And I told
him I would be ten pretty soon now, so it won't be very long before I'll
be eighteen, and then I'll go to help him fight, and maybe let him come
home for a rest while I took his place. I wrote Jerry, too. Jerry's
getting better, you know."
"Is he? Have you had any good news about him?"
"Yes. Mother had a letter to-day, and it said he was out of danger."
"Oh, thank God," murmured Mrs. Blythe, in a half-whisper.
Bruce looked at her curiously.
"That is what father said when mother told him. But when l said it the
other day when I found out Mr. Mead's dog hadn't hurt my kitten--I
thought he had shooken it to death, you know--father looked awful
solemn and said I must never say that again about a kitten. But I
couldn't understand why, Mrs. Blythe. I felt awful thankful, and it must
have been God that saved Stripey, because that Mead dog had 'normous
jaws, and oh, how it shook poor Stripey. And so why couldn't I thank
Him? 'Course," added Bruce reminiscently, "maybe I said it too loud--
'cause I was awful glad and excited when I found Stripey was all right.
I 'most shouted it, Mrs. Blythe. Maybe if I'd said it sort of whispery
like you and father it would have been all right. Do you know, Mrs.
Blythe"--Bruce dropped to a "whispery" tone, edging a little nearer to
Anne--"what I would like to do to the Kaiser if I could?"
"What would you like to do, laddie?"
"Norman Reese said in school to-day that he would like to tie the Kaiser
to a tree and set cross dogs to worrying him," said Bruce gravely.
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