Show ST 77 e when julia jalli husband hui bind richard disappeared in world war I 1 she he and her father la in law john 1 I sic BIC farlina Fa Far ilane lint tailed raised her two children to tc ael ether he r tw twenty e n ty A alve v years year have elapsed and d R ale ae n now 0 w 2 27 ae Is 1 in the ai army amy of world war II 11 while 2111 26 has hai become interested in atut spans gordon julia li Is worried about ric who has hai shown hown tendencies of inheriting his fathers father recklessness and JIU jill who she he li Is afraid marry spans spang thus thai becoming het bet coming an army wife to the same lame grief she he has hai endured sh she e confides these worries to dive dave pat t tenon er a family friend who secretly loves her jill jua and spang to go to a dance and there jill JIH discovers she he li Is in love chaiten IV she greeted an the people she knew with sparkling brightness she led spang around the room introducing him to all the dowagers trying not to look too terribly proud too triumphant so they danced this Is the army and manhattan serenade and then when they passed the band stand the leader caught the glint of spans wings and the music swung into the air corps song and spang stopped dead and jill sang it with him tilting her head back tears burning her eyelids because it was so gallant and so beautiful full oft off we go into the wild blue yonder flying high into the sun 1 I cant bear it jill was thinking when the high moment sank and somebody cut in leaving spang a little bewildered till some man carpe came up dragging a girl in dahlia colored chiffon 1 I cant bear having baving it all go by me jill was mourning to herself like a parade marching past with flags flying leaving me standing on the curb with the chewing gum papers and the banana peels and all the stupid lett left out people oh cant he see cant he see but though they danced till the band leaders collar was wilted and the trumpet players weary lip broke and all the older people had gone home though they romped downstairs with the rest to eat slightly curling sandwiches and drink punch that tasted flatly of the lump of ice that had melted in the bowl though spang gathered her close whenever he had the chance and said now levs lets finish this one there was no supreme and wonderful moment they never did finish one there was always some man barging up with some girl in tow and spang smiled politely and surrendered jill who drifted oft off chewing hate between her teeth but at last lasi they were tramping back through the wet grass to the station wagon and spang was helping her in and tucking her skirt around her he climbed up beside her and loosened his tie never saw so many four and three As at a party in my life 11 he remarked we never did get a chance to try a rumba 1 I know jill sighed surreptitiously sliding off a shoe but that was your lault fault you were the glamour boy all their dates wanted a with the air corps so I 1 had to stumble around smelling fourteen different kinds of shaving lotion and hearing a hundred versions of the same alibi how like the devil they all wished they could get into the big middle of this fight im starving and I 1 know a greek who makes the best hamburgers in the world lets left get some shall we swell idea you navigate and ill fly the heap gosh all those women are going to hate bate me every darn dam one gave me some message to deliver to some fellow at camp and there a chance that ill ever see one of those men cant they realize that weve got forty thousand men down there and that you never have any time to look up a man who in your squadron they dont know a thing about the army except what they read and hear on the radio ive heard my mother tell that when my father was leaving for the port of embarkation some old lady gave him a spice cake to deliver to her sort son and all she knew was that he be was somewhere in france daughter of the regiment A war would be a darn sight easier on the army if it tor for the civilians said spang they parked at the little lunch wagon and ate two hamburgers apiece and drank tall bottles of pop laughing a great deal over nothing im being silly jill thought dubiously biou blou sly im pressing the issue and in a little while if im not careful hell know hov hoy I 1 feel and maybe hell be sorry for or me or disgusted spang would not take advantage that she ahe knew there was a quiel quid and fastidious reserve about him that hat could be trusted so she forced herself into a cool airiness though a small ache was growing bigger and tighter in her breast if spang went away with nothing spoken with only the com coin mon pAces of friendship between them a casual goadby goad by that pain the knew would last fc forever rever it hail had to lo be love because like lik e t thi his had ev ever e r happened e d to her e r gleeten b before ef or e no nothing s so 0 sweet n nothing 0 th s so 0 urgent she was so changed within herself she was not the jill tic mcfarlane she had bad been at all not the girl who had come home from college with no definite objective only a few half baked ideas about getting into some kind of service preferably some branch with a keen uniform now she felt dedicated a somehow 0 m berchow and everything that had b been e was trivial and not even worth considering any more she said it if you get ptomaine ill make you a mustard plaster im very special on mustard plasters she said what will you do when they finish this war business spang keep on flying 1 I dont know spang wiped mustard from his fingers with a very clean handkerchief all these kids will be in it then it will be the worlds most crowded profession maybe ill go back to the tarm farm that place of yours Is 13 pretty 7 i what im thinking about is the millions of women stuck home swell and a farmer Is darned independent dont mention that to mother especially if she has just had a row with the county agent ashes done pretty well in spite of her handicaps she had bad to jill was loyal she had ric and me and grandfather and not any money to speak of grandfather had some but dooley was terribly proud she was determined to make her own way we wont any of us have any money after the war not tor for years this will be a complete democracy then every man equal because every man will be broke was he giving her a gentle brushoff telling her without words that life was earnest that when the war was over he be was going to need some broad hipped woman with a placid capacity for work and no more temperament pe than a cow no band music or parades no daughter of the regiment jill wondered as she lay that night wideawake wide awake in her bed spang and jill compare futures but hes fies here she comforted herself sharply aware of him beyond the wall he have come he could have spent his leave somewhere else but he be did come and somehow I 1 have to be what he wants she got up early so early that julia having her coffee on the screened porch looked at her daughter in surprise on sunday she wrinkled her brow or you been in bed at all of course ive been in bed beautiful jill nibbled a piece of toast from julias plate spang says you look like my sister though I 1 tell you because youre terribly vain already dont be disturbed because I 1 feel like your grandmother this morning we lost a thousand dollar brood animal last night and your grandfather has gone into deep mourning did you have tun fun last night 1 I guess so dooley ive been thinking its time I 1 started helping you a little better put me to work so he admires mi milkmaids does he 1 I ask him its just a suggestion of course dont bristle sweet red hair is so darned explosive the dahlias kahlias are beginning to bloom you could freshen up the house a little no the droopy act they always pull in novels pretty girl discovered in the garden with an armful of flowers flower sl 1 I 1 dont want anything as corny as that well it if rather be diff disi ered feeding a c calf alf the buckets bucket ook in the w wellhouse well ell house home but it might az b a slightly strained look as fo and I 1 fed them au all long ago not just read the bunnies andla fj natural men have been kia atil li admire women who were e conte be themselves julias ap changed change d a little sobered iq go 90 off the deep end on this ald JIU jill youre still till young but rm hotl PM im not yot and theres a war 1 I know julia was get 1 I dont want you to be hurt im hurt already its no ga dooley jill said faintly E thing you say Is true aid and yet yett A all no good 1 it was a lovely sunday i J hillh in aided if you liked lovely sund the august heat was tempos tempe by a cloudy sky and an all the ate leaned lazily a against the horbal 1 with smoky haze masking drowsy indolence she walked up the lane v S spang and through the mea meae in where the late crop of hay bay had b T cut where elderberries elder berries shook ivy t c f purple heads over fences and qt scampered through the clover a I 1 ble their bright eyes at th the top t of the hill apprehend they J john ohn I 1 mcfarlane lanc he was sitt t under the big persimmon tree J ting little twigs into lengths and ing them in neat piles at his bis 4 t ile he cramped grumped a greeting and said sorry about your prize f grandfather but he only and went on with his whittling whitt whittling lin 71 fr the woodland on the ridge V 1 1 cool and full 10 of little wild wt w pe rings and paths cut by tiny ho ran through it in every direct fe spang said good timber and answered awfully old I 1 thin and then they were at the rail fez ceic A and the crest and there below un tim the lake shimmered flat and quig reflecting the lavender coloring t the sky spang asked hows the fis hinga and jill said ask Grand taW hes the fisherman in the famili off to the east where the hl hi sa sank a began its i s crying anden a great oak ovi head a little bird whimpered a shrieked sharply voicing sot sol small heartbreak A leaf tell fell a struck the back of aills hand a she looked at it and saw the ot of winter already in its it 5 heay bed a fading a prescience and shivered a little dogwood spang said ing the leaf between his they fau fall early S then it will be winter 4 h spoke numbly and how bow are going to bear it he looked at her soberly T tr russians will bear it and t greeks there wont be much eat in their towns and no place get warm but fight ui so will we t im not thinking about thit thiner like that im not soft I 1 can ta t it things like that anyway wl wb 1 im thinking about Is millions mill Tons women stuck home alone tha the ghastly prospect sd your battle spang sail its tough I 1 agree but were against the same kind of thing M 1 lions of men stuck in the middle 1 I 1 a war alone every one alone ev evi though theres a mob around bu ahli nobody to admire us and nice to look at hairy legs in shot shot ers era and masculine table marine uninhibited by feminine present present nothing soft to sit on nothing ay st to look at nothing but sweat aej men swearing like to c but cant wet khaki dangling fro fr coat hangers and those awful f tigue hats now its your turn 1 I give up jill managed smile at least we can tie 0 hair back with ribbons and prete gretef somebody cares how we look j do you tie your hair back wi wig ribbons green ones to match my di position 1 l how about some brown velvet v 1 match your eyes t I 1 with a song i 71 in her heart ie aills heart began to sing agac aga but she held her eagerness grim in check she going to rel rei tenderness into his voice or h eyes after all it might be a lin the old army line but somehow she knew that spang was not the sort to give a girl comp ments that had no meaning not tl alj sort to smile and kiss lightly pe pea haps and then ride on slow ji J mcfarlane RIc Farlane warned the adult pa of her mind I 1 aloud she said my eyes w a black I 1 hated bated them when I 1 aft w small I 1 wanted big blue eyes ar yellow curls down to my waist bi I 1 got eyes like grandfather and ha alje mother and my fathers re res except that mother sa say he be hated buzzards hill and though that mother was crazy to want tg live here when her people died B bif I 1 love the place P spang looked down the slope I 1 iv the red roots roofs and wandering ahia chii fences the softening green of th it great old trees its a band somo parce your mother told tola me thip house was a hundred years they built to last in those days r J ITO TO BE CONTINUED |