"I--I shouldn't have beat that pillow is all. Let me get my breathing. I'm all right." Nevertheless, she let him relax her to his pillow, draw the covers down from the footboard, and cover her. "This settles it," he said, quietly. "I'm going to get a doctor." She caught his hand. "If--if you want to get me excited for sure, just you call a doctor--now--before I talk with you a minute--I want to talk--I'm all right, Sammy, if you let me talk to you. One step to that telephone, and I get excited--" "Please, ma--" "Sammy?" "Yes." "Will you listen to me and do like I want it?" "Yes." "I--been a bad old woman." "That's right--break my heart." "I got a brave boy for a son, and I want to make from him a coward." "Ma--please!" "I laid saying to myself all night, a mother should have such a son like mine and make things hard for him yet!" "Please, get it all out of your head--" "From America what has given to me everything I should hold back my son from fighting for. In war, it ain't your own flesh and blood what counts; it's the flesh and blood of your country--not, Sam? I been thinking only it's my family affair. If God lets be such a terrible thing like war, there is somewhere a good reason for it. I want you to enlist, Sammy, for your country. Not for in an office, but for where they need you. I want you to enlist to get some day to be such a lieutenant and a captain like you used to play it with tin soldiers. I want--" "Mamma, mamma, you know you don't mean it!" "I want it, I tell you. All night I worked on it how dumb I've been, not right away to see it--last night. With Clara near you in the camp--" "Ma, I didn't mean it that way; I--" "Clara near you for a woman to look in on, I been so dumb not to right away see it. I'm glad you let it out, Sam. I wouldn't take five thousand dollars it didn't happen--I feel fine--I want it--I--" "I didn't mean it, ma--I swear! Don't rub it in this way--please--please--" "Why, I never wanted anything in my life like I want this, Sammy--that you should enlist--a woman to look in on--I been a bad woman, Sammy, I--I--oh--" It was then that Mr. Lipkind tore to the telephone, his hands so frenzied that they would not properly hold the receiver. At eight o'clock, and without even a further word, Mrs. Lipkind breathed out quietly, a little tiredly, and yet so eloquent of eye. To her son, pleading there beside her for the life she had not left to give, it was as if the swollen bosom of some stream were carrying her rapidly but gently down its surface, her gaze back at him and begging him to stay the current. "Mamma! Darling! Doctor--please--for God's sakes--please--she wants something---she can't say it--give it to her! Try to make her tell me what she wants--she wants something--this is terrible--don't let her want something--mamma--just one word to me--try--try--O my God--Doctor--" A black arm then reached down to withdraw him from the glazed stare which had begun to set in from the pillow.