , because it was sheer carelessness .

the truth is i had slumped just then .

mother was away , so i let myself go .

" then , the third night after father and mother went away , jims suddenly got worse oh , so much worse all at once .

susan and i were all alone .

gertrude had been at lowbridge when the storm began and had never got back .

at first we were not much alarmed .

jims has had several bouts of croup and susan and morgan and i have always brought him through without much trouble .

but it wasn't very long before we were dreadfully alarmed .

" ' i never saw croup like this before , ' said susan .

" as for me , i knew , when it was too late , what kind of croup it was .

it was heart-rending to see and hear him .

and all the time the fatal membrane in his wee throat grew and thickened and he couldn't get it up .

" oh , i was just wild !

i never realized how dear jims was to me until that moment .

and i felt so utterly helpless . "

" and then susan gave up .

' we cannot save him !

oh , if your father was here look at him , the poor little fellow !

i know not what to do . '

" i looked at jims and i thought he was dying .

i threw down the hot poultice i had ready in despair .

of what use was it ?

jims was dying , and it was my fault i hadn't been careful enough !

" just then at eleven o'clock at night the door bell rang .

such a ring it pealed all over the house above the roar of the storm .

susan couldn't go she dared not lay jims down so i rushed downstairs .

in the hall i paused just a minute i was suddenly overcome by an absurd dread .

i thought of a weird story gertrude had told me once .

an aunt of hers was alone in a house one night with her sick husband .

she heard a knock at the door .

and when she went and opened it there was nothing there nothing that could be seen , at least .

immediately she heard a cry .

she ran upstairs and her husband was dead .

and she always believed , so gertrude said , that when she opened that door she let death in .

" it was so ridiculous of me to feel so frightened .

then i remembered that i had no time to waste must not be so foolish i sprang forward and opened the door .

" certainly a cold wind did blow in and filled the hall with a whirl of snow .

i just stared at her .

" ' i haven't been turned out , ' grinned mary , as she stepped in and shut the door .

' i came up to carter flagg 's two days ago and i 've been stormed-stayed there ever since .

but old abbie flagg got on my nerves at last , and tonight i just made up my mind to come up here .

i thought i could wade this far , but i can tell you it was as much as a bargain .

once i thought i was stuck for keeps .

ain't it an awful night ? '

" i came to myself and knew i must hurry upstairs .

i explained as quickly as i could to mary , and left her trying to brush the snow off .

" i whirled around .

didn't i know he was dying my little jims !

i could have thrown mary vance out of the door or the window anywhere at that moment .

i had always disliked mary vance and just then i hated her .

" ' we have tried everything , ' said poor susan dully .

' it is not ordinary croup . '

" ' no , it 's the dipthery croup , ' said mary briskly , snatching up an apron .

' and there 's mighty little time to lose but i know what to do .

when i lived over-harbour with mrs wiley , years ago , will crawford 's kid died of dipthery croup , in spite of two doctors .

she told mrs wiley what it was and i 've never forgot it .

i 've the greatest memory ever a thing just lies in the back of my head till the time comes to use it .

got any sulphur in the house , susan ? '

" yes , we had sulphur .

susan went down with mary to get it , and i held jims .

i hadn't any hope not the least .

mary vance might brag as she liked she was always bragging but i didn't believe any grandmother 's remedy could save jims now .

presently mary came back .

" ' you watch me , ' she said boastfully .

' i 've never done this , but it 's kill or cure that child is dying anyway . '

i don't know why i didn't spring forward and snatch him away .

susan herself seemed transfixed , watching mary from the doorway .

mary turned him over and laid him back on his bed .

" ' wasn't that some trick ? ' said mary gaily .

' i hadn't any idea how it would work , but i just took a chance .

" jims went right to sleep real sleep , not coma , as i feared at first .

when i made sure of that i turned and looked at mary vance .

but i didn't mind how much law she laid down or how much she bragged .

i went over to her and kissed her .

" ' what 's up now ? ' she said .

" ' nothing only i 'm so grateful to you , mary . '

" ' well , i think you ought to be , that 's a fact .

you two would have let that baby die on your hands if i hadn't happened along , ' said mary , just beaming with complacency .

jims was almost well by that time , and father turned up .

he heard our tale without saying much .

father is rather scornful generally about what he calls ' old wives ' remedies . '

oh , nineteen-seventeen , what will you bring ? "

chapter xxv

shirley goes

" we canadians mean to have peace and victory , too .

but a few days later she rushed to mrs blythe in red-hot excitement .

" mrs dr dear , what do you think ?

a ' phone message has just come through from charlottetown that woodrow wilson has sent that german ambassador man to the right about at last .

they tell me that means war .

i thought that submarine business would bring things to a crisis .

i told cousin sophia so when she said it was the beginning of the end for the allies . "

" don't let the doctor hear of the fudge , susan , " said anne , with a smile .

" you know he has laid down very strict rules for us along the lines of economy the government has asked for . "

i consider this news quite equal to a victory , and what the doctor does not know will never grieve him .

i take the whole responsibility , mrs dr dear , so do not you vex your conscience . "

susan spoiled shirley shamelessly that winter .

surely the end was in sight would come now before anyone else could go .

" things are coming our way at last .

we have got the germans on the run , " she boasted .

and we have got the germans on the run , too . "

the germans are just luring them on .

that man simonds says their retreat has put the allies in a hole . "

" that man simonds has said more than he will ever live to make good , " retorted susan .

" i do not worry myself about his opinion as long as lloyd george is premier of england .

he will not be bamboozled and that you may tie to .

things look good to me .

that , in my opinion was a good piece of work . "

don't you think it 's about time i joined up ? "

the pale mother looked at him .

" two of my sons have gone and one will never return .

must i give you too , shirley ? "

the age-old cry " joseph is not and simeon is not ; and ye will take benjamin away . "

how the mothers of the great war echoed the old patriarch 's moan of so many centuries agone !

" you wouldn't have me a slacker , mother ?

i can get into the flying-corps .

what say , dad ? "

the doctor 's hands were not quite steady as he folded up the powders he was concocting for abbie flagg 's rheumatism .

he had known this moment was coming , yet he was not altogether prepared for it .

he answered slowly , " i won't try to hold you back from what you believe to be your duty .

but you must not go unless your mother says you may . "

shirley said nothing more .

he was not a lad of many words .

anne did not say anything more just then , either .

she thought not ; surely she had given enough .

yet that night she told shirley that he might go .

they did not tell susan right away .

she did not know it until , a few days later , shirley presented himself in her kitchen in his aviation uniform .

susan didn't make half the fuss she had made when jem and walter had gone .

she said stonily , " so they 're going to take you , too . "

" take me ?

no .

i 'm going , susan got to . "

" yes , you must go .

i did not see once why such things must be , but i can see now . "

" you 're a brick , susan , " said shirley .

he was relieved that she took it so coolly he had been a little afraid , with a boy 's horror of " a scene . "

he went out whistling gaily ; but half an hour later , when pale anne blythe came in , susan was still sitting there .

jem and walter were yours but shirley is mine .

" susan don't , " cried anne .

" oh , mrs dr dear , i beg your pardon .

i ought not to have said anything like that out loud .

i sometimes forget that i resolved to be a heroine .

this this has shaken me a little .

but i will not forget myself again .

only if things do not go as smoothly in the kitchen for a few days i hope you will make due allowance for me .

he kissed susan for the first time since he was five years old , and said , " good-bye , susan mother susan . "

" my little brown boy my little brown boy , " said susan .

i am thankful i have nothing like that on my conscience now . "

the doctor did not remember the old discipline .

" our last son our last son , " he said aloud .

" a good , sturdy , sensible lad , too .

always reminded me of my father .

highland sandy 's quaint phrase struck the doctor as perfectly expressive .

ingleside did seem very big and empty that night .

yet shirley had been away all winter except for week-ends , and had always been a quiet fellow even when home .

susan worked very hard all day and late into the night .

but susan did not see the familiar hills and harbour .

she was looking at the aviation camp in kingsport where shirley was that night .

" he called me ' mother susan , ' " she was thinking .

" well , all our men folk have gone now jem and walter and shirley and jerry and carl .

and none of them had to be driven to it .

so we have a right to be proud .

but pride " susan sighed bitterly " pride is cold company and that there is no gainsaying . "

vimy ridge is a name written in crimson and gold on the canadian annals of the great war .

so the " fools " took it and paid the price .

jerry meredith was seriously wounded at vimy ridge shot in the back , the telegram said .

" poor nan , " said mrs blythe , when the news came .

she thought of her own happy girlhood at old green gables .

there had been no tragedy like this in it .

how the girls of to-day had to suffer !

when nan came home from redmond two weeks later her face showed what those weeks had meant to her .

john meredith , too , seemed to have grown old suddenly in them .

so di , after a flying visit home , went back to her red cross work in kingsport .

the mayflowers bloomed in the secret nooks of rainbow valley .

rilla was watching for them .

but before she had discovered any , bruce meredith came to ingleside one twilight with his hands full of delicate pink sprays .

he stalked up the steps of the veranda and laid them on mrs blythe 's lap .

" because shirley isn't here to bring them , " he said in his funny , shy , blunt way .

i wrote jerry , too .

jerry 's getting better , you know . "

" is he ?

have you had any good news about him ? "

" yes .

mother had a letter to-day , and it said he was out of danger . "

" oh , thank god , " murmured mrs blythe , in a half-whisper .

bruce looked at her curiously .

" that is what father said when mother told him .

but i couldn't understand why , mrs blythe .

and so why couldn't i thank him ?

i ' most shouted it , mrs blythe .

maybe if i 'd said it sort of whispery like you and father it would have been all right .

" what would you like to do , laddie ? "

" and emily flagg said she would like to put him in a cage and poke sharp things into him .

and they all said things like that .

that is what i would do .

don't you think , mrs blythe , that would be the very worstest punishment of all ? "

he would feel just awful and he would go on feeling like that forever .

chapter xxvi

susan has a proposal of marriage

susan was always intensely excited .

who knew but that it might be shirley away up there in the clouds , flying over to the island from kingsport ?

but shirley had gone overseas now , so susan was not so keenly interested in this particular aeroplane and its pilot .

nevertheless , she looked at it with awe .

i am sure my father would disapprove of it , for he was a man who did not believe in new-fangled ideas of any sort .

he always cut his grain with a reaping hook to the day of his death .

a mower he would not have .

what was good enough for his father was good enough for him , he used to say .

if the almighty had meant us to fly he would have provided us with wings .

since he did not it is plain he meant us to stick to the solid earth .

at any rate , you will never see me , mrs dr dear , cavorting through the sky in an aeroplane . "

" but you won't refuse to cavort a bit in father 's new automobile when it comes , will you , susan ? " teased rilla .

" i do not expect to trust my old bones in automobiles , either , " retorted susan .

" but i do not look upon them as some narrow-minded people do .

whiskers-on-the-moon says the government should be turned out of office for permitting them to run on the island at all .

he foams at the mouth , they tell me , when he sees one .

the man in the machine was an agent of some kind , and whiskers hates agents as much as he hates automobiles .

the aeroplane soared and dipped and circled , and soared again , until it became a mere speck far over the sunset hills .

" ' with the majesty of pinion which the theban eagles bear sailing with supreme dominion through the azure fields of air . ' "

quoted anne blythe dreamily .

" i wonder , " said miss oliver , " if humanity will be any happier because of aeroplanes .

" it does not depend on material achievements and triumphs . "

" nevertheless , an aeroplane is a fascinating thing , " said the doctor .

" it has always been one of humanity 's favourite dreams the dream of flying .

dream after dream comes true or rather is made true by persevering effort .

i should like to have a flight in an aeroplane myself . "

" shirley wrote me that he was dreadfully disappointed in his first flight , " said rilla .

and the first time he went up alone he suddenly felt terribly homesick .

the aeroplane disappeared .

the doctor threw back his head with a sigh .

i suppose our grandson will be taking his sweetheart out quite casually for an evening ' fly ' in his aeroplane . "

" an aeroplane won't be as nice as little silverspot was , " said anne .

" a machine is simply a machine but silverspot , why she was a personality , gilbert .

a drive behind her had something in it that not even a flight among sunset clouds could have .

no , i don't envy my grandson 's sweetheart , after all .

mr meredith is right .

' the kingdom of heaven ' and of love and of happiness doesn't depend on externals . "

and i have an awful suspicion that you can't run an aeroplane with one arm .

no " the doctor shook his head " i believe i 'd still prefer silverspot after all . "

the russian line broke again that summer and susan said bitterly that she had expected it ever since kerensky had gone and got married .

the russians are done for this time and there would be no sense in shutting our eyes to the fact .

but have you seen woodrow wilson 's reply to the pope 's peace proposals ?

it is magnificent .

i really could not have expressed the rights of the matter better myself .

i feel that i can forgive wilson everything for it .

he knows the meaning of words and that you may tie to .

speaking of meanings , have you heard the latest story about whiskers-on-the-moon , mrs dr . dear ?

it seems he was over at the lowbridge road school the other day and took a notion to examine the fourth class in spelling .

they have the summer term there yet , you know , with the spring and fall vacations , being rather backward people on that road .

my niece , ella baker , goes to that school and she it was who told me the story .

ella and the other big scholars felt terrible over it .

but little sandy logan saved the situation .

he is a home boy , but he is as smart as a steel trap , and he sized up whiskers-on-the-moon right off .

' what does " anatomy " mean ? '

whiskers demanded .

' a pain in your stomach , ' sandy replied , quick as a flash and never batting an eyelid .

the class caught right on at least three or four of the brighter ones did and they kept up the fun .

he went off beaming .

it would likely be the ruin of her chances of keeping the school if whiskers should ever find out how he had been bamboozled . "

" some folks have been twitting me about having a husband with only one leg .

well , i must be going .

it 's up to us girls to see that the harvest is got in , since the boys are so scarce .

i 've got overalls and i can tell you they 're real becoming .

mrs alec douglas says they 're indecent and shouldn't be allowed , and even mrs elliott kinder looks askance at them .

but bless you , the world moves , and anyhow there 's no fun for me like shocking kitty alec . "

i promised him today that i would , if you didn't object .

then he can help the farmers get the harvest in .

jims isn't much bother in the daytime now , and i 'll always be home at night . "

" do you think you 'll like weighing out sugar and beans , and trafficking in butter and eggs ? " said the doctor , twinkling .

" probably not .

that isn't the question .

it 's just one way of doing my bit . "

so rilla went behind mr flagg 's counter for a month ; and susan went into albert crawford 's oat-fields .

" i am as good as any of them yet , " she said proudly .

" not a man of them can beat me when it comes to building a stack .

when i offered to help albert looked doubtful .

' i am afraid the work will be too hard for you , ' he said .

' try me for a day and see , ' said i .

' i will do my darnedest . ' "

none of the ingleside folks spoke for just a moment .

their silence meant that they thought susan 's pluck in " working out " quite wonderful .

but susan mistook their meaning and her sun-burned face grew red .

" this habit of swearing seems to be growing on me , mrs dr . dear , " she said apologetically .

" to think that i should be acquiring it at my age !

it is such a dreadful example to the young girls .

i am of the opinion it comes of reading the newspapers so much .

they are so full of profanity and they do not spell it with stars either , as used to be done in my young days .

this war is demoralizing everybody . "

" smart woman that , " he reflected .

" worth two of many a younger one yet .

i might do worse i might do worse .

i 'll think it over . "

an extraordinary sight met her eyes .

pursuer and pursued tore across the lawn .

" susan , " gasped anne .

" susan , what does this mean ? " demanded anne , a little severely .

" you may well ask that , mrs dr dear , " susan replied wrathfully .

" i have not been so upset in years .

him ! "

anne choked back a laugh .

" but susan !

couldn't you have found a well , a less spectacular method of refusing him ?

think what a gossip this would have made if anyone had been going past and had seen such a performance . "

" indeed , mrs. dr. dear , you are quite right .

i did not think of it because i was quite past thinking rationally .

i was just clean mad .

come in the house and i will tell you all about it . "

susan picked up her pot and marched into the kitchen , still trembling with wrathful excitement .

she set her pot on the stove with a vicious thud .

" wait a moment until i open all the windows to air this kitchen well , mrs dr dear .

there , that is better .

i shook hands with him , as aforesaid , mrs dr dear , and told him you and the doctor were both away .

but he said ,

" i have come to see you , miss baker . '

something told me , mrs dr dear , that i was about to receive my first proposal .

i consider it an insult and if i could have thought of any way of preventing it i would .

but just then , mrs dr dear , you will see i was at a disadvantage , being taken so completely by surprise .

well , he is undeceived yes , he is undeceived , mrs dr dear .

i wonder if he has stopped running yet . "

" i understand that you don't feel flattered , susan .

but couldn't you have refused him a little more delicately than by chasing him off the premises in such a fashion ? "

if it had not been for that i would not have chased him with my dye-pot .

i will tell you the whole interview .

whiskers sat down , as i have said , and right beside him on another chair doc was lying .

by the way , mrs dr dear , have you noticed that that cat is far oftener hyde than jekyll now ?

the more victories germany wins the hyder he becomes .

i leave you to draw your own conclusions from that .

' what a nice cat , ' he said .

the nice cat flew at him and bit him .

then it gave a fearful yowl , and bounded out of the door .

whiskers looked after it quite amazed .

' that is a queer kind of a varmint , ' he said .

i agreed with him on that point , but i was not going to let him see it .

besides , what business had he to call our cat a varmint ?

you would have thought , would you not , mrs dr dear , that a hint like that would have been enough for him !

but it went no deeper than his skin .

there is no use in wasting time beating around the bush .

i came up here today to ask you to marry me . '

so there it was , mrs dr dear .

i had a proposal at last , after waiting sixty-four years for one .

so there you have my answer and you can take it away forthwith . '

you never saw a man so taken aback as he was , mrs dr dear .

he was so flabbergasted that he just blurted out the truth .

' why , i thought you 'd be only too glad to get a chance to be married , ' he said .

that was when i lost my head , mrs dr dear .

do you think i had a good excuse , when a hun and a pacifist made such an insulting remark to me ?

' go , ' i thundered , and i just caught up that iron pot .

at any rate he went , and stood not upon the order of his going , as you saw for yourself .

and i do not think we will see him back here proposing to us again in a hurry .

chapter xxvii

waiting

ingleside , @date@

it has been very hard to keep our courage alight of late .

the caporetto disaster is a dreadful thing and not even susan can extract much consolation out of the present state of affairs .

the rest of us don't try .

but what is to prevent them from getting venice i cannot see .

oh , how i hope and pray they will not venice the beautiful queen of the adriatic .

perhaps i caught my love of it from walter , who worshipped it .

it was always one of his dreams to see venice .

no it cannot .

we will win in the end .

i will not doubt it for one moment .

to let myself doubt would be to ' break faith . '

" we have all been campaigning furiously of late for the new victory loan .

we junior reds canvassed diligently and landed several tough old customers who had at first flatly refused to invest .

i even i tackled whiskers-on-the-moon .

i expected a bad time and a refusal .

but to my amazement he was quite agreeable and promised on the spot to take a thousand dollar bond .

he may be a pacifist , but he knows a good investment when it is handed out to him .

five and a half per cent is five and a half per cent , even when a militaristic government pays it .

" father , to tease susan , says it was her speech at the victory loan campaign meeting that converted mr pryor .

but susan did make a speech and the best one made at the meeting , too .

it was the first time she ever did such a thing and she vows it will be the last .

at least , that is how she describes it herself .

and we are asking charity , of course we are asking you to lend us your money for nothing !

no doubt the kaiser will feel quite downcast when he hears of this meeting ! "

" susan has an unshaken belief that the kaiser 's spies presumably represented by mr pryor promptly inform him of every happening in our glen .

" norman douglas shouted out ' hear !

hear ! ' and some boy at the back said , ' what about lloyd george ? ' in a tone susan didn't like .

lloyd george is her pet hero , now that kitchener is gone .

" ' i stand behind lloyd george every time , ' retorted susan .

" ' i suppose that will hearten him up greatly , ' said warren mead , with one of his disagreeable ' haw-haws . '

" warren 's remark was spark to powder .

susan just ' sailed in ' as she puts it , and ' said her say . '

she said it remarkably well , too .

there was no lack of ' ginger ' in her speech , anyhow .

she said it was the likes of her , millions of her , that did stand behind lloyd george , and did hearten him up .

that was the key-note of her speech .

dear old susan !

susan always vows she is no suffragette , but she gave womanhood its due that night , and she literally made those men cringe .

when she finished with them they were ready to eat out of her hand .

she wound up by ordering them yes , ordering them to march up to the platform forthwith and subscribe for victory bonds .

and after wild applause most of them did it , even warren mead .

" we were all except susan out for a trial ride in father 's new automobile tonight .

father was quite furious ; but in my heart i believe i sympathized with miss elizabeth .

i should just have sat up as dourly as she did and said ' take the ditch if you are determined to pass . '

" jem will have a laugh when i write him this .

he knows miss elizabeth of old .

" but will venice be saved ? "

@date@

" it is not saved yet it is still in great danger .

but the italians are making a stand at last on the piave line .

to be sure military critics say they cannot possibly hold it and must retreat to the adige .

" oh , if i could only believe that they can hold it !

" our canadian troops have won another great victory they have stormed the passchendaele ridge and held it in the face of all counter attacks .

none of our boys were in the battle but oh , the casualty list of other people 's boys !

joe milgrave was in it but came through safe .

miranda had some bad days until she got word from him .

but it is wonderful how miranda has bloomed out since her marriage .

she isn't the same girl at all .

but she is the only war-bride in the glen and surely nobody need grudge her the satisfaction she gets out of it .

" the russian news is bad , too kerensky 's government has fallen and lenin is dictator of russia .

somehow , it is very hard to keep up courage in the dull hopelessness of these grey autumn days of suspense and boding news .

but we are beginning to ' get in a low , ' as old highland sandy says , over the approaching election .

conscription is the real issue at stake and it will be the most exciting election we ever had .

oh , if i were only twenty-one !

gertrude and susan are both furious because they can't vote .

" ' it is not fair , ' gertrude says passionately .

' there is agnes carr who can vote because her husband went .

she did everything she could to prevent him from going , and now she is going to vote against the union government .

yet i have no vote , because my man at the front is only my sweetheart and not my husband ! "

" i really feel sorry for the elliotts and crawfords and macallisters over-harbour .

and some poor conservatives who are against conscription must vote for laurier , who always has been anathema to them .

some of them are taking it terribly hard .

others seem to be in much the same attitude as mrs marshall elliott has come to be regarding church union .

" she was up here last night .

she doesn't come as often as she used to .

she is growing too old to walk this far dear old ' miss cornelia . '

" she used to be so bitterly opposed to church union .

anyhow , compared with germans even methodists seem attractive to me . '

she gave me a sweet little jab last meeting about knowing me across the square in charlottetown ' by my green velvet hat . '

everybody knows me by that detestable and detested hat .

this will be my fourth season for it .

even mother wanted me to get a new one this fall ; but i said , ' no. '

as long as the war lasts so long do i wear that velvet hat in winter . "

@date@

" the piave line still holds and general byng has won a splendid victory at cambrai .

i did run up the flag for that but susan only said ' i shall set a kettle of water on the kitchen range tonight .

i notice little kitchener always has an attack of croup after any british victory .

i do hope he has no pro-german blood in his veins .

nobody knows much about his father 's people . '

" jims has had a few attacks of croup this fall just the ordinary croup not that terrible thing he had last year .

but whatever blood runs in his little veins it is good , healthy blood .

he is rosy and plump and curly and cute ; and he says such funny things and asks such comical questions .

susan thought it quite dreadful , and i think that was when she began to feel anxiety about his possible ancestry .

the other night i took jims with me for a walk down to the store .

and last wednesday morning , when he woke up , my little alarm clock had stopped because i had forgotten to wind it up .

jims bounded out of his crib and ran across to me , his face quite aghast above his little blue flannel pyjamas .

' the clock is dead , ' he gasped , ' oh willa , the clock is dead . '

" one night he was quite angry with both susan and me because we would not give him something he wanted very much .

" i don't go about quoting jims 's speeches to all i meet .

that always bores me when other people do it !

i just enshrine them in this old hotch-potch of a journal !

" oh , why can't it , jims ?

if it could just come back !

but yesterdays never come back , little jims and the todays are dark with clouds and we dare not think about the tomorrows . "

@date@

" wonderful news came today .

the british troops captured jerusalem yesterday .

we ran up the flag and some of gertrude 's old sparkle came back to her for a moment .

the ghosts of all the crusaders must have crowded the walls of jerusalem last night , with coeur-de-lion at their head . '

" susan had cause for satisfaction also .

" ' i am so thankful i can pronounce jerusalem and hebron , ' she said .

' they give me a real comfortable feeling after przemysl and brest-litovsk !

" jerusalem !

the ' meteor flag of england ! ' floats over you the crescent is gone .

how walter would have thrilled over that ! "

@date@

" yesterday the election came off .

" about ten o'clock gertrude went to the ' phone and happened to catch someone from over-harbour talking to carter flagg .

" we looked at each other in dismay .

if the government had failed to carry the west , it was defeated .

" ' canada is disgraced in the eyes of the world , ' said gertrude bitterly .

" ' if everybody was like the mark crawfords over-harbour this would not have happened , ' groaned susan .

' they locked their uncle up in the barn this morning and would not let him out until he promised to vote union .

that is what i call effective argument , mrs dr dear . '

" gertrude and i couldn't rest after all that .

we walked the floor until our legs gave out and we had to sit down perforce .

she had knit that far past where the heel should have begun !

" it was twelve before father came home .

he stood in the doorway and looked at us and we looked at him .

we did not dare ask him what the news was .

gertrude clapped her hands .

" this will not comfort the kaiser much , ' she said .

" then we went to bed , but were too excited to sleep .

really , as susan said solemnly this morning , ' mrs dr dear , i think politics are too strenuous for women . ' "

@date@

" our fourth war christmas is over .

we are trying to gather up some courage wherewith to face another year of it .

germany has , for the most part , been victorious all summer .

and now they say she has all her troops from the russian front ready for a ' big push ' in the spring .

sometimes it seems to me that we just cannot live through the winter waiting for that .

" i had a great batch of letters from overseas this week .

carl 's letters are always full of jokes and bits of fun .

they had a great rat-hunt the night before he wrote spearing rats with their bayonets and he got the best bag and won the prize .

he has a tame rat that knows him and sleeps in his pocket at night .

rats don't worry carl as they do some people he was always chummy with all little beasts .

" ken wrote a short letter .

his letters are all rather short now and he doesn't often slip in those dear little sudden sentences i love so much .

now , did he leave that ' s ' off intentionally or was it only carelessness ?

i shall lie awake half the night wondering .

he is a captain now .

i am glad and proud and yet captain ford sounds so horribly far away and high up .

ken and captain ford seem like two different persons .

i may be practically engaged to ken mother 's opinion on that point is my stay and bulwark but i can't be to captain ford !

" and jem is a lieutenant now won his promotion on the field .

he sent me a snap-shot , taken in his new uniform .

he looked thin and old old my boy-brother jem .

i can't forget mother 's face when i showed it to her .

' that my little jem the baby of the old house of dreams ? ' was all she said .

" there was a letter from faith , too .

she is doing v.a.d . work in england and writes hopefully and brightly .

that means so much to her .

oh , if i were only with her !

but my work is here at home .

walter died for canada i must live for her .

that is what he asked me to do . "

@date@

but susan is a somewhat disgruntled woman at present , owing to the regulations regarding cookery .

her loyalty to the union government is being sorely tried .

it surmounted the first strain gallantly .

" but the later suggestions went against susan 's grain .

had it not been for father 's decree i think she would have snapped her fingers at sir robert borden .

" ' talk about trying to make bricks without straw , mrs dr dear !

how am i to make a cake without butter or sugar ?

it cannot be done not cake that is cake .

of course one can make a slab , mrs dr dear .

and we cannot even camooflash it with a little icing !

" i had letters from nan and di too or rather notes .

they are too busy to write letters , for exams are looming up .

they will graduate in arts this spring .

i am evidently to be the dunce of the family .

but somehow i never had any hankering for a college course , and even now it doesn't appeal to me .

i 'm afraid i 'm rather devoid of ambition .

there is only one thing i really want to be and i don't know if i 'll be it or not .

if not i don't want to be anything .

but i shan't write it down .

it is all right to think it ; but , as cousin sophia would say , it might be brazen to write it down .

" i will write it down .

i won't be cowed by the conventions and cousin sophia !

i want to be kenneth ford 's wife !

there now !

" i 've just looked in the glass , and i hadn't the sign of a blush on my face .

i suppose i 'm not a properly constructed damsel at all .

" i was down to see little dog monday today .

he has grown quite stiff and rheumatic but there he sat , waiting for the train .

he thumped his tail and looked pleadingly into my eyes .

' when will jem come ? ' he seemed to say .

@date@

" ' what will spring bring ? '

gertrude said today .

' i dread it as i never dreaded spring before .

do you suppose there will ever again come a time when life will be free from fear ?

for almost four years we have lain down with fear and risen up with it .

it has been the unbidden guest at every meal , the unwelcome companion at every gathering . '

" ' hindenburg says he will be in paris on @date@ , ' sighed cousin sophia .

" ' hindenburg ! '

there is no power in pen and ink to express the contempt which susan infused into that name .

' has he forgotten what day the first of april is ? '

" ' hindenburg has kept his word hitherto , ' said gertrude , as gloomily as cousin sophia herself could have said it .

" ' yes , fighting against the russians and rumanians , ' retorted susan .

" ' you said just the same thing before mons , susan , ' i reminded her .

" ' hindenburg says he will spend a million lives to break the allied front , ' said gertrude .

i work all day feverishly and waken at three o'clock at night to wonder if the iron legions have struck at last .

it is then i see hindenburg in paris and germany triumphant .

i never see her so at any other time than that accursed hour . '

" susan looked dubious over gertrude 's adjective , but evidently concluded that the ' a ' saved the situation .

" it is not often that mother slumps into a wish like that or at least the verbal expression of it .

now it seemed as if even she had reached the limit of her endurance .

" susan went over to mother and touched her shoulder .

" 'do not you be frightened or downhearted , mrs dr . dear , ' she said gently .

" i say that verse susan read over and over again to myself .

@date@

" armageddon has begun ! ' the last great fight of all ! '

is it , i wonder ?

yesterday i went down to the post office for the mail .

it was a dull , bitter day .

the snow was gone but the grey , lifeless ground was frozen hard and a biting wind was blowing .

the whole glen landscape was ugly and hopeless .

" then i got the paper with its big black headlines .

germany struck on the twenty-first .

she makes big claims of guns and prisoners taken .

general haig reports that ' severe fighting continues . '

i don't like the sound of that last expression .

" we all find we cannot do any work that requires concentration of thought .

so we all knit furiously , because we can do that mechanically .

at least the dreadful waiting is over the horrible wondering where and when the blow will fall .

it has fallen but they shall not prevail against us !

everything about me is calm and peaceful and ' homey . '

" over there in france tonight does the line hold ? "

chapter xxviii

black sunday

it dawned calmly and coldly and greyly at ingleside .

mrs blythe and rilla and miss oliver made ready for church in a suspense tempered by hope and confidence .

susan announced that she meant to stay home that morning a rare decision for susan .

" but i would rather not go to church this morning , mrs dr . dear , " she explained .

no , mrs dr dear , i shall stay home from church till the tide turns and pray hard here . "

" i can think of nothing but the question , ' does the line still hold ? ' "

" next sunday will be easter , " said rilla .

" will it herald death or life to our cause ? "

walter could not have laid down his life for naught .

his had been the gift of prophetic vision and he had foreseen victory .

she would cling to that belief the line would hold .

in this renewed mood she walked home from church almost gaily .

the others , too , were hopeful , and all went smiling into ingleside .

no one was in the dining-room either and , stranger still , no dinner was on the table , which was not even set .

where was susan ?

" can she have taken ill ? " exclaimed mrs blythe anxiously .

" i thought it strange that she did not want to go to church this morning . "

the kitchen door opened and susan appeared on the threshold with such a ghastly face that mrs blythe cried out in sudden panic .

" susan , what is it ? "

" the british line is broken and the german shells are falling on paris , " said susan dully .

the three women stared at each other , stricken .

" it 's not true it 's not , " gasped rilla .

" the thing would be ridiculous , " said gertrude oliver and then she laughed horribly .

" susan , who told you this when did the news come ? " asked mrs blythe .

" i got it over the long-distance phone from charlottetown half an hour ago , " said susan .

" the news came to town late last night .

it was dr holland phoned it out and he said it was only too true .

since then i have done nothing , mrs dr dear .

i am very sorry dinner is not ready .

it is the first time i have been so remiss .

if you will be patient i will soon have something for you to eat .

but i am afraid i let the potatoes burn . "

" dinner !

nobody wants any dinner , susan , " said mrs blythe wildly .

" oh , this thing is unbelievable it must be a nightmare . "

" oh god oh god , " moaned gertrude oliver , walking about the room and wringing her hands , " oh god ! "

" is god dead ? " asked a startled little voice from the doorway of the living-room .

miss oliver stopped walking and exclaiming , and stared at jims , in whose eyes tears of fright were beginning to gather .

rilla ran to his comforting , while susan bounded up from the chair upon which she had dropped .

" no , " she said briskly , with a sudden return of her real self .

" no , god isn't dead nor lloyd george either .

we were forgetting that , mrs dr dear .

don't cry , little kitchener .

bad as things are , they might be worse .

the british line may be broken but the british navy is not .

let us tie to that .

i will take a brace and get up a bite to eat , for strength we must have . "

they made a pretence of eating susan 's " bite , " but it was only a pretence .

nobody at ingleside ever forgot that black afternoon .

gertrude oliver walked the floor they all walked the floor ; except susan , who got out her grey war sock .

" mrs dr dear , i must knit on sunday at last .

but whether it is or whether it is not i must knit today or i shall go mad . "

" knit if you can , susan , " said mrs blythe restlessly .

" i would knit if i could but i cannot i cannot . "

" if we could only get fuller information , " moaned rilla .

" there might be something to encourage us if we knew all . "

" we know that the germans are shelling paris , " said miss oliver bitterly .

" in that case they must have smashed through everywhere and be at the very gates .

no , we have lost let us face the fact as other peoples in the past have had to face it .

other nations , with right on their side , have given their best and bravest and gone down to defeat in spite of it .

ours is ' but one more to baffled millions who have gone before . ' "

" i won't give up like that , " cried rilla , her pale face suddenly flushing .

" i won't despair .

we are not conquered no , if germany overruns all france we are not conquered .

i am ashamed of myself for this hour of despair .

you won't see me slump again like that , i 'm going to ring up town at once and ask for particulars . "

but town could not be got .

the long-distance operator there was submerged by similar calls from every part of the distracted country .

rilla finally gave up and slipped away to rainbow valley .

the sun had broken through the black clouds and drenched the valley with a pale golden splendour .

the bells on the tree lovers twinkled elfinly and fitfully in the gusty march wind .

" oh god , give me strength , " rilla whispered .

" just strength and courage . "

she knelt there a long time , and when she went back to ingleside she was calm and resolute .

the doctor had arrived home , tired but triumphant , little douglas haig marwood having made a safe landing on the shores of time .

" as long as we can hold them , " she declared , " the situation is saved .

paris has really no military significance . "

" don't , " said gertrude sharply , as if susan had run something into her .

depend upon it , girls , that part of the message can't be true .

i 'm going to try to try a long-distance call to town myself . "

and at nine o'clock a long-distance message came through at last , that helped them through the night .

that 's not so bad .

that is all the news to date , and dr holland says it is reliable . "

but still , " she added , trying to smile , " i am afraid i will not sleep much tonight . "

i really could not have endured her on top of all the rest . "

chapter xxix

" wounded and missing "

on wednesday the headline was " british and french check germans " ; but still the retreat went on .

back and back and back !

where would it end ?

would the line break again this time disastrously ?

" well , we have got one week over now for the next , " said susan staunchly .

" but i am not off the rack .

the torture may begin again at any time . "

" i doubted god last sunday , " said rilla , " but i don't doubt him today .

evil cannot win .

spirit is on our side and it is bound to outlast flesh . "

nevertheless her faith was often tried in the dark spring that followed .

armageddon was not , as they had hoped , a matter of a few days .

it stretched out into weeks and months .

again and again hindenburg struck his savage , sudden blows , with alarming , though futile success .

again and again the military critics declared the situation extremely perilous .

again and again cousin sophia agreed with the military critics .

" if the allies go back three miles more the war is lost , " she wailed .

" is the british navy anchored in those three miles ? " demanded susan scornfully .

" it is the opinion of a man who knows all about it , " said cousin sophia solemnly .

" there is no such person , " retorted susan .

why do you always look on the dark side , sophia crawford ? "

" because there ain't any bright side , susan baker . "

" oh , is there not ?

it is the twentieth of april , and hindy is not in paris yet , although he said he would be there by april first .

is that not a bright spot at least ? "

" not in this part of it .

" no , sophia crawford , to tell you the plain truth i am sick and tired of your gloomy predictions .

i do not deny that some mistakes have been made .

but that is no reason why you or anyone should go about proclaiming the war is lost .

cousin sophia marched home in high dudgeon to digest her affront , and did not reappear in susan 's kitchen for many weeks .

" no no ' missing ' leaves a little hope , rilla , " urged gertrude oliver .

" yes torturing , agonized hope that keeps you from ever becoming quite resigned to the worst , " said rilla .

" oh , miss oliver must we go for weeks and months not knowing whether jem is alive or dead ?

perhaps we will never know .

i i cannot bear it i cannot .

walter and now jem .

this will kill mother look at her face , miss oliver , and you will see that .

and faith poor faith how can she bear it ? "

gertrude shivered with pain .

she looked up at the pictures hanging over rilla 's desk and felt a sudden hatred of mona lisa 's endless smile .

" will not even this blot it off your face ? " she thought savagely .

but she said gently , " no , it won't kill your mother .

she 's made of finer mettle than that .

besides , she refuses to believe jem is dead ; she will cling to hope and we must all do that .

faith , you may be sure , will do it . "

" i cannot , " moaned rilla , " jem was wounded what chance would he have ?

even if the germans found him we know how they have treated wounded prisoners .

i wish i could hope , miss oliver it would help , i suppose .

but hope seems dead in me .

i can't hope without some reason for it and there is no reason . "

" rilla , dear , do not you worry .

little jem is not dead . "

" oh , how can you believe that , susan ? "

" because i know .

listen you to me .

when that word came this morning the first thing i thought of was dog monday .

and tonight , as soon as i got the supper dishes washed and the bread set , i went down to the station .

there was dog monday , waiting for the train , just as patient as usual .

he thought it over a bit , and then he said , ' no , he did not . '

' are you sure ? '

i said .

' there 's more depends on it than you think ! '

' dead sure , ' he said .

' i was up all night last monday night because my mare was sick , and there was never a sound out of him .

now rilla dear , those were the man 's very words .

and you know how that poor little dog howled all night after the battle of courcelette .

yet he did not love walter as much as he loved jem .

no , rilla dear , little jem is not dead , and that you may tie to .

it was absurd and irrational and impossible .

chapter xxx

the turning of the tide

susan was very sorrowful when she saw the beautiful old lawn of ingleside ploughed up that spring and planted with potatoes .

yet she made no protest , even when her beloved peony bed was sacrificed .

but when the government passed the daylight saving law susan balked .

there was a higher power than the union government , to which susan owed allegiance .

" do you think it right to meddle with the arrangements of the almighty ? " she demanded indignantly of the doctor .

the doctor , quite unmoved , responded that the law must be observed , and the ingleside clocks were moved on accordingly .

but the doctor had no power over susan 's little alarm .

susan got up and went to bed by " god 's time , " and regulated her own goings and comings by it .

she had got the better of him by so much at least .

" whiskers-on-the-moon is very much delighted with this daylight saving business , " she told him one evening .

" of course he naturally would be , since i understand that the germans invented it .

i hear he came near losing his entire wheat-crop lately .

at first she had no intention of letting mr pryor know .

she told me she had just gloated over the sight of those cows pasturing on his wheat .

she felt it served him exactly right .

so she went down and phoned over to whiskers about the matter .

all the thanks she got was that he said something queer right out to her .

" yes we have found it see , it is just above the tip of the tallest old pine . "

" it 's wonderful to be looking at something that happened three thousand years ago , isn't it ? " said rilla .

" that is when astronomers think the collision took place which produced this new star .

it makes me feel horribly insignificant , " she added under her breath .

" i think i would like to have been an astronomer , " said mr meredith dreamily , gazing at the star .

" there must be a strange pleasure in it , " agreed miss oliver , " an unearthly pleasure , in more senses than one .

i would like to have a few astronomers for my friends . "

" fancy talking the gossip of the hosts of heaven , " laughed rilla .

" i wonder if astronomers feel a very deep interest in earthly affairs ? " said the doctor .

i suppose one would call him a philosopher . "

" i wonder where jem is tonight , " thought rilla , in a sudden bitter inrush of remembrance .

it was over a month since the news had come about jem .

nothing had been discovered concerning him , in spite of all efforts .

two or three letters had come from him , written before the trench raid , and since then there had been only unbroken silence .

rilla turned away from the new star , sick at heart .

it was one of the moments when hope and courage failed her utterly when it seemed impossible to go on even one more day .

if only they knew what had happened to jem you can face anything you know .

but a beleaguerment of fear and doubt and suspense is a hard thing for the morale .

surely , if jem were alive , some word would have come through .

he must be dead .

monday was only a poor , faithful , rheumatic little dog , who knew nothing more of his master 's fate than they did .

rilla had a " white night " and did not fall asleep until late .

when she wakened gertrude oliver was sitting at her window leaning out to meet the silver mystery of the dawn .

rilla remembered jem 's admiration of the curve of miss oliver 's brow and chin , and she shuddered .

everything that reminded her of jem was beginning to give intolerable pain .

walter 's death had inflicted on her heart a terrible wound .

but it had been a clean wound and had healed slowly , as such wounds do , though the scar must remain for ever .

but the torture of jem 's disappearance was another thing : there was a poison in it that kept it from healing .

gertrude oliver turned her head .

there was an odd brilliancy in her eyes .

" rilla , i 've had another dream . "

" oh , no no , " cried rilla , shrinking .

miss oliver 's dreams had always foretold coming disaster .

" rilla , it was a good dream .

listen i dreamed just as i did four years ago , that i stood on the veranda steps and looked down the glen .

and it was still covered by waves that lapped about my feet .

rilla rilla blythe the tide has turned . "

" i wish i could believe it , " sighed rilla .

" sooth was my prophecy of fear believe it when it augurs cheer , "

quoted gertrude , almost gaily .

" i tell you i have no doubt . "

it was idle , they all felt , to hope that the miracle of the marne would be repeated .

but it was : again , as in @number@ the tide turned at the marne .

" the allies have won two tremendous victories , " said the doctor on @date@ .

" it is the beginning of the end i feel it i feel it , " said mrs blythe .

nevertheless she went out and ran up the flag , for the first time since the fall of jerusalem .

" we 've all given something to keep you flying , " she said .

" four hundred thousand of our boys gone overseas fifty thousand of them killed .

but you are worth it ! "

she was one of the women courageous , unquailing , patient , heroic who had made victory possible .

in her , they all saluted the symbol for which their dearest had fought .

something of this was in the doctor 's mind as he watched her from the door .

chapter xxxi

mrs matilda pittman

rilla and jims were standing on the rear platform of their car when the train stopped at the little millward siding .

the august evening was so hot and close that the crowded cars were stifling .

nobody ever knew just why trains stopped at millward siding .

nobody was ever known to get off there or get on .

there was only one house nearer to it than four miles , and it was surrounded by acres of blueberry barrens and scrub spruce-trees .

rilla was heavy-hearted over this , and worried also .

she might never see her dear , sunshiny , carefully brought-up little jims again .

with such a father what might his fate be ?

" but i feel sure he won't and jims will never have any chance .

and he is such a bright little chap he has ambition , wherever he got it and he isn't lazy .

but his father will never have a cent to give him any education or start in life .

jims , my little war-baby , whatever is going to become of you ? "

jims was not in the least concerned over what was to become of him .

he was gleefully watching the antics of a striped chipmunk that was frisking over the roof of the little siding .

as the train pulled out jims leaned eagerly forward for a last look at chippy , pulling his hand from rilla 's .

rilla shrieked and lost her head .

she sprang down the steps and jumped off the train .

nobody had seen what had happened and the train whisked briskly away round a curve in the barrens .

but jims , except for a few bruises , and a big fright , was quite uninjured .

" nasty old twain , " remarked jims in disgust .

" and nasty old god , " he added , with a scowl at the heavens .

a laugh broke into rilla 's sobbing , producing something very like what her father would have called hysterics .

but she caught herself up before the hysteria could conquer her .

" rilla blythe , i 'm ashamed of you .

pull yourself together immediately .

jims , you shouldn't have said anything like that . "

" god frew me off the twain , " declared jims defiantly .

" somebody frew me ; you didn't frow me ; so it was god . "

" no , it wasn't .

you fell because you let go of my hand and bent too far forward .

i told you not to do that .

so that it was your own fault . "

jims looked to see if she meant it ; then glanced up at the sky again .

" excuse me , then , god , " he remarked airily .

rilla scanned the sky also ; she did not like its appearance ; a heavy thundercloud was appearing in the northwest .

what in the world was to be done ?

there was no other train that night , since the nine o'clock special ran only on saturdays .

would it be possible for them to reach hannah brewster 's house , two miles away , before the storm broke ?

rilla thought she could do it alone easily enough , but with jims it was another matter .

were his little legs good for it ?

" we 've got to try it , " said rilla desperately .

if we can get to hannah 's she will keep us all night . "

hannah brewster , when she had been hannah crawford , had lived in the glen and gone to school with rilla .

they had been good friends then , though hannah had been three years the older .

she had married very young and had gone to live in millward .

for the first mile they got on very well but the second one was harder .

the road , seldom used , was rough and deep-rutted .

jims grew so tired that rilla had to carry him for the last quarter .

she reached the brewster house , almost exhausted , and dropped jims on the walk with a sigh of thankfulness .

the sky was black with clouds ; the first heavy drops were beginning to fall ; and the rumble of thunder was growing very loud .

then she made an unpleasant discovery .

the blinds were all down and the doors locked .

evidently the brewsters were not at home .

rilla ran to the little barn .

it , too , was locked .

no other refuge presented itself .

the bare whitewashed little house had not even a veranda or porch .

it was almost dark now and her plight seemed desperate .

" i 'm going to get in if i have to break a window , " said rilla resolutely .

" hannah would want me to do that .

she 'd never get over it if she heard i came to her house for refuge in a thunderstorm and couldn't get in . "

luckily she did not have to go to the length of actual housebreaking .

the kitchen window went up quite easily .

rilla lifted jims in and scrambled through herself , just as the storm broke in good earnest .

" oh , see all the little pieces of thunder , " cried jims in delight , as the hail danced in after them .

rilla shut the window and with some difficulty found and lighted a lamp .

they were in a very snug little kitchen .

" i 'm going to make myself at home , " said rilla .

" i know that is just what hannah would want me to do .

there is nothing like acting sensibly in an emergency .

then i wouldn't have been in this scrape .

since i am in it i 'll make the best of it .

" this house , " she added , looking around , " is fixed up much nicer than when i was here before .

of course hannah and ted were just beginning housekeeping then .

but somehow i 've had the idea that ted hasn't been very prosperous .

he must have done better than i 've been led to believe , when they can afford furniture like this .

i 'm awfully glad for hannah 's sake . "

the thunderstorm passed , but the rain continued to fall heavily .

at eleven o'clock rilla decided that nobody was coming home .

jims had fallen asleep on the sofa ; she carried him up to the spare room and put him to bed .

then she undressed , put on a nightgown she found in the washstand drawer , and scrambled sleepily in between very nice lavender-scented sheets .

rilla slept until eight o'clock the next morning and then wakened with startling suddenness .

somebody was saying in a harsh , gruff voice , " here , you two , wake up .

i want to know what this means . "

rilla did wake up , promptly and effectually .

she had never in all her life wakened up so thoroughly before .

standing in the room were three people , one of them a man , who were absolute strangers to her .

the man was a big fellow with a bushy black beard and an angry scowl .

beside him was a woman a tall , thin , angular person , with violently red hair and an indescribable hat .

she looked even crosser and more amazed than the man , if that were possible .

in the background was another woman a tiny old lady who must have been at least eighty .

she looked as amazed as the other two , but rilla realized that she didn't look cross .

rilla also was realizing that something was wrong fearfully wrong .

then the man said , more gruffly than ever , " come now .

who are you and what business have you here ? "

rilla raised herself on one elbow , looking and feeling hopelessly bewildered and foolish .

she heard the old black-and-white lady in the background chuckle to herself .

" she must be real , " rilla thought .

" i can't be dreaming her . "

aloud she gasped ,

" isn't this theodore brewster 's place ? "

" no , " said the big woman , speaking for the first time , " this place belongs to us .

we bought it from the brewsters last fall .

they moved to greenvale .

our name is chapley . "

poor rilla fell back on her pillow , quite overcome .

" i beg your pardon , " she said .

" i i thought the brewsters lived here .

mrs brewster is a friend of mine .

i am rilla blythe dr blythe 's daughter from glen st mary .

" so it seems , " said the woman sarcastically .

" a likely story , " said the man .

" we weren't born yesterday , " added the woman .

rilla , stung by the disagreeable attitude of the chapleys , regained her self-possession and lost her temper .

and i shall pay you amply for the food we have eaten and the night 's lodging i have taken . "

the black-and-white apparition went through the motion of clapping her hands , but not a sound did she make .

" well , that 's fair .

if you pay up it 's all right . "

" if you haven't got any shame for yourself , robert chapley , you 've got a mother-in-law who can be ashamed for you .

no strangers shall be charged for room and lodging in any house where mrs matilda pitman lives .

remember that , though i may have come down in the world , i haven't quite forgot all decency for all that .

i knew you was a skinflint when amelia married you , and you 've made her as bad as yourself .

but mrs matilda pitman has been boss for a long time , and mrs matilda pitman will remain boss .

here you , robert chapley , take yourself out of here and let that girl get dressed .

and you , amelia , go downstairs and cook a breakfast for her . "

never , in all her life , had rilla seen anything like the abject meekness with which those two big people obeyed that mite .

they went without word or look of protest .

as the door closed behind them mrs matilda pitman laughed silently , and rocked from side to side in her merriment .

" ain't it funny ? " she said .

they don't dast aggravate me , because i 've got considerable hard cash , and they 're afraid i won't leave it all to them .

neither i will .

i 'll leave ' em some , but some i won't , just to vex ' em .

now , you can take your time about dressing , my dear , and i 'll go down and keep them mean scallawags in order .

that 's a handsome child you have there .

is he your brother ? "

" war-baby !

humph !

well , i 'd better skin out before he wakes up or he 'll likely start crying .

children don't like me never did .

i can't recollect any youngster ever coming near me of its own accord .

never had any of my own .

amelia was my step-daughter .

well , it 's saved me a world of bother .

if kids don't like me i don't like them , so that 's an even score .

but that certainly is a handsome child . "

jims chose this moment for waking up .

he opened his big brown eyes and looked at mrs matilda pitman unblinkingly .

mrs matilda pitman smiled .

even eighty-odd is sometimes vulnerable in vanity .

" i 've heard that children and fools tell the truth , " she said .

" i was used to compliments when i was young but they 're scarcer when you get as far along as i am .

i haven't had one for years .

it tastes good .

i s'pose now , you monkey , you wouldn't give me a kiss . "

then jims did a quite surprising thing .

he was not a demonstrative youngster and was chary with kisses even to the ingleside people .

" jims , " protested rilla , aghast at this liberty .

" you leave him be , " ordered mrs matilda pitman , setting her bonnet straight .

" laws i like to see some one that isn't skeered of me .

everybody is you are , though you 're trying to hide it .

and why ?

of course robert and amelia are because i make ' em skeered on purpose .

but folks always are no matter how civil i be to them .

are you going to keep this child ? "

" i 'm afraid not .

his father is coming home before long . "

" is he any good the father , i mean ? "

" well he 's kind and nice but he 's poor and i 'm afraid he always will be , " faltered rilla .

" i see shiftless can't make or keep .

well , i 'll see i 'll see .

i have an idea .

it 's a good idea , and besides it will make robert and amelia squirm .

that 's its main merit in my eyes , though i like that child , mind you , because he ain't skeered of me .

he 's worth some bother .

now , you get dressed , as i said before , and come down when you 're good and ready . "

rilla was stiff and sore after her tumble and walk of the night before but she was not long in dressing herself and jims .

when she went down to the kitchen she found a smoking hot breakfast on the table .

mr chapley was nowhere in sight and mrs chapley was cutting bread with a sulky air .

mrs matilda pitman was sitting in an armchair , knitting a grey army sock .

she still wore her bonnet and her triumphant expression .

" set right in , dears , and make a good breakfast , " she said .

" i am not hungry , " said rilla almost pleadingly .

" i don't think i can eat anything .

and it is time i was starting for the station .

the morning train will soon be along .

please excuse me and let us go i 'll take a piece of bread and butter for jims . "

mrs matilda pitman shook a knitting-needle playfully at rilla .

" sit down and take your breakfast , " she said .

" mrs matilda pitman commands you .

everybody obeys mrs matilda pitman even robert and amelia .

you must obey her too . "

rilla did obey her .

she sat down and , such was the influence of mrs matilda pitman 's mesmeric eye , she ate a tolerable breakfast .

the obedient amelia never spoke ; mrs matilda pitman did not speak either ; but she knitted furiously and chuckled .

when rilla had finished , mrs matilda pitman rolled up her sock .

" now you can go if you want to , " she said , " but you don't have to go .

you can stay here as long as you want to and i 'll make amelia cook your meals for you . "

" thank you , " she said meekly , " but we must really go . "

" well , then , " said mrs matilda pitman , throwing open the door , " your conveyance is ready for you .

i told robert he must hitch up and drive you to the station .

i enjoy making robert do things .

it 's almost the only sport i have left .

i 'm over eighty and most things have lost their flavour except bossing robert . "

robert sat before the door on the front seat of a trim , double-seated , rubber-tired buggy .

he must have heard every word his mother-in-law said but he gave no sign .

you go along to town and don't forget to call the next time you come this way .

don't be scared .

not that you are scared of much , i reckon , considering the way you sassed robert back this morning .

i like your spunk .

most girls nowadays are such timid , skeery creeturs .

when i was a girl i wasn't afraid of nothing nor nobody .

mind you take good care of that boy .

he ain't any common child .

and make robert drive round all the puddles in the road .

i won't have that new buggy splashed . "

robert spoke no word , either good or bad , all the way to the station , but he remembered the puddles .

when rilla got out at the siding she thanked him courteously .

the only response she got was a grunt as robert turned his horse and started for home .

" well " rilla drew a long breath " i must try to get back into rilla blythe again .

i 've been somebody else these past few hours i don't know just who some creation of that extraordinary old person 's .

i believe she hypnotized me .

what an adventure this will be to write the boys . "

and then she sighed .

bitter remembrance came that there were only jerry , ken , carl and shirley to write it to now .

jem who would have appreciated mrs matilda pitman keenly where was jem ?

chapter xxxii

word from jem

@date@

" it is four years tonight since the dance at the lighthouse four years of war .

it seems like three times four .

i was fifteen then .

i am nineteen now .

" today i was going through the hall and i heard mother saying something to father about me .

" ' rilla has developed in a wonderful fashion these past four years .

she used to be such an irresponsible young creature .

she has changed into a capable , womanly girl and she is such a comfort to me .

we are chums .

i don't see how i could have got through these terrible years without her , gilbert . '

" there , that is just what mother said and i feel glad and sorry and proud and humble !

it 's beautiful to have my mother think that about me but i don't deserve it quite .

i 'm not as good and strong as all that .

there are heaps of times when i have felt cross and impatient and woeful and despairing .

it is mother and susan who have been this family 's backbone .

but i have helped a little , i believe , and i am so glad and thankful .

" the war news has been good right along .

the french and americans are pushing the germans back and back and back .

we don't rejoice noisily over it .

susan keeps the flag up but we go softly .

the price paid has been too high for jubilation .

we are just thankful that it has not been paid in vain .

" no word has come from jem .

we hope because we dare not do anything else .

but there are hours when we all feel though we never say so that such hoping is foolishness .

these hours come more and more frequently as the weeks go by .

and we may never know .

that is the most terrible thought of all .

i wonder how faith is bearing it .

@date@

it did not say where the wound was , which is unusual , and we all feel worried .

there is news of a fresh victory every day now . "

@date@

" the merediths had a letter from carl today .

his wound was " only a slight one " but it was in his right eye and the sight is gone for ever !

" ' one eye is enough to watch bugs with , ' carl writes cheerfully .

and we know it might have been oh so much worse !

if it had been both eyes !

but i cried all the afternoon after i saw carl 's letter .

those beautiful , fearless blue eyes of his !

" there is one comfort he will not have to go back to the front .

he is coming home as soon as he is out of the hospital the first of our boys to return .

when will the others come ?

" and there is one who will never come .

at least we will not see him if he does .

we will not see them but they will be there ! "

@date@

" mother and i went into charlottetown yesterday to see the moving picture , " hearts of the world . "

i made an awful goose of myself father will never stop teasing me about it for the rest of my life .

and then , quite near the last came a terribly exciting one .

the heroine was struggling with a horrible german soldier who was trying to drag her away .

i thought she must have forgotten it , and just at the tensest moment of the scene i lost my head altogether .

" i created a sensation !

" everybody in the house laughed .

i came to my senses and fell back in my seat , overcome with mortification .

mother was shaking with laughter .

i could have shaken her .

why hadn't she pulled me down and choked me before i had made such an idiot of myself .

she protests that there wasn't time .

" fortunately the house was dark , and i don't believe there was anybody there who knew me .

and i thought i was becoming sensible and self-controlled and womanly !

it is plain i have some distance to go yet before i attain that devoutly desired consummation . "

@date@

" bruce always loved jem very devotedly , and the child has never forgotten him in all these years .

he has been as faithful in his way as dog monday was in his .

we have always told him that jem would come back .

bruce went home and cried himself to sleep .

this morning his mother saw him going out of the yard , with a very sorrowful and determined look , carrying his pet kitten .

" ' why did you do that ? '

mrs meredith exclaimed .

" 'to bring jem back , ' sobbed bruce .

' i thought if i sacrificed stripey god would send jem back .

i just told god i would give him stripey if he would send jem back .

and he will , won't he , mother ? '

" mrs meredith didn't know what to say to the poor child .

she just could not tell him that perhaps his sacrifice wouldn't bring jem back that god didn't work that way .

she told him that he mustn't expect it right away that perhaps it would be quite a long time yet before jem came back .

" but bruce said , ' it oughtn't to take longer'n a week , mother .

oh , mother , stripey was such a nice little cat .

he purred so pretty .

don't you think god ought to like him enough to let us have jem ? "

and i feel as if i must cry every time i think of it .

it was so splendid and sad and beautiful .

the dear devoted little fellow !

he worshipped that kitten .

@date@

" i have been kneeling at my window in the moonshine for a long time , just thanking god over and over again .

" last night i was sitting here in my room at eleven o'clock writing a letter to shirley .

every one else was in bed , except father , who was out .

i heard the telephone ring and i ran out to the hall to answer it , before it should waken mother .

it was long-distance calling , and when i answered it said ' this is the telegraph company 's office in charlottetown .

there is an overseas cable for dr blythe . '

" i thought of shirley my heart stood still and then i heard him saying , ' it 's from holland . '

" the message was ,

' just arrived .

escaped from germany .

quite well .

writing .

james blythe . '

" i didn't faint or fall or scream .

i didn't feel glad or surprised .

i didn't feel anything .

i felt numb , just as i did when i heard walter had enlisted .

i hung up the receiver and turned round .

mother was standing in her doorway .

she looked just like a young girl .

" ' there is word from jem ? ' she said .

" how did she know ?

i hadn't said a word at the phone except ' yes yes yes . '

she says she doesn't know how she knew , but she did know .

she was awake and she heard the ring and she knew that there was word from jem .

" ' he 's alive he 's well he's in holland , ' i said .

" mother came out into the hall and said , ' i must get your father on the ' phone and tell him .

he is in the upper glen . '

" she was very calm and quiet not a bit like i would have expected her to be .

but then i wasn't either .

i went and woke up gertrude and susan and told them .

" i think i know at last exactly what i shall feel like on the resurrection morning . "

@date@

" today jem 's letter came .

it has been in the house only six hours and it is almost read to pieces .

the post-mistress told everybody in the glen it had come , and everybody came up to hear the news .

it was weeks before he came to his senses and was able to write .

then he did write but it never came .

he wasn't treated at all badly at his camp only the food was poor .

he had nothing to eat but a little black bread and boiled turnips and now and then a little soup with black peas in it .

and we sat down every one of those days to three good square luxurious meals !

he wrote us as often as he could but he was afraid we were not getting his letters because no reply came .

" jem can't come home right away .

" i had a letter from jim anderson today , too .

he has married an english girl , got his discharge , and is coming right home to canada with his bride .

i don't know whether to be glad or sorry .

it will depend on what kind of a woman she is .

i had a second letter also of a somewhat mysterious tenor .

" i read a notice of mrs pitman 's death from heart failure in the enterprise a few weeks ago .

i wonder if this summons has anything to do with jims . "

@date@

he drew up a new will for her a short time before her death .

she was worth thirty thousand dollars , the bulk of which was left to amelia chapley .

but she left five thousand to me in trust for jims .

certainly jims was born lucky .

and he tumbled not only into a clump of bracken , but right into this nice little legacy .

" at all events he is provided for , and in such a fashion that jim anderson can't squander his inheritance if he wanted to .

now , if the new english stepmother is only a good sort i shall feel quite easy about the future of my war-baby .

" i wonder what robert and amelia think of it .

i fancy they will nail down their windows when they leave home after this ! "

chapter xxxiii

victory !

" a day ' of chilling winds and gloomy skies , ' " rilla quoted one sunday afternoon the sixth of october to be exact .

" it 's more like november than october november is such an ugly month . "

" i 'm afeared we 're going to have an airly winter , " foreboded cousin sophia .

" the muskrats are building awful big houses round the pond , and that 's a sign that never fails .

dear me , how that child has grown ! "

cousin sophia sighed again , as if it were an unhappy circumstance that a child should grow .

" when do you expect his father ? "

" next week , " said rilla .

anyhow , he 'll be sure to feel the difference between his usage here and what he 'll get anywhere else .

you 've spoiled him so , rilla , waiting on him hand and foot the way you 've always done . "

rilla smiled and pressed her cheek to jims ' curls .

she knew sweet-tempered , sunny , little jims was not spoiled .

nevertheless her heart was anxious behind her smile .

she , too , thought much about the new mrs anderson and wondered uneasily what she would be like .

" i can't give jims up to a woman who won't love him , " she thought rebelliously .

" i b'lieve it 's going to rain , " said cousin sophia .

" we have had an awful lot of rain this fall already .

it 's going to make it awful hard for people to get their roots in .

it wasn't so in my young days .

we gin'rally had beautiful octobers then .

but the seasons is altogether different now from what they used to be . "

clear across cousin sophia 's doleful voice cut the telephone bell .

gertrude oliver answered it .

" yes what ?

what ?

is it true is it official ?

thank you thank you . "

gertrude turned and faced the room dramatically , her dark eyes flashing , her dark face flushed with feeling .

all at once the sun broke through the thick clouds and poured through the big crimson maple outside the window .

its reflected glow enveloped her in a weird immaterial flame .

she looked like a priestess performing some mystic , splendid rite .

" germany and austria are suing for peace , " she said .

rilla went crazy for a few minutes .

she sprang up and danced around the room , clapping her hands , laughing , crying .

" oh , " cried rilla , " i have walked the floor for hours in despair and anxiety in these past four years .

now let me walk in joy .

it was worth living long dreary years for this minute , and it would be worth living them again just to look back to it .

susan , let's run up the flag and we must phone the news to every one in the glen . "

" can we have as much sugar as we want to now ? " asked jims eagerly .

it was a never-to-be-forgotten afternoon .

as the news spread excited people ran about the village and dashed up to ingleside .

the merediths came over and stayed to supper and everybody talked and nobody listened .

" this sunday makes up for that one in march , " said susan .

after being fed for four years on horrors and fears , terrible reverses , amazing victories , won't anything less be tame and uninteresting ?

how strange and blessed and dull it will be not to dread the coming of the mail every day . "

" we must dread it for a little while yet , i suppose , " said rilla .

" peace won't come can't come for some weeks yet .

and in those weeks dreadful things may happen .

my excitement is over .

we have won the victory but oh , what a price we have paid ! "

" not too high a price for freedom , " said gertrude softly .

" do you think it was , rilla ? "

" no , " said rilla , under her breath .

she was seeing a little white cross on a battlefield of france .

" no not if those of us who live will show ourselves worthy of it if we ' keep faith . ' "

" we will keep faith , " said gertrude .

she rose suddenly .

a silence fell around the table , and in the silence gertrude repeated walter 's famous poem " the piper . "

when she finished mr meredith stood up and held up his glass .

" let us drink , " he said , " to the silent army to the boys who followed when the piper summoned .

' for our tomorrow they gave their today ' theirs is the victory ! "

chapter xxxiv

mr . hyde goes to his own place and susan takes a honeymoon

early in november jims left ingleside .

rilla saw him go with many tears but a heart free from boding .

she was rosy-faced and blue-eyed and wholesome , with the roundness and trigness of a geranium leaf .

rilla saw at first glance that she was to be trusted with jims .

" i 'm fond of children , miss , " she said heartily .

" i 'm used to them i 've left six little brothers and sisters behind me .

jims is a dear child and i must say you 've done wonders in bringing him up so healthy and handsome .

i 'll be as good to him as if he was my own , miss .

and i 'll make jim toe the line all right .

he 's a good worker all he needs is some one to keep him at it , and to take charge of his money .

we 've rented a little farm just out of the village , and we 're going to settle down there .

jim wanted to stay in england but i says ' no. '

i hankered to try a new country and i 've always thought canada would suit me . "

" i 'm so glad you are going to live near us .

you 'll let jims come here often , won't you ?

i love him dearly . "

" no doubt you do , miss , for a lovabler child i never did see .

we understand , jim and me , what you 've done for him , and you won't find us ungrateful .

he can come here whenever you want him and i 'll always be glad of any advice from you about his bringing up .

so jims went away with the soup tureen , though not in it .

then the news of the armistice came , and even glen st mary went mad .

that night the village had a bonfire , and burned the kaiser in effigy .

the fishing village boys turned out and burned all the sandhills off in one grand glorious conflagration that extended for seven miles .

up at ingleside rilla ran laughing to her room .

" you 've certainly kept your vow pluckily , " laughed miss oliver .

" it wasn't pluck it was sheer obstinacy i 'm rather ashamed of it , " said rilla , kicking joyously .

" i wanted to show mother .

it 's mean to want to show your own mother most unfilial conduct !

but i have shown her .

and i 've shown myself a few things !

oh , miss oliver , just for one moment i 'm really feeling quite young again young and frivolous and silly .

did i ever say november was an ugly month ?

why it 's the most beautiful month in the whole year .

listen to the bells ringing in rainbow valley !

i never heard them so clearly .

not that i am sane just now i don't pretend to be .

the whole world is having a little crazy spell today .

soon we 'll sober down and ' keep faith ' and begin to build up our new world .

but just for today let 's be mad and glad . "

susan came in from the outdoor sunlight looking supremely satisfied .

" mr hyde is gone , " she announced .

" gone !

do you mean he is dead , susan ? "

" no , mrs dr dear , that beast is not dead .

but you will never see him again .

i feel sure of that . "

" don't be so mysterious , susan .

what has happened to him ? "

" well , mrs dr dear , he was sitting out on the back steps this afternoon .

it was just after the news came that the armistice had been signed and he was looking his hydest .

i can assure you he was an awesome looking beast .

all at once , mrs dr dear , bruce meredith came around the corner of the kitchen walking on his stilts .

he has been learning to walk on them lately and came over to show me how well he could do it .

mr hyde just took a look and one bound carried him over the yard fence .

then he went tearing through the maple grove in great leaps with his ears laid back .

you never saw a creature so terrified , mrs dr dear .

he has never returned . "

" oh , he 'll come back , susan , probably chastened in spirit by his fright . "

" we will see , mrs dr . dear we will see .

remember , the armistice has been signed .

and that reminds me that whiskers-on-the-moon had a paralytic stroke last night .

mr hyde certainly was heard of no more .

" a honeymoon , susan ? "

" yes , mrs dr dear , a honeymoon , " repeated susan firmly .

i am going to charlottetown to visit my married brother and his family .

his wife has been ailing all the fall , but nobody knows whether she is going to die not .

she never did tell anyone what she was going to do until she did it .

that is the main reason why she was never liked in our family .

but to be on the safe side i feel that i should visit her .

but have no fear that i shall be carried away with them , mrs dr . dear .

i shall be away a fortnight if you can spare me so long . "

" you certainly deserve a good holiday , susan .

better take a month that is the proper length for a honeymoon . "

" no , mrs dr dear , a fortnight is all i require .

besides , i must be home for at least three weeks before christmas to make the proper preparations .

we will have a christmas that is a christmas this year , mrs dr dear .

do you think there is any chance of our boys being home for it ? "

" no , i think not , susan .

both jem and shirley write that they don't expect to be home before spring it may be even midsummer before shirley comes .

but carl meredith will be home , and nan and di , and we will have a grand celebration once more .

chapter xxxv

" rilla-my-rilla ! "

the latter put on a few airs especially when carter flagg took miller into his store as head clerk but nobody grudged them to her .

we 're going to be married in the fall and live in the old mead house with the bay windows and the mansard roof .

i 've always thought that the handsomest house in the glen , but never did i dream i 'd ever live there .

say , i 've got on some in society , haven't i , considering what i come from ?

i never aspired to being a storekeeper's wife .

but miller 's real ambitious and he 'll have a wife that 'll back him up .

none of them came back just as they went away , not even those who had been so fortunate as to escape injury .

thousands of trains had dog monday met and never had the boy he waited and watched for returned .

yet still dog monday watched on with eyes that never quite lost hope .

one passenger stepped off the train a tall fellow in a faded lieutenant 's uniform , who walked with a barely perceptible limp .

he had a bronzed face and there were some grey hairs in the ruddy curls that clustered around his forehead .

the new station agent looked at him anxiously .

a black-and-yellow streak shot past the station agent .

dog monday stiff ?

dog monday rheumatic ?

dog monday old ?

never believe it .

dog monday was a young pup , gone clean mad with rejuvenating joy .

he flung himself against the tall soldier , with a bark that choked in his throat from sheer rapture .

he flung himself on the ground and writhed in a frenzy of welcome .

the station agent had heard the story of dog monday .

he knew now who the returned soldier was .

dog monday 's long vigil was ended .

jem blythe had come home .

i shall never forget the sight of her , tearing madly about from pantry to cellar , hunting out stored away goodies .

just as if anybody cared what was on the table none of us could eat , anyway .

it was meat and drink just to look at jem .

mother seemed afraid to take her eyes off him lest he vanish out of her sight .

it is wonderful to have jem back and little dog monday .

monday refuses to be separated from jem for a moment .

he sleeps on the foot of his bed and squats beside him at meal-times .

that little dog 's love is a treasure , jem . '

" jem laughed .

" ' afraid !

i was afraid scores of times sick with fear i who used to laugh at walter when he was frightened .

do you know , walter was never frightened after he got to the front .

realities never scared him only his imagination could do that .

his colonel told me that walter was the bravest man in the regiment .

rilla , i never realized that walter was dead till i came back home .

you don't know how i miss him now you folks here have got used to it in a sense but it 's all fresh to me .

" jem is going back to college in the fall and so are jerry and carl .

i suppose shirley will , too .

he expects to be home in july .

nan and di will go on teaching .

faith doesn't expect to be home before september .

i suppose she will teach then too , for she and jem can't be married until he gets through his course in medicine .

" ' we 're in a new world , ' jem says , ' and we 've got to make it a better one than the old .

that isn't done yet , though some folks seem to think it ought to be .

the job isn't finished it isn't really begun .

the old world is destroyed and we must build up the new one .

it will be the task of years .

i 've seen enough of war to realize that we 've got to make a world where wars can't happen .

we 've given prussianism its mortal wound but it isn't dead yet and it isn't confined to germany either .

it isn't enough to drive out the old spirit we 've got to bring in the new . '

rilla closed her journal with a little sigh .

just then she was not finding it easy to keep faith .

all the rest seemed to have some special aim or ambition about which to build up their lives she had none .

and she was very lonely , horribly lonely .

jem had come back but he was not the laughing boy-brother who had gone away in @number@ and he belonged to faith .

walter would never come back .

she had not even jims left .

so ken was home and he had not even written her that he was coming .

he had been in canada two weeks and she had not had a line from him .

it was all absurd she had been a silly , romantic , inexperienced goose .

well , she would be wiser in the future very wise and very discreet and very contemptuous of men and their ways .

the door bell rang , rilla turned reluctantly stairwards .

she must answer it there was no one else in the house ; but she hated the idea of callers just then .

she went downstairs slowly , and opened the front door .

rilla stared at him foolishly for a moment .

who was it ?

she ought to know him there was certainly something very familiar about him " rilla-my-rilla , " he said .

" ken , " gasped rilla .

ken took the uncertain hand she held out , and looked at her .

the slim rilla of four years ago had rounded out into symmetry .

" is it rilla-my-rilla ? " he asked , meaningly .

emotion shook rilla from head to foot .

she had tried to speak ; at first voice would not come .

then " yeth , " said rilla .

end of project gutenberg 's rilla of ingleside , by lucy maud montgomery