"John, I'm afraid it isn't the right thing to let her do it!" put in his
mother anxiously. "I'm afraid her aunt wouldn't like it at all, and I'm
sure she won't be comfortable."
"I shall _love_ it!" said Ruth happily, "and my aunt will never know
anything about it. As for comfort, I'll be as comfortable as you are, my
dear lady, and I'm sure you wouldn't let comfort stand in the way of
being with your boy." She smiled her sweet little triumph that brought
tears to the eyes of the mother; and Cameron gave her a blinding look of
gratitude and adoration. So she carried her way.
Cameron protested no more, but quietly enquired at the Hostess' House if
the place was all right, and when he put them on the car at eight o'clock
he gave Ruth's hand a lingering pressure, and said in a low tone that
only she could hear, with a look that carried its meaning to her heart:
"I shall never forget that you did this for my mother--and me!"
The two felt almost light-hearted in comparison to their fellow
travellers, because they had a short reprieve before they would have to
say good-bye. But Ruth sat looking about her, at the sad-eyed girls and
women who had just parted from their husbands and sons and sweethearts,
and who were most of them weeping, and felt anew the great burden of the
universal sorrow upon her. She wondered how God could stand it. The old
human question that wonders how God can stand the great agonies of life
that have to come to cure the world of its sin, and never wonders how God
can stand the sin! She felt as if she must somehow find God and plead
with Him not to do it, and again there came that longing to her soul, if
she only knew God intimately! Cameron's question recurred to her
thoughts, "_Could_ anyone on this earth know God? Had anyone ever known
Him? Would the Bible say anything about it?" She resolved to read it
through and find out.
The brief ride brought them suddenly into a new and to Ruth somewhat
startling environment.
As they followed the grassy path from the station to their abiding place
two little boys in full military uniform appeared out of the tall grass
of the meadows, one as a private, the other as an officer. The small
private saluted the officer with precision and marched on, turning after
a few steps to call back, "Mother said we might sleep in the tent
to-night! The rooms are all full." The older boy gave a whoop of delight
and bounded back toward the building with a most unofficer-like walk, and
both disappeared inside the door. A tiny khaki dog-tent was set up in the
grass by the back door, and in a moment more the two young soldiers
emerged from the back door with blankets and disappeared under the brown
roof with a zest that showed it was no hardship to them to camp out for
the night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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