REAL TRAGEDY
A day or two went by during which the girls tried pluckily to go on with
their duties about the Hostess House with bright and smiling faces. It was
hard, though, to keep their thoughts from wandering to the four boys who
were now on their way to face all the realities and all the horrors of the
terrible war, and perhaps it was well that the leaving of so many made
their duties lighter than usual.
On their return from the station after seeing the boys entrain they had
found a letter from their friend, Mrs. Barton Ross, of their home town of
Deepdale, head of the Young Women's Christian Association, under whose
auspices the Hostess House at Camp Liberty was run. In this letter Mrs.
Ross had said that she had sent to the girls a box of books for which they
had sent a request--books all of which one boy or another had asked for,
and which the regular Camp library had not been able to supply.
The books had now come, Mollie had learned on a visit to the postoffice,
and as it was a heavy package she had got out the car and with the other
girls had run down for it.
As the car rolled up to the curb and stopped once more before the Hostess
House, Betty waved her hand to an upper window.
"There's Mrs. Sanderson," she explained as they got out of the automobile.
"She looks kind of pathetic sitting up there all alone."
"She always looks pathetic to me," sighed Amy, winding an arm about the
Little Captain as they ascended the steps. "But everybody looks sadder and
more forlorn than usual the past few days."
"Well, we can't be sad and forlorn any longer," said Betty determinedly.
"We came here to cheer people up, you know, and how we're going to do it
by being doleful ourselves, I don't know. So, in the words of the
vulgar--'here goes.' How's that?"
"That" was a rather forced and pitiful little smile, but it brought an
answering one from Amy and another warm hug.
"You're just wonderful, Betty!" she said lovingly, "and we'll do just
whatever you say. If you want us to smile, we'll smile, that's all. Of
course, we have tried, but we'll try still harder."
Betty hugged back, and they went up the stairs toward the old familiar
room, feeling better and more cheerful for their renewed good resolutions.
For a while the girls were busy unpacking the books and putting them in
place. Then Betty announced her intention of calling on Mrs. Sanderson.
"I can't bear to think of her in there by the window all alone," she said.
"It has been awfully hard for her to watch all those boys going away,
knowing that her Willie wasn't among them. I might be able to comfort her
a little."
"Let me go too," begged Amy, and arm in arm the two girls went on their
little mission of kindness.
They knocked on the door, but, receiving no answer, pushed it open and
stepped inside the room. The old lady was sitting in exactly the same
position as when Betty had seen her from the car, almost an hour before.
She glanced up, a little startled when they spoke to her, and half rose to
her feet. She looked dazed and very old and drawn. With a little cry of
compassion, Betty ran over to her and gently forced her back into her
chair.
"Did we startle you?" she asked anxiously. "We knocked, but you didn't
answer, and we came right in. I'm sorry--"
"You needn't be, dearie." The old eyes twinkled and the old hand was very
gentle as it patted Betty's cheek reassuringly. "I'm always glad to see
you and I've told you to come right in any time. I was thinking very hard,
I guess, and that's why I didn't hear you."
"Then we may stay a little while?" said Betty, relieved. "But please tell
us if we'll be a bother," she added hastily, as the old woman turned once
more to the window.
"No, no, I was hoping you would come," said the latter so eagerly that
Betty knew her impulse had been a correct one. The old woman had wanted
some one--some one who understood--to pour out her heart to.
"It was wonderful just to sit here and watch those boys who went, an' I've
been thinkin' of it," she said, after a brief silence. "Only, somethin'
inside o' me, I guess 'twas my heart, kept bleedin' an' cryin' out that my
boy should have been among them--my little brown-eyed Willie who used to
sit out in the sun readin' every minute he could get. I can see him now,
sittin' there, jest as if 'twas yesterday--" Her voice trailed off, and in
a silence eloquent with sympathy the girls waited for her to go on.
"But I wanted to tell those boys too," she cried, straightening up with
sudden fire, "that my Willie wasn't only a reader an' as bright as a
dollar,--he could fight, too. He'd have made a soldier to be proud of.
"It wouldn't be near so bad," she added, turning to the girls with such a
depth of tragedy in her eyes that their hearts bled for her, "if I could
only be sure o' his bein' dead. It's the heartbreak of not knowin' that's
goin' to kill me in the end!
"But there," she said, catching herself up as though ashamed of the
outburst, "seems like I talk to you little ladies more'n I ever talked to
anybody else in all my life. Seems like it's jest been bottled up inside
o' me so long it's jest got to come out.
"I wish you'd tell me," she added, looking at them wistfully, "when it
bothers you, an' I'll jest bottle it all up again twice as tight as 'twas
before."
"Oh, please," cried Amy, taking one of the work-worn hands and pressing it
earnestly between her own warm ones. "We just feel honored to think that
you trust us enough and like us enough to tell us these things. If you
didn't we'd be miserable!"
"Indeed we should," added Betty fervently.
Mrs. Sanderson looked from one of the flushed earnest faces to the other,
and her eyes filled slowly with tears.
"I never thought," she said tremulously, "that there were girls like you
in the world."
Several days later Mrs. Watson, their chaperone, and the head of the
Hostess House, called the girls to her for a consultation, and, wondering
what new thing was in store for them, they responded to the call.
The boys had been gone for a week, time enough to get accustomed--a
little--to the feeling of loss that had so oppressed them during the first
few days.
And now there were rumors of new soldiers arriving at the camp and of more
than enough work for the girls at the Hostess House to keep their minds
continually occupied.
And, in fact, it was to discuss that very situation that Mrs. Watson had
called them to her this morning.
"Well, girls," she said when they had seated themselves in characteristic
attitudes about the room, "we've had a little breathing spell now, just
enough time to rest up before the next onslaught."
She paused over the word, smiled, and they smiled back at her.
"Of course that means," Betty interpreted, "that not only the boys but
hundreds of their relatives and friends are coming to be entertained and
housed and amused."
"Exactly," nodded Mrs. Watson. "And, of course, the work that you girls
have done--"
"And you," Betty interjected loyally, but Mrs. Watson brushed the
interruption aside with a wave of her hand, though she flushed happily.
"Of course I've done my part of it," she agreed modestly. "But equally of
course I couldn't have done it if you girls hadn't stood shoulder to
shoulder with me. And," she added, enthusiastically, "it has been more the
spirit with which you did the work than the actual work itself that has
won such a reputation for our Hostess House here."
"'Reputation!'" repeated Mollie wonderingly, then added with an impish
inflection: "Oh, have we one of those things?"
"We have," responded Mrs. Watson, with an indulgent smile. "And, whether
deserved or not, modesty would prompt us to say that it is not, of
course--" and the girls laughed amusedly. "Our reputation is unusually
good and unusually widespread. So good, in fact, that the boys are glad
when they find they are to be sent to Camp Liberty."
"Yes," Betty nodded thoughtfully, "several boys have told me that, but I
thought they only said it in a spirit of gratitude, or perhaps, as
flattery."
"That is modest," said Mrs. Watson with another smile. "But," she added,
leaning forward in her chair and speaking earnestly, "I honestly think
that you girls don't even begin to realize what a wonderful work you have
been doing right here in this little city that sprang up over night. It
isn't a small thing, you know--sending thousands of our boys away cheered
and strengthened, armed to meet the future--better men, just for having
met you.
"And the mothers and wives and sweethearts who have been entertained so
royally and permitted to say good-bye to their loved ones under the very
best and cheeriest conditions possible--why, they have spoken to me of you
with tears in their eyes!"
There were tears in their own eyes as the girls smiled happily at her.
"But it's been such fun," Mollie protested, "just seeing how much you can
make people forget their troubles."
"That's it," Mrs. Watson broke in quickly. "That's the spirit that has
made your work here such a wonderful success. You've done it--and whether
you will admit it or not, sometimes we've all been so tired at night we've
ached in every joint and muscle when we've crawled into bed--because you
loved to do it and because it was 'fun' to make people forget their
troubles, if only for a little while, and be happy.
"That's the secret, dear girls, and that's why the boys are all eager to
be assigned here. Also, the boys in the permanent garrison will sing your
praises to the few who have not already heard them, and of course we shall
have to live up to their opinion of us."
"Well, if just doing what we have been doing gives us such a reputation,"
said Amy soberly, "I guess it won't be hard to live up to it in the
future."
"Only," said Mrs. Watson warningly, "the work before us is apt to be very
much more trying and arduous than any we have yet had. The camp is going
to be filled to overflowing, and of course that will mean entertaining
continually for us.
"We may even," she added thoughtfully, "have to quarter some of the
relatives and friends outside the camp in private homes, and, of course,
it will be up to us to find those homes."
"You mean we are to go canvassing--the way we did that Thanksgiving?"
queried Betty.
Mrs. Watson nodded, and Grace groaned.
"Well," said the latter, "I don't care. In fact, I rather like the idea if
only my feet will hold out."
"They look pretty durable," remarked Mollie gravely.
"But you don't know how they feel," retorted Grace, wiggling one foot in
its trim slipper experimentally. "Every time I get a pair of shoes I have
to get a size larger, and you know," argumentatively, "at that rate I'll
be a freak and you'll be able to charge admission for a look at me."
"Good," cried Mrs. Watson, laughing with the others. "I knew some one
would be clever enough to think up a new way of making money. Keep it
right up, Grace."
"Yes," said Betty drolly, "just think of the good you can do!"