no evidence of any jealousybetween the two great welfare organizations. But when I persisted inadvancing he said: "Well, you might as well know it. She's there. I sawher through a window."
"What has that got to do with my getting a bottle of vanilla extractthere if they have one?"
"Oh, she'll have one probably; she uses it for fudge! I'm not goingthere, and that's flat."
"I thought you had forgotten her."
"I have!" he said savagely. "The way you forget the toothache. But Idon't go round boring a hole in a tooth to get it again. Look here, MissLizzie, do you know what she was doing when I saw her? She was droppingsix lumps of sugar into a cup of something for that--that parent she'sgone bugs about."
"That's what she's here for."
"Oh, it is, is it?" he snarled. "Well, she wasn't doing it for thefellow with a cauliflower ear who was standing beside him. There was aline of about twenty fellows there putting in their own sugar, allright."
"I'll tell you this, Mr. Burton," I said in a serious tone, "sometimes Ithink things are just as well as they are. You haven't a disposition formarriage. I don't believe you'll make her happy, even if you do gether."
"Oh, I'll not get her," he retorted roughly. "As a matter of fact, Idon't want her. I'm cured. I'm as cured as a ham. She can feed sugar tothe whole blamed Army, as far as I'm concerned. And after that she cango home and feed sugar to his five kids, and give 'em colic and sit upat night and----"
I left him still muttering and went into the Y hut. Hilda gave a littlescream of joy when she saw me and ran round the counter, which was aplank on two barrels, and kissed me. I must say she was a nice littlething.
"Isn't France small after all?" she demanded. "And do you know I've seenyour nephew--or is it Miss Tish's? He's just too dear! We had a longtalk here only a day or two ago, and I was telling about you three, andsuddenly he said: 'Wait a minute. You've mentioned no names, but I'llbet my tin hat my Aunt Tish was one of them!' Isn't that amazing?"
Well, I thought it was, and I took a cup of her coffee. But it was poorstuff, and right then and there I made a kettleful and showed her how.But I noticed she grew rather quiet after a while.
At last she said: "You--I don't suppose you've seen that Mr. Burtonanywhere, have you?"
"We saw something of him in Paris," I replied, and glanced out thewindow. He was standing across what had once been the street, and ifever I've seen hungry eyes in a human being he had them.
"He was so awfully touchy, Miss Lizzie," she said. "And then I was neversure---- Why do you suppose he isn't fighting? Not that it's any affairof mine, but I used to wonder."
"He's got a milk leg," I said, and set the coffee kettle off.
"A milk leg! A milk---- Oh, how ridiculous! How---- Why, Miss Lizzie,how can he?"
"Don't ask me. They get 'em sometimes too. They're very painful. Mycousin, Nancy Lee McMasters, had one after her third child and----"
I am sorry to say that here she began to laugh. She laughed all over thehut, really, and when she had stood up and held to the plank and laughedshe sat down on a box of condensed milk and laughed again. I am atruthful woman, and I had thought it was time she knew the facts, but Isaw at once that I had make a mistake. And when I looked out the windowMr. Burton had gone.
I remained there with her for some time, but as any mention of Mr.Burton only started her off again we discussed other matters.
She said Charlie Sands was in the Intelligence Department at the Front,and that when he left he was about to, as she termed it, pull off araid.
"He's gone to bring me a German as a souvenir; and that CaptainWeber--you remember him--he is going to bring me another," she cried."He gave me my choice and I took an officer, with a nice upcurledmustache and----"
"And five children?"
"Five children? Whatever do you mean, Miss Lizzie?"
"I understand that Captain Weber has five. I didn't know but that youhad a special preference for them that way."
"Why, Miss Lizzie!" she said in a strained voice. "I don't believe it.He's never said----"
I was washing out her dish towels by that time, for she wasn't much of ahousekeeper, I'll say that, though as pretty as a picture, and I neverlooked up. She walked round the hut, humming to herself to show how calmshe was, but I noticed that when her broom fell over she kicked at it.
Finally she said: "I don't know why you think I was interested inCaptain Weber. He was amusing, that's all; and I like fighting men--thebravest are the tenderest, you know. I--if you ever happen on Mr. Burtonyou might tell him I'm here. It's interesting, but I get lonelysometimes. I don't see a soul I really care to talk to."
Well, I promised I would, and as Mr. Burton had gone I went back alone.Tish was asleep with a hot stone under her cheek, from which I judgedshe'd had neuralgia, and Aggie was nowhere in sight. But round thecorner an ammunition train of trucks had come in and I suddenlyremembered Aggie and her horse trough. Unfortunately I had not asked herwhere it was.
I roused Tish but her neuralgia had ruffled her usual placid temper, andshe said that if Aggie was caught in a horse trough let her sit in it.If she could take a bath in a pint of water Aggie could, instead ofhunting up luxuries. She then went to sleep again, leaving me in ananxious frame of mind.
Mr. Burton was not round, and at last I started out alone with aflashlight, but as we were short of batteries I was too sparing of itand stepped down accidentally into a six-foot cellar, jarring my spinebadly. When I got out at last it was very late, and though there weresoldiers all round I did not like to ask them to assist me in mysearch, as I had every reason to believe that our dear Aggie had soughtcleanliness in her nightgown.
It was, I believe, fully 2 A. M. when I finally discovered her behind awall, where a number of our boys were playing a game with a lantern anddice--a game which consisted apparently of coaxing the inanimate objectswith all sorts of endearing terms. They got up when they saw me, but Iobserved that I was merely taking a walk, and wandered as nonchalantlyas I was able into the inclosure.
At first all was dark and silent. Then I heard the trickle of runningwater, and a moment later a sneeze. The lost was found!
"Aggie!" I said sternly.
"Hush, for Heaven's sake! They'll hear you."
"Where are you?"
"B-b-behind the trough," she said, her teeth chattering. "Run and get mybathrobe, Lizzie. Those d-d-dratted boys have been there for an hour."
Well, I had brought it with me, and she had her slippers; and we startedback. I must say that Aggie was a strange figure, however, and one ofthe boys said after we had passed: "Well, fellows, war's hell, allright."
"If you saw it too I feel better," said another. "I thought maybe thisfrog liquor was doing things to me."
Aggie, however, was sneezing and did not hear.
I come now to that part of my narrative which relates to Charlie Sands'raid and the results which followed it. I felt a certain anxiety abouttelling Tish of the dangerous work in which he was engaged, and waiteduntil her morning tea had fortified her. She was, I remember, sitting ona rock directing Mr. Burton, who was changing a tire.
"A raid?" she said. "What sort of a raid?"
"To capture Germans, Tish."
"A lot of chance he'll have!" she said with a sniff. "What does he knowabout raids? And you'd think to hear you talk, Lizzie, that pullingGermans out of a trench was as easy as letting a dog out after aneighbor's cat. It's like Pershing and all the rest of them," she addedbitterly, "to take a left-handed newspaper man, who can't shut his righteye to shoot with the left, and start him off alone to take the wholeGerman Army."
"He wouldn't go alone," said Mr. Burton.
"Certainly not!" Tish retorted. "I know him, and you don't, Mr. Burton.He'll not go alone. Of course not! He'll pick out a lot of men who playgood bridge, or went to college with him, or belong to his fraternity,or can sing, or some such reason, and----"
Here to my great surprise she flung down one of our two last remainingteacups and retired pr
ecipitately into the ruins. Not for us to witnessher majestic grief. Rachel--or was it Naomi?--mourning for her children.
However, in a short time she reappeared and stated that she was sick offooling round on back roads, and that we would now go directly to theFront.
"We'll never pull it off," Mr. Burton said to me in an undertone.
"She has never failed, Mr. Burton," I reminded him gravely.
Before we started Mr.