His colonel told me that Walter was the
bravest man in the regiment. Rilla, I never realized that Walter was
dead till I came back home. You don't know how I miss him now--you
folks here have got used to it in a sense--but it's all fresh to me.
Walter and I grew up together--we were chums as well as brothers--and
now here, in this old valley we loved when we were children, it has come
home to me that I'm not to see him again.'
"Jem is going back to college in the fall and so are Jerry and Carl. I
suppose Shirley will, too. He expects to be home in July. Nan and Di
will go on teaching. Faith doesn't expect to be home before September. I
suppose she will teach then too, for she and Jem can't be married until
he gets through his course in medicine. Una Meredith has decided, I
think, to take a course in Household Science at Kingsport--and Gertrude
is to be married to her Major and is frankly happy about it--
'shamelessly happy' she says; but I think her attitude is very
beautiful. They are all talking of their plans and hopes--more soberly
than they used to do long ago, but still with interest, and a
determination to carry on and make good in spite of lost years.
"'We're in a new world,' Jem says, 'and we've got to make it a better
one than the old. That isn't done yet, though some folks seem to think
it ought to be. The job isn't finished--it isn't really begun.
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