Kathie's Soldiers. Douglas Amanda M.
three o'clock the printed list was complete, and the notices were being made up.
"So your uncle's in for it, Rob!" exclaimed a voice at his side.
"No, you're mistaken. I listened to every name."
"Here it is, – Robert Conover!"
Rob followed the grimy finger down the list. Sure enough! His heart stood still for a moment.
"He will get a sub, though! He'd be a fool to go when he's rich enough to stay at home!"
"Yes, that's it!" and a burly fellow turned, facing them with a savage frown. "It's the poor man this 'ere thing comes hard on! Rich men are all cowards! They kin stay to hum and nuss themselves in the chimbly-corner. I say they're cowards!"
Rob's heart swelled within him for a twofold reason. First, the shock. He had not been able to believe that the draft would touch them, and the surprise was very great. Then to have his uncle called a coward! All the boy's hot, unreasoning indignation was ablaze.
"He is not!" he answered, fiercely.
"Say that agin and I'll knock you over!"
Rob was not to be dared or to be bullied into silence. He stood his ground manfully.
"I say that my uncle is no coward, whether he gets a substitute or not!"
The fellow squared off. It was Kit Kent, as he was commonly called, a blacksmith of notoriously unsteady habits.
"None of that!" and a form was interposed between Bob and his assailant. "Hit a fellow of your size, Kent, not a boy like that."
"Let the youngster hold his tongue then! Much he knows!"
Rob did not stir, but his lips turned blue and almost cold with the pressure. If he had been a little larger, it seemed to him that he could not have let Kent alone.
"There's a chance for you to make some money," exclaimed a voice in the crowd. "Six or seven hundred dollars, and you're grumbling about being out of work! It's a golden opportunity, and you'll never find another like it."
That turned the laugh upon Kent. Rob walked off presently. Turning into a quiet street, he nearly ran over two men who stood talking.
"The trouble is that you can hardly find a substitute. Most of the able-bodied men who will go have enlisted or been drafted. The look is mighty poor!"
That startled Rob again. He began to feel pretty sober now. What if —
Kathie and Aunt Ruth had gone out into the garden, and were taking up some flowers for winter.
"O Rob!" exclaimed Kathie, with a cry, "is there any news? It's the worst, I know," answering her own question, her breath almost strangling her.
"Yes, it is the worst!"
"Uncle Robert has been drafted!" Kathie dropped her trowel and flew to her mother. "But he won't go," she sobbed; "do you think he will? How can we spare him?"
"It would be no worse for us than for hundreds of others," replied her mother. "Kathie, my darling, be brave until we know, at least."
"Where is he?"
"He went to Connor's Point with Mr. Langdon. Hush, dear, don't cry."
Kathie wiped away her tears. "It is very hard," she said. "I never realized before how hard it was."
But the flowers lost their charm. Kathie put away her implements, laid off her garden-dress, as she called it, – a warm woollen sack and skirt, – and sat down, disconsolately enough, to practise her music. Next week she was going to school.
She heard Uncle Robert's voice on the porch at the side entrance. Rob was talking in great earnest; but somehow she couldn't have gone out, or trusted the voice still so full of tears.
He came in at length. "You have heard the news, Kitty?"
She rose and went to his arms, hid her face upon his shoulder. "O Uncle Robert!"
"What ought I to do, little one?"
It was such a solemn question that she could not answer it readily, selfishly.
"Rob came very near getting into a row on my behalf. It was rather funny. Poor boy! I believe he would go willingly in my stead."
The story interested Kathie a good deal, and turned the current of her feelings somewhat. Then one or two of the neighbors came in, and they had no more quiet until they gathered round the supper-table. Freddy thought it a great honor to be drafted.
"Is it true that there is a scarcity of substitutes?" asked Rob of his uncle.
"I believe it is. Mr. Langdon put in one about a month ago, and paid a thousand dollars."
"But you could afford that," said Rob, decisively.
"What about the cowardice of the proceeding?"
Rob colored. The matter appeared so different to him now.
"O Uncle Robert!" – in a most deprecating tone.
"I will not perplex you, nor keep you in suspense," he said, gravely. "If your father was alive I think I should not hesitate a moment. The country is at her sorest need, and calls upon her loyal children for assistance. It is the duty of every man who can be spared to answer the call, to swell the list so that the struggle may be brief. It seems to me that another year will certainly see our war ended, now that we have such brave and able generals in the field, but if the stress should be any greater, I must respond. Now, however, I shall do my best to procure a substitute."
They all drew a relieved breath. Kathie looked up with a tender light in her eyes.
"I am so glad!" she said afterward, nestling beside him upon the sofa. "Did it surprise you when you heard that you were drafted?"
"I must confess that it did. I had a presentiment that I should escape, so it seems such things are not always to be depended upon."
Kathie was silent for some time, her eyes engrossed with a figure in the carpet.
"Well, Miss Thoughtful, what is it now? Are you not satisfied to have me stay, or am I less of a hero in your eyes?"
"No, Uncle Robert. I was only thinking of the men who were compelled to go and did not want to, who had families to leave – "
"My darling, it is not necessary to lay the cares of others so deeply to heart. Instead, we must do all we can for those who are left behind."
"I don't think a draft quite a fair thing, after all," declared Rob, coming out of a brown study.
Mrs. Alston entered the room. "Mr. Morrison is over here and wishes to see you, – Ethel's father."
Uncle Robert rose and went out.
In the mean while Aunt Ruth and Rob had quite a warm discussion concerning the draft. Kathie somehow felt very tender-hearted, and was silent.
Presently they heard steps in the hall and the door opened.
"I have brought Mr. Morrison in to see you all," Mr. Conover said, "and to explain to you that he desires to go in my stead, a willing substitute."
There was something very solemn and withal sweet in Uncle Robert's voice. Rob winked away a tear, Kathie walked over to Mr. Morrison and laid her hand in his, – a pretty white hand if she did dust the rooms and do gardening with it.
"It is so very kind and generous in you," she began, falteringly, thinking of another love and another substitute.
"No, Miss Kathie, it isn't all pure generosity, so don't praise me too soon. If I'd been real lucky about getting work, maybe I shouldn't have taken the idea so strongly into my mind, or if poor Ethel's mother had lived. But times are unsettled, and business of all kinds is so very dull that I'd half made up my mind to 'list and get the bounty. That would be something for my little girl in case she didn't have me. Then when I heard talk of the draft I thought to myself, 'If Mr. Conover gets taken I'll offer to go in his place'; and so I waited. Being an Englishman, I am not liable, you know."
"And that makes it the more noble," returned Kathie, softly. "It was so good to – to