Rilla picked out her stitches and reflected that she hated sewing.
Running the Junior Reds would be much more interesting.
Mrs. Blythe was saying upstairs, "Susan, do you remember that first day
Jem lifted up his little arms to me and called me 'mo'er'--the very
first word he ever tried to say?"
"You could not mention anything about that blessed baby that I do not
and will not remember till my dying day," said Susan drearily.
"Susan, I keep thinking today of once when he cried for me in the night.
He was just a few months old. Gilbert didn't want me to go to him--he
said the child was well and warm and that it would be fostering bad
habits in him. But I went--and took him up--I can feel that tight
clinging of his little arms round my neck yet. Susan, if I hadn't gone
that night, twenty-one years ago, and taken my baby up when he cried for
me I couldn't face tomorrow morning."
"I do not know how we are going to face it anyhow, Mrs. Dr. dear. But do
not tell me that it will be the final farewell. He will be back on leave
before he goes overseas, will he not?"
"We hope so but we are not very sure. I am making up my mind that he
will not, so that there will be no disappointment to bear. Susan, I am
determined that I will send my boy off tomorrow with a smile. He shall
not carry away with him the remembrance of a weak mother who had not the
courage to send when he had the courage to go.
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