"I wonder if Margaret feels as I do about it all? She is so sweet and
smiling--and yet I know how her heart weeps, and I know how she longs
for her own house and her own hearth and her own husband--
"Oh, when my Derry comes back safe and sound--and he will come back
safe, I shall say it over and over to myself until I make it true--when
Derry comes back, we'll build a cottage, with windows that look out on
trees and a garden--and there'll be cozy little rooms, and we'll take
Polly Ann and Muffin--and live happy ever after--.
"I wonder how father stands it to be always with people who are sick?
I never knew what it meant until now. The General is an old dear--but
sometimes when I sit in that queer room of his with its lacquer and
gold and see him in his gorgeous dressing gown, I feel afraid. It is
rather dreadful to think that he was once young and strong like Derry,
and that he will never be young and strong again.
"Oh, I want the war to end--I want Derry, and sunshine and well people.
It seems a hundred years since I did anything just for the fun of doing
it. It seems a million years since Daddy and I drove downtown together
and drank chocolate sodas--
"But then nobody is drinking chocolate sodas--at least no one is doing
it light-heartedly.
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