CHAPTER XX
That spring would always be a memorable one both to the girls and thecountry at large, for momentous events followed one upon another inrapid succession. War was declared with Spain, as Kenneth hadprophesied, and all the bustle and activity attendant upon thepreparations of hostilities with a foreign power were felt throughoutthe nation.
Kenneth, believing such a crisis inevitable, had prepared to respondpromptly to the first call for troops.
There had been a fierce tussle with his father when first he broachedthe subject, but by that time Mr. Landor had learned that Kenneth's wasnot a nature to be forced into subjection and heard him out with farmore respect than would have been accorded him a year ago. Mr. Landorsuggested, in the course of the talk, that it was a pity to leave thebusiness just as he was mastering it; and Kenneth agreed with him. Butall the patriotism in his nature was aroused and this, combined withHester's inspiration and his naturally adventurous spirit, held himproof against his father's arguments. This strength and decision werenot lost upon the older man, who, having put forth every argument tokeep his son at home, ended the discussion by saying, somewhat abruptly:
"When the call came in '61 I could not go. I had a father and motherdependent on me. I'm--I'm not dependent on you, Kenneth, and yourcountry needs you. I should have been disappointed in you if you had notwanted to go."
"Thank you, father," with a hearty grip of the hand for he thought heunderstood the personal sacrifice his father was making, though,man-fashion, he said no word.
And so Kenneth used his influence toward the end he had in view, withthe good result that when on that twenty-third day of April thePresident issued his first call for troops, he was given a commission aslieutenant in the crack cavalry troop of Radnor and ordered into theState camp to await developments.
The girls saw the troopers go. They happened to be in the business partof the city that afternoon and were attracted by groups of peoplestanding about and talking excitedly. Further investigation, coupledwith the sound of a bugle in the distance, caused them to take refuge onthe nearest steps and wait with bated breath for the militia to appear.Electric cars had stopped running, wagons rattled off into the sidestreets, leaving the main thoroughfare clear, and presently they came--atroop of cavalry followed by a regiment of infantry, the splendid columnswinging along to the gay music of the band, whose medley of martialairs wound up suggestively with "The Girl I Left Behind Me."
The crowd broke into a great spontaneous cheer and cheered and cheeredagain, shouting until they were hoarse. On the sidewalks, steps, fromwindows all about, people craned their necks for a last look at thedeparting soldiers. Women waved their handkerchiefs and wept. Men raisedtheir hats--aye, flung them high in the air--while every man, woman andchild who could lay hand on a flag waved it in frantic demonstration.For staid decorous Radnor it was an ovation.
The Dale girls thrilled with excitement. Just as the cavalry passedtheir steps Julie grabbed Hester and said:
"Look at that officer just back of the men--isn't he stunning! And seehow beautifully he manages that prancing horse! No, not over there,Hester,--this way, nearer us," excitedly, "the horse is dancing to themusic and oh!--why, Hester Dale, it's Mr. Landor! Wave to him, quick! Iwant him to see us!"
They both waved, standing on tip-toe, and, as if impelled by theinstinct that warns us when those we love are near, he turned and sawthem. There was a quick interchange of glances, a slight wave of thehand and he was gone.
"He _did_ see us," exclaimed Julie. "I am so glad even if it is againstthe regulations for an officer to recognize people. Oh, aren't you gladwe were down town! It is really living in war times and seeing forourselves the things Daddy has described a thousand times!"
"I can't realize it," said Hester, looking rather flushed, "but I wouldnot have missed it for anything in the world!"
When they got back to the house they found Jack in a fever of impatiencewaiting to waylay them.
"Did you see him? Did you see him?" he cried, stopping them at his door.
"Mr. Landor? yes," laughed Julie. "Did you?"
"Where were you? I was down at the Armory. Oh, please stop in here amoment till I tell you about it."
Thus urged, they went in.
"He was here," cried Jack, to whom there was only one he, "early thisafternoon in his uniform and he asked for you; he wanted to say good-by,but I said you'd just gone out. I saw you both going up the streetbefore he came--and he could only stay a second 'cause the troops wereordered out and he thought I'd like to get around to the Armory and seethem start off. And didn't I, just! I went lickety-split on my crutchesnearly as fast as a boy could run," he cried, immensely proud of thisachievement, "and I was there in time and got a front seat. A fellow ona grocery wagon asked me to sit up with him and I saw--everything," witha comprehensive sweep of his arms. "The horses and the officers and themen and all their friends crowding around the Armory and hanging on tosome of them tight, and some of the ladies crying and gee! but it wasgreat!"
"Well, you certainly were right in it, Jack," commented Hester.
"Should say I was! And pretty soon out came Mr. Landor--LieutenantLandor," corrected Jack with great emphasis, "and an orderly wasstanding alongside the curb with his horse and before he mounted he sawme sitting in the wagon on the corner of the street and he came down andsaluted as though I was his superior officer," Jack's eyes were fairlydancing out of his head, "and said good-by all over again. I wish youcould have seen the crowd! They just gaped! and the boys nearly had afit seeing me talking to an officer. And when he went off one of themsaid, 'Gee! he's a corker--he'll knock the spots out of the Spaniards,'and I said, 'You bet!' That's awful slang, Miss Julie," apologetically,"but it's the truth."
Julie smiled. "We are getting our first glimpse of war, Jack, and it ispretty exciting for all of us."
"I'm crazy to go--I bet they'd take me for a drummer-boy if I could getrid of these," with a disgusted glance at his crutches. "I told Mr.Landor so and he said of course I wanted to go--every boy wanted toserve his country--but sometimes there was just as much to do for thosewho stayed at home as those who went. That the women and children mustbe looked after" (the air of protection which the superiority of his sexgave him would have been funny had he not been in such deadly earnest),"and," he continued, "he appointed me a guard of honor. I'm to take careof you!" He made this announcement with positive triumph.
"How splendid!" said Julie, realizing how much this feeling ofimportance meant to the restless boy who was longing to be off for thefront.
"I'm to go and see his father too, and print a weekly bulletin full ofwhat we're all doing and anything I can make up--just like the one I dofor your father and he's going to write me from camp. Think of that! AndI'm to get well as fast as I can and study very hard and try to be a manwhen he gets back. And what do you suppose? No more office for me!"
"Jack, you are inventing!"
"Nope," delighted at her incredulity, "he had a talk with mother lastweek and I'm to go to school and then to college."
"That is the best news I've heard for many a day," said Julie,affectionately regarding the happy boy. "If you work hard and go tocollege I prophesy great things for you."
"If the war's still on, though, when I'm old enough and well enough,maybe I'd get to be a drummer-boy." In his present state of militaryardor life held the promise of nothing greater than that.
When they had left him and were nearly at their own door they werestopped by the sound of his crutches on the stairs below. Hester ranback to see what he wanted.
"Don't come up, Jack," she called, running down to meet him. "Did weleave something behind?"
"It's this, Miss Hester," reaching out a note. "He gave it to me--Inearly forgot. Please forgive me," penitently.
"Of course, Jack," taking it from him and turning again she wentupstairs.
It was only a thin sheet of paper, folded three-cornered, on which inpencil was scrawled her name. But she opened it on
the stairs with amixture of curiosity and tenderness which she would have been at a lossto define had any analysis of her feelings been required of her.
"I had hoped to see you," it said, without any other beginning, "but that failing, I have stolen a moment here at the Armory to say good-bye. It was not a friend but I, myself, to whom you were such a help and inspiration that evening. When I come back will you let me thank you for that and--more? The bit of gold you gave me I am carrying with me as a mascot. Do you mind? And if I prove as fearless and brave a soldier as you I shall thank God for making me of the right stuff. Will you pray that it may be so? Good-bye."
She stood quite still for a moment when she had finished reading, thenbrushed her hand quickly over her eyes and went on into their apartment.Finding Julie she handed her the bit of paper and said gayly, thoughJulie thought there was a suspicious huskiness in her voice, "See, Juliedear, a note from a really, truly soldier." And before Julie could speakshe whisked out of the room and until Bridget called her to dinner, wasseen no more.
* * * * *
A month passed, during which, in spite of the excitement over war andthe subsequent depression along certain lines of business, their workincreased from day to day. And in the midst of all this bustle and rushwhen each hour exacted of them the very limit of their endurance, Mr.Dale died. He went to sleep with God as peacefully as a little child. Atfirst the girls could not believe it. They had grown so used to the longhours in which he slept, so accustomed to the paralysis which kept hismind and body apathetic, that they could not conceive that he would notwake again and turn his eyes fondly on them as before. When finally hewas carried out of the little home and laid in his last resting placethey began to realize that God had released him from his earthlythraldom and given them another saint in heaven. With characteristiccourage they lived through those first days when the awful lonelinesspressed so heavily upon them, and with characteristic determination tookup their work struggling to go on as if nothing had happened. But it washard--harder than any other sorrow which had come to them--for the wholeincentive of their work was gone. It was as if the very mainspring oftheir lives had snapped and broken.
In the long solemn talks the girls had together at this time Julie urgedthat they must be as faithful to their father's precepts as they hadtried to be while he was with them. And she dwelt very much on the factthat he was still with them, guiding and loving them as much as duringall those years before he was stricken down. And Hester believed thistoo for they had been taught the beauty of the inner, spiritual lifethat counts for immortality and makes all separation merely a transitorything bridged over by love. So they felt their beloved father still withthem, though Hester often brokenly whispered that working was robbed ofits incentive now that they were no longer "making a home for Dad."
It must not be supposed that they were left alone in their affliction.On the contrary, friends sprang up in every direction. Women whomhitherto they had only regarded as customers and known most formally,now came forward with kindest words and thoughtful suggestions, whileexpressions of sympathy in the form of cards and flowers threatened towell-nigh deluge them. It was evident to the most casual observer that"those Dale girls" were persons of considerable importance. Unique as itwas, they had made their place in Radnor, and the fact was given widerecognition. They themselves were fairly bewildered and overcome by somuch demonstration from people from whom they expected nothing. Thatthey were not insensible to its meaning was shown in their gratefulappreciation of every word and act. Even the haughty Miss Davis,desiring to make reparation, chose this time to come and see them, andHester out of the fullness of her sorrowful heart accepted her repentantkiss and fell to talking of childish days.
Next to Dr. Ware there was no one so keenly conscious of or who sorejoiced over this capitulation of exclusive Radnor as the Lennoxes. AsMrs. Lennox wrote Kenneth Landor, most girls were what their positionmade them, but they had made their own position, winning the respect andadmiration and at last the friendship of every one who knew them. He,hard at work drilling raw recruits in Virginia (for his troop had beenordered into a Southern camp) found time to write how glad of this hewas and to the girls he sent a joint note of deepest sympathy.
The Driscoes wrote, of course, each in their own way. The girls halfsmiled over Cousin Nancy's letter--it was such a mixture of a belief inthe retribution that overtakes the willful and an evident grief that theMajor was no more. Colonel Driscoe wrote little but did much whichdeveloped later through Dr. Ware who unwarily let the cat out of thebag. And Dr. Ware, as might have been expected, did everything. Thistime the girls allowed him to plan and arrange and perform with them andfor them the last loving offices for their father, feeling that it washis right.
Miss Ware was at this time in England and as the Doctor was living athis club, his time was more than ever at their disposal. Miss Ware hadtaken flight at this first note of war, indeed before the bugle sounded,for she had a very indifferent regard for her country and at all timespreferred England. So the Doctor came and went without comment, and amonth after Mr. Dale's death he was summoned hastily one morning byBridget.
Julie lay ill. He could not find that she was in any great pain and hehad not expected that she would be. He knew immediately that the thinghe had been so long dreading had taken place. Her tired nerves refusedto do their work at last--the delicate mechanism of her body hadstopped.
Hester hovered about, wide-eyed and solicitous and then it was that morethan ever Dr. Ware took things into his own hands and said a few thingsto Hester which caused that young woman to gasp with astonishment andfling her arms about his neck in her usual impetuous fashion.