There were gardens over here--beautiful gardens
with the beauty of centuries--and what are they now? Mangled,
desecrated things! We are fighting to make those dear old places where
we had played as children, safe for other boys and girls--fighting for
the preservation and safety of all sweet, wholesome things.
"Whenever any of you go to the station be sure to give Dog Monday a
double pat for me. Fancy the faithful little beggar waiting there for me
like that! Honestly, dad, on some of these dark cold nights in the
trenches, it heartens and braces me up no end to think that thousands of
miles away at the old Glen station there is a small spotted dog sharing
my vigil.
"Tell Rilla I'm glad her war-baby is turning out so well, and tell Susan
that I'm fighting a good fight against both Huns and cooties."
"Mrs. Dr. dear," whispered Susan solemnly, "what are cooties?"
Mrs. Blythe whispered back and then said in reply to Susan's horrified
ejaculations, "It's always like that in the trenches, Susan."
Susan shook her head and went away in grim silence to re-open a parcel
she had sewed up for Jem and slip in a fine tooth comb.
CHAPTER XII
IN THE DAYS OF LANGEMARCK
"How can spring come and be beautiful in such a horror," wrote Rilla in
her diary. "When the sun shines and the fluffy yellow catkins are coming
out on the willow-trees down by the brook, and the garden is beginning
to be beautiful I can't realize that such dreadful things are happening
in Flanders.
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