Mam'selle JoComstock, Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa)
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Mam'selle Jo
Comstock, Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa)
Saint Lawrence River Valley -- Fiction; Self-sacrifice -- Fiction; Single women -- Fiction
Pierre staggered to his feet.
"It’s a lie!" he said thickly, "a lie!" Then he began to weep aloud
like a frightened child.
Law went to him and shook him roughly.
"Stop that!" he said sternly. "Can’t you try to be worthy of your boy?"
"But—but I wanted him to know how I have been trying, even when I
couldn’t quite make it. And now——"
"Perhaps he does know," Law spoke more softly, "perhaps he does."
Jo did not move, but her eyes seemed to reflect all the misery of her
stricken country.
"Mam’selle, can you not help us?" Law spoke from his place beside the
groaning Pierre.
"I—I’m afraid not, Mr. Law. Not just now." Poor Jo; for the first time
in her life she was overpowered. "I somehow," she spoke as if to
herself, "I somehow thought I understood how it felt when I saw the
others. But I didn’t; I didn’t." Then she turned to Donelle. "Where
are you going?" she asked.
"Mamsey, I’m going down to—to Tom’s hut. It seems as if he will be
there."
Then Jo bent her head.
"Go, child," she said with a break in her hard voice. "Go."
And later Law found Donelle there in the little river-hut. She was
sitting by the open door, her face, tearless and tragically white,
turned to the river whose tide was coming in with that silent, mighty
rush that almost took away the breath of any one who might be watching.
"Dear, little girl!" said Law soothingly, taking his place at her feet,
"I wish you would cry."
"Cry? Why, Man-Andy, I cannot cry."
She was holding an old coat of Tom’s, the one he had discarded for the
uniform of his country.
"I wish we could have known just how he went—my Tom!"
"We may some day, child. But this we both know: he went a hero."
"Yes, I’m sure of that. He would be afraid, but he would do the big
thing. He was like that. I think such men are the bravest. Listen,
Man-Andy!"
Law listened. The strange, swift, silent, incoming tide filled his
ears.
"I have been thinking," Donelle whispered, "thinking as I sat here of a
wide, shining road and a great many, many men and boys rushing along it
making the sound of the river. I think it is that way with the many
boys who have died so suddenly; so soon. They are hurrying along some
safe, happy road; and oh! Man-Andy, it seems as if it were Tom’s road.
All the afternoon as I have been sitting here in the only place he ever
knew as home," Law glanced back into the pitiful, plain, empty room, "I
have seen Tom at the head of the great crowd going on and on. He seems
to be leading them, showing them the way over the road he loved."
The water was covering the highest black rocks, the rushing, still sound
was indeed like the noise of boyish feet hurrying eagerly home.
Law stood up and took Donelle in his arms. She frightened him by her
awful calm.
"Little girl," he whispered, "try to cry. For God’s sake, try to cry!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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