CHAPTER XIX
A MATTER OF LETTERS
Susan said afterward, in speaking of that spring, that "'twas nothin'but jest one serious of letters." And, indeed, life did seem to bemostly made up of letters.
At the sanatorium Keith was waiting for spring and the new doctor; andthat the waiting was proving to be a little nerve-racking was provedby the infrequency of his letters home, and the shortness anduncommunicativeness of such as did come.
Letters to him from Hinsdale were longer and were invariably brightand cheery. Yet they did not really tell so much, after all. To besure, they did contain frequent reference to "your Miss Stewart," andgave carefully casual accounts of what she did and said. In the veryfirst letter Susan had hit upon the idea of always referring to theyoung lady as "your Miss Stewart."
"Then we won't be tellin' no lies," she had explained to Mr. Burton,'"cause she IS his 'Miss Stewart.' See? She certainly don't belong tono one else under that name--that's sure!"
But however communicative as regards "Miss Stewart" the letters were,they were very far from that as regarded some other matters. Forinstance: neither in Daniel Burton's letters, nor in Susan's, wasthere any reference to the new clerk in McGuire's grocery store. Sofar as anything that Keith knew to the contrary, his father was stillpainting unsalable pictures in the Burton home-stead studio.
But even these were not all the letters that spring. There were theletters of John McGuire from far-away France--really wonderfulletters--letters that brought to the little New England town the verybreath of the battle-field itself, the smell of its smoke, the shrieksof its shells. And with Mr. Burton, with Susan, with the wholeneighborhood indeed, Mrs. McGuire shared them. They were even printedoccasionally in the town's weekly newspaper. And they were talked ofeverywhere, day in and day out. No wonder, then, that, to Susan, thespring seemed but a "serious of letters."
It was in May that the great Paris doctor was expected; but late inApril came a letter from Dr. Stewart saying that, owing to warconditions, the doctor had been delayed. He would not reach thiscountry now until July--which meant two more months of weary waitingfor Keith and for Keith's friends at home.
It was just here that Susan's patience snapped.
"When you get yourself screwed up to stand jest so much, an' then theycome along with jest a little more, somethin's got to break, I tellyou. Well, I've broke."
Whether as a result of the "break" or not, Susan did not say, neitherdid she mention whether it was to assuage her own grief or toalleviate Keith's; but whatever it was, Susan wrote these verses andsent them to Keith:
BY THE DAY
When our back is nigh to breakin', An' our strength is nearly gone, An' along there comes the layin' Of another burden on--
If we'll only jest remember, No matter what's to pay, That 'tisn't yet December, An' we're livin' by the day.
'Most any one can stand it-- What jest TO-DAY has brought. It's when we try to lump it, An' take it by the lot!
Why, any back would double, An' any legs'll bend, If we pile on all the trouble Meant to last us till the end!
So if we'll jest remember, Half the woe from life we'll rob If we'll only take it "by the day," An' not live it "by the job."
"Of course that ''tisn't yet December' is poem license, and hain'treally got much sense to it," wrote Susan in the letter she sent withthe verses. "I put it in mostly to rhyme with 'remember.' (Theresimply wasn't a thing to rhyme with that word!) But, do you know,after I got it down I saw it really could mean somethin', afterall--kind of diabolical-like for the end of life, you know, likeDecember is the end of the year.
"Well, anyhow, they done me lots of good, them verses did, an' I hopethey will you."
In June Dorothy Parkman was graduated from the Hinsdale Academy. BothMr. Burton and Susan attended the exercises, though not together. ThenSusan sat down and wrote a glowing account of the affair to Keith,dilating upon the fine showing that "your Miss Stewart" made.
"It can't last forever, of course--this subtractin' Miss Stewart'sname for Dorothy Parkman," she said to Mr. Burton, when she handed himthe letter to mail. "But I'm jest bound an' determined it shall lasttill that there Paris doctor gets his hands on him. An' she ain'tgoin' back now to her father's for quite a spell--Miss Dorothy, Imean," further explained Susan. "I guess she don't want to take nochances herself of his findin' out--jest yet," declared Susan, with asage wag of her head. "Anyhow, she's had an inspiration to go see agirl down to the beach, an' she's goin'. So we're safe for a while.But, oh, if July'd only hurry up an' come!"
And yet, when July came--
They were so glad, afterward, that Dr. Stewart wrote the letter thatin a measure prepared them for the bad news. He wrote the day beforethe operation. He said that the great oculist was immensely interestedin the case and eager to see what he could do--though he could holdout no sort of promise that he would be able to accomplish the desiredresults. Dr. Stewart warned them, therefore, not to expectanything--though, of course, they might hope. Hard on the heels of theletter came the telegram. The operation had been performed--and hadfailed, they feared. They could not tell surely, however, until thebandages were removed, which would be early in August. But even if ithad failed, there was yet one more chance, the doctor wrote. He wouldsay nothing about that, however, until he was obliged to.
In August he wrote about it. He was obliged to. The operation had beenso near a failure that they might as well call it that. The Parisoculist, however, had not given up hope. There was just one man in theworld who might accomplish the seemingly impossible and give backsight to Keith's eyes--at least a measure of sight, he said. This manlived in London. He had been singularly successful in several of thefew similar cases known to the profession. Therefore, with their kindpermission, the great Paris doctor would take Keith back with him tohis brother oculist in London. He would like to take ship at once, assoon as arrangements could possibly be made. There would be delayenough, anyway, as it was. So far as any question of pay wasconcerned, the indebtedness would be on their side entirely if theywere privileged to perform the operation, for each new case of thisvery rare malady added knowledge of untold value to the profession,hence to humanity in general. He begged, therefore, a prompt word ofpermission from Keith's father.
"Don't you give it, don't you give it!" chattered Susan, with whitelips, when the proposition was made clear to her.
"Why, Susan, I thought you'd be willing to try anything, ANYTHING--forKeith's sake."
"An' so I would, sir, anything in season. But not this. Do you thinkI'd set that blessed boy afloat on top of them submarines an'gas-mines, an' to go to London for them German Zepherin's to rain downbombs an' shrapnel on his head, an' he not bein' able to see a thingto dodge 'em when he sees 'em comin'? Why, Daniel Burton, I'm ashamedof you--to think of it, for a minute!"
"There, there, Susan, that will do. You mean well, I know; but this isa matter that I shall have to settle for myself, for myself," hemuttered with stern dignity, rising to his feet. Yet when he left theroom a moment later, head and shoulders bowed, he looked so old andworn that Susan, gazing after him, put a spasmodic hand to her throat.
"An' I jest know I'm goin' to lose 'em both now," she choked as sheturned away.
Keith went to London. Then came more weeks of weary, anxious waiting.Letters were not so regular now, nor so frequent. Definite news washard to obtain. Yet in the end it came all too soon--and it waspiteously definite.
Keith was coming home. The great London doctor, too, had--failed.