Rilla of Ingleside by Lucy Maud Montgomery Read Free Book Online Page A

You will weep tears of blood over it. The Piper has come--and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistible music. It will be years before the dance of death is over--years, Mary. And in those years millions of hearts will break."
    "Fancy now!" said Mary who always said that when she couldn't think of anything else to say. She didn't know what Walter meant but she felt uncomfortable. Walter Blythe was always saying odd things. That old Piper of his--she hadn't heard anything about him since their playdays in Rainbow Valley--and now here he was bobbing up again. She didn't like it, and that was the long and short of it.
    "Aren't you painting it rather strong, Walter?" asked Harvey Crawford, coming up just then. "This war won't last for years--it'll be over in a month or two. England will just wipe Germany off the map in no time."
    "Do you think a war for which Germany has been preparing for twenty years will be over in a few weeks?" said Walter passionately. "This isn't a paltry struggle in a Balkan corner, Harvey. It is a death grapple. Germany comes to conquer or to die. And do you know what will happen if she conquers? Canada will be a German colony."
    "Well, I guess a few things will happen before that," said Harvey shrugging his shoulders. "The British navy would have to be licked for one; and for another, Miller here, now, and I, we'd raise a dust, wouldn't we, Miller? No Germans need apply for this old country, eh?"
    Harvey ran down the steps laughing.
    "I declare, I think all you boys talk the craziest stuff," said Mary Vance in disgust. She got up and dragged Miller off to the rock-shore. It didn't happen often that they had a chance for a talk together; Mary was determined that this one shouldn't be spoiled by Walter Blythe's silly blather about Pipers and Germans and such like absurd things. They left Walter standing alone on the rock steps, looking out over the beauty of Four Winds with brooding eyes that saw it not.
    The best of the evening was over for Rilla, too. Ever since Jack Elliott's announcement, she had sensed that Kenneth was no longer thinking about her. She felt suddenly lonely and unhappy. It was worse than if he had never noticed her at all. Was life like this--something delightful happening and then, just as you were revelling in it, slipping away from you? Rilla told herself pathetically that she felt years older than when she had left home that evening. Perhaps she did-- perhaps she was. Who knows? It does not do to laugh at the pangs of youth. They are very terrible because youth has not yet learned that "this, too, will pass away." Rilla sighed and wished she were home, in bed, crying into her pillow.
    "Tired?" said Kenneth, gently but absently--oh, so absently. He really didn't care a bit whether she were tired or not, she thought.
    "Kenneth," she ventured timidly, "you don't think this war will matter much to us in Canada, do you?"
    "Matter? Of course it will matter to the lucky fellows who will be able to take a hand. I won't--thanks to this confounded ankle. Rotten luck, I call it."
    "I don't see why we should fight England's battles," cried Rilla. "She's quite able to fight them herself."
    "That isn't the point. We are part of the British Empire. It's a family affair. We've got to stand by each other. The worst of it is, it will be over before I can be of any use."
    "Do you mean that you would really volunteer to go if it wasn't for your ankle? asked Rilla incredulously.
    "Sure I would. You see they'll go by thousands. Jem'll be off, I'll bet a cent--Walter won't be strong enough yet, I suppose. And Jerry Meredith--he'll go! And I was worrying about being out of football this year!"
    Rilla was too startled to say anything. Jem--and Jerry! Nonsense! Why father and Mr. Meredith wouldn't allow it. They weren't through college. Oh, why hadn't Jack Elliott kept his horrid news to himself?
    Mark Warren came up and asked her to dance. Rilla went, knowing Kenneth