Dawn Eleanor Porter (free novels to read txt) 📖

used to. But Icouldn't on this war. I tried it. But it jest wouldn't do. I begun it:

     Oh, woe is me, said the bayonet,

     Oh, woe is me, said the sword.

Then the whole awful frightfulness of it an' the bigness of it seemedto swallow me up, an' I felt like a little pigment overtopped an'surrounded by great tall mountains of horror that were tumblin' downone after another on my head, an' bury in' me down so far an' deepthat I couldn't say anything, only to moan, 'Oh, Lord, how long, oh,Lord, how long?' An' I knew then't was too big for me. I didn't try towrite no more."

"I can see how you couldn't," faltered the girl, as she turned away.

"I'm afraid—we're all going to find it—too big for us,"

CHAPTER XXV

KEITH TO THE RESCUE

John McGuire had not been home twenty-four hours before it was knownthat he "took it powerful hard."

To Keith Susan told what she had learned.

"They say he utterly refuses to see any one outside the family; an'that he'd rather not see even his own folks—that he's always askin''em to let him alone."

"Is he ill or wounded otherwise?" asked Keith.

"No, he ain't hurt outwardly or infernally, except his eyes, an' hesays that's the worst of it, one woman told me. He's as sound as anut, an' good for a hundred years yet. If he'd only been smashed upgood an' solid, so's he'd have some hope of dyin' pretty quick, hewouldn't mind it, he says. But to live along like this—!—oh, he's inan awful state of mind, everybody says."

"I can—imagine it," sighed Keith. And by the way he turned away Susanknew that he did not care to talk any more.

An hour later Mrs. McGuire hurried into Susan's kitchen. Mrs. McGuirewas looking thin and worn these days. From her half-buttoned shoes toher half-combed hair she was showing the results of strain andanxiety. With a long sigh she dropped into one of the kitchen chairs.

"Well, Mis' McGuire, if you ain't the stranger!" Susan greeted hercordially.

"Yes, I know," sighed Mrs. McGuire. "But, you see, I can't leave—him." As she spoke she looked anxiously through the window toward herown door. "Mr. McGuire's with him, now, so I got away."

"But there's Bess an' Harry," began Susan,

"We don't leave him with the children, ever," interposed Mrs. McGuire,

with another hurried glance through the window. "We—don't dare to.

You see, once we found—we found him with his father's old pistol. Oh,

Susan, it—it was awful!"

"Yes, it—must have been." Susan, after one swift glance into hervisitor's face, had turned her back suddenly. She was busy now withthe dampers of her kitchen stove.

"Of course we took it right away," went on Mrs. McGuire, "an' put itwhere he'll never get it again. But we're always afraid there'll besomethin' somewhere that he WILL get hold of. You see, he's SOdespondent—in such a terrible state!"

"Yes, I know," nodded Susan. Susan had abandoned her dampers, and hadturned right about face again. "If only he'd see folks now."

"Yes, an' that's what I came over to talk to you about," cried Mrs.McGuire eagerly. "We haven't been able to get him to see anybody—notanybody. But I've been wonderin' if he wouldn't see Keith, if we couldwork it right. You see he says he just won't be stared at; an' Keith,poor boy, COULDN'T stare, an' John knows it. Oh, Susan, do you supposewe could manage it?"

"Why, of course. I'll tell him right away, an' he'll go over; I knowhe'll go!" exclaimed Susan, all interest at once.

"Oh, but that wouldn't do at all!" cried Mrs. McGuire. "Don't you see?John refuses, absolutely refuses, to see any one; an' he wouldn't seeKeith, if I should ASK him to. But he's interested in Keith—I KNOWhe's that, for once, when I was talkin' to Mr. McGuire about Keith,John broke in an' asked two or three questions, an' he's NEVER donethat before, about anybody. An' so I was pretty sure it was becauseKeith was blind, you know, like himself."

"Yes, I see, I see."

"An' if I can only manage it so they'll meet without John's knowin'they're goin' to, I believe he'll get to talkin' with him before heknows it; an' that it'll do him a world of good. Anyway, somethin'sgot to be done, Susan—it's GOT to be—to get him out of this awfulstate he's in."

"Well, we'll do it. I know we can do it some way."

"You think Keith'll do his part?" Mrs. McGuire's eyes were anxious.

"I'm sure he will—when he understands."

"Then listen," proposed Mrs. McGuire eagerly. "I'll get my John out onto the back porch to-morrow mornin'. That's the only place outdoors ICAN get him—he can't be seen from the street there, you know. I'llget him there as near ten o'clock as I can. You be on the watch, an'as soon as I get him all nicely fixed, you get Keith to come out intoyour yard an' stroll over to the fence an' speak to him, an' then comeup on to the porch an' sit down, just naturally. He can do that allright, can't he? It's just wonderful—the way he gets aroundeverywhere, with that little cane of his!"

"Yes, oh, yes."

"Well, I thought he could. An' tell him to keep right on talkin' everyminute so my John won't have a chance to get up an' go into the house.Of course, I shall be there myself, at first. We never leave himalone, you know. But as soon as Keith comes, I shall go. They'll getalong better by themselves, I'm sure—only, of course, I shall bewhere I can keep watch out of the window. Now do you understand?"

"Yes, an' we can do it. I know we can do it."

"All right, then. I'm not so sure we can, but we'll try it, anyway,"sighed Mrs. McGuire, rising to her feet, the old worry back on herface. "Well, I must be goin'. Mr. McGuire'll have a fit. He's asnervous as a witch when he's left alone with John. There! What did Itell you?" she broke off, with an expressive gesture and