The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House; Or, Doing Their Best for the Soldiers
her wrinkled old face, and the girls, with the tears o
suggested gently, "if
dow and let it rest on the sweet, sympa
hadn't been for this war I suppose I should have gone right on not telling anybody for the rest of my life. Of course the Yates and Baldwins and all the folks that lived aroun
ted in anything as they were in the secret sorrow of this gentle old lady, the sorrow that broug
," thought Mollie resentfully, "to have run
es from the window and fixed them
tand," she went on, "and yet perhaps you'll be interested more
rus, at which the old woman's face lighted
-died when my little boy was only four years old. I wasn't so young any more, for Willie was the youngest-the others had all died when they wa
' on the farm week days and Sundays, we managed to get along pretty well. An' I was savin' pennies-" H
hat came to them sounded flat and inappropriate, they kept a sympathet
side for the boy. You see, it had been his father's wish that Willie should be given the chance neither of us had ever had to get some s
girls' hearts, "they was only dreams. But I don't see as there was any harm in them, seein's
round the house, I used to draw Willie up to the big, open fireplace we had in the kitche
ain the voice broke and trailed off into silence while the girls sat and waited as before, only wit
oy would reach up and pat my cheek, just like his father used to do, and seems lik
ry. I'll do all those things, jest like pa said, an' then we'll go an' live
h from workin' in the field and rub his soft little
ting cross-legged on the floor, while the other girls
en a darling!" crie
suppose"-again her eyes sought the parade ground-"if I was to meet him now I maybe wouldn't
ie, rubbing her eyes furiously with her
abruptly. "If he hadn't had such a high spirit he never
y wild lot an' they always had a grudge against my bo
to sit and dream and read books you'd thought a little fellow like
e him 'cause he was different, an' they was alwa
hat as long as he knew he didn't do it and I knew it, what othe
oo far an' begun callin' my boy names-no names that a boy with any pride in him would stand for-I heard them-they was jest around the back o' the hou
he'd found, an' it was some time before just what those ragamuffins was sa
to that chin o' his, just like his pa, he
bully o' the crowd that was at least two or three years older than h
n' Willie listened without turnin
zin' black out o' his white face and his little hands that seemed to me scarce
he
Mollie excitedly. "Oh
g with the memory. "That was the day my boy showed what was in h
loud erased the glow from her face, "that di
ame over to accuse my Willie of havin' started the fire, bringin' with him two or
in'-an' there never was truer word spoken-that Willie
le loss to him, an' so much blame had been laid at Willie's door by the
o' yours if he can go round settin' folks' barns on fire an' not get come up with! I'll give him a taste
innin' imps that was makin' all the trouble followin'
looked pityfully old and weary. Betty reached over an
e'd left a note for me-full o' love-but sayin' that he couldn't bear to bring disgrace on me an' so he'd gone away. W
is, I've never heard a w
hing! I should think he could have written. But
lie, clenching her hands belligerently. "And those
after Willie ran away that they found out that tramps started the fire
Betty hopefully, springing to her
lady shook h
my Willie boy had been alive I'm sure he would hav
drafted into the army and who was struggling valiantly and conscientiously to learn English, Grace to write a letter for a Southern mountain boy who had never learned to read and write