Show chapter XIII As ali it turned outs out dirk was spared the necessity of worrying about the fit of his next dinner cont coat for the following year and a half ilia his coat during that period was a neat olive drab as aa was that of some millions of young men of his age or thereabouts stoat most of that time he be spent at port fort sheridan first as an officer in training then an aa tin an officer training others to ile be officers he was excellent at this job influence put him film there and kept him there even after lie he began to chafe at the restraint in the last six months of it though he did not of course know that it was waa to be the last six months dirk tried desperately to get to france lie ile was suddenly sick of the neat job at home of the dinners of the smug routine of the olive drab motor car that whisked him wherever he wanted to go he had a captaincy of making them snap into it of paula of his mother even two months before th ewars close he succeeded in getting oyer o but paris was his bla headquarters between dirk and hla fits mother the first rift had appeared ifie if il were a man selina said id make up my mind straight about this war and then id do one of two things id go into it the way jan snip goes at forking the manure pile a dirty job got to be cleaned up or id refuse to do it altogether if I 1 believe in it as a job for me id tight fight or id be a conscientious objector theres nothing in between for tiny any one who old or crippled or sick paula was uns aghast when she heard this so was julle julie whore wallings had been loud when eugene had gone into the air service he was in france now thoroughly happy do you mean demanded paula that you actually want dirk to go over there and be wounded or kill killed edt I 1 no if dirk were killed my life would stop id go on living I 1 surpooe sup but my life would have stopped they all were doing some share in the work to be done selina had thought about her own place in this athla war welter she had wanted to do canteen work in france but had decided against this as being selfish tile the thing for me to do she said Is to go on raising vegetables and hogs nil as fast as I 1 can she supplied countless households with free food while their men were gone she herself worked like a man taking the place of the able bodied helper who had been employed on her farm paula was lovely in her red cross uniform she persuaded ded dirk to go into the liberty bond selling drive and he was unexpectedly effective in his quiet serious way most convincing and undeniably thrilling tu look at in uniform paulas little air of possession had grown until now it enveloped him she playing now was deeply and terribly in love with him TO DE BE CONTINUED |