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Show j HOW IT HAPPENED By RUBY H. MARTYN. (Copyright, 1918, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) A cloud had hung over Lloyd Ken-son's Ken-son's going. The kind shut their lips when his drafting and futile claims to exemption were mentioned ; the unkind Danburyites whispered "slacker" when the fearful neighbor went his way to the training camp. Janie Cushman, being be-ing of the kind in a company of the unkindly, denounced the group hotly for their attitude for no reason bin her own sense of justice. And it was quite by the accidental irony of late that stockings bearing her card were sent to him. Janie would never have known about the stockings but for the letter from Lloyd which thanked her for them, a letter with longing for Danbury news glaring between the lines of gratitude. "That ends right here," said Janie . to the letter sheet burning on the embers em-bers of her open 6re. "If that stoop-shouldered, stoop-shouldered, blue-handed clerk thinks -I'm going to write back he's got another an-other guess coming." But the longing between the lines did haunt her. Janie too was lonely, for she seemed to herself the only person in all Danbury without kin of blood or love away at the tight. In the big white homestead she knitted and knitted, but all the socks and sweaters were for no one In particular. And so Janie Cushman compromised with her determination by sending t Lloyd a store-prepared box of food, and answered his thanks with a stiff, prim note and a box of home-made cookies. From that was born a more kindly letter and a parcel of local papers. pa-pers. And by that time she was launched launch-ed on the sea of kindness with her hands clasped over the personal possession pos-session of a friend In active service. When letters from the camps were talked of Janie held her peace about Lloyd ; when picture post cards from the boys were passed in company she had a happy thought temembering those In her desk at. home; when knitting knit-ting was talked of she bent lower over the khaki sweater she was" fashioning. The sweater was nearly done when word came that no more mail was to be sent to Lloyd at the camp where he had been training. His regiment was to move very soon. It was easy enough to guess that move was the first step -toward the front. "And the sweater was going to be ready to go in this night's mail 1" thought Janie. wistfully. At first she thought to put the sweater sweat-er by for later finishing. But In Janie there was the spirit of fighting in the last ditch. The stuff that heroes are made of was in her heart, and she de- termined the sweater should be ready If a chance should happen for Lloyd to-' get It. But a tear did fall on the khaki yarn that "Janie did not understand. The night was warm for spring. Across the field back of the big Cushman Cush-man house was a . railroad embankment. embank-ment. A freight train rumbled slowly north. A train going south stopped, with Its dark outline silhouetted against the blur of lightness from a distant city. Janie, watching idly from her dark window, saw the flagman's red lantern bobbing hack along the track and a Httle group with flashlights flash-lights hovered by the steaming engine. A song from the men's throats floated across the field : " 'Where do we go from here, boys?' " Then she saw a tall shadow loom on the grass plot below her open window. "Hello!" she hailed, boldly. "Jan !" "Lloyd ! I'll come down." ' "How'd I get here? That's my train. The engine has a hot box and I can get back a"s soon as the flagman when he's called in. I knew where we were. I I guess that hot box is a sort of answer an-swer to my prayer because 1 wanted to thank you by word of mouth for all the things. The kindness they stand, for has helped me to get hold of my courage." - Janie had brought out the sweater and she thrust It into his hands. "It must be an answer to my prayer, too, Lloyd. And your letting me do the things has been a kindness, too!" The moonlight was full on his face. Janie could see his brown eyes were. Clear and his skin bronzed ; he looked Inches taller and the clerky IVar-stnop was gone from his shoulders. The . hand that grasped the sweater had iron sinews and on his khaki sleeve was a corporal's chevron. It wis as (f he had been transformed, ."You mean that?" he cried. "Oh. Jan, haven't I got to make good some more and wait to know yon love me?" "Walt? I don't think there is need of waiting for me to tell you that!" she whispered. Twice the engine whistle cut shrilly through the night. Lloyd held Janie close before he turned and hastened back across the field. The red light of the flagman signaled from the rear and the train pulled slowly away. And for a long while Janie stood us he hud left, her, sad enough for the parting, but glad, too, that she had helped make manly the man she hail learned to love. |