GI Brides (57 page)

The two young people were greatly comforted themselves that they did not have to go back with ugly refusals ringing in their ears. The nurse had told them she thought the doctor would think their mother might be well enough to be moved in a few days now, and the mother almost put on a watery little smile for them. Was that the effect of Dale’s prayers?

So they went home to Hattie’s nice dinner and then hurriedly to Dale’s meeting with her, wondering whether they really hadn’t made a mistake promising to go with Dale. Would they be bored after all? But they had promised, and they couldn’t go back on Dale after all she had tried to do for them.

They started early, for Dale had duties to perform before the talent arrived, and while she was organizing her girls who were to be ushers, the brother and sister sat together conversing in low tones about what their mother would likely do after she was well enough to travel and what
they
wanted to do.

“There’s one thing I
won’t
do,” said Corliss stubbornly. “I won’t go near Aunt Evelyn’s. Do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to college somewhere if I can manage it, or else I’ll get a job in some defense plant.”

So they quietly and unhappily plotted, knowing that any plan they could make would likely be swiftly overthrown by their mother when she got back to her normal self.

Then presently the talent arrived, several young men and a girl, and Dale brought them over and introduced them to her cousins.

George was interested at once, and Corliss sat looking them over, filled with interest. They all were bright faced and well dressed, though plainly, and she couldn’t quite place them socially. There were a few in uniform—some soldiers and some sailors. One was introduced as the dean of the college, though he seemed quite young, and he and George fell at once into conversation. Corliss wondered what it could be about. Something about the college she judged, though she caught only a word or two of their conversation.

Then the meeting began with a burst of song from the audience, followed by a chorus from the glee club, and a number by the quartette, who were publicly and informally introduced to the audience. George and Corliss were interested from the start.

There was a brief talk from the young dean about the college, especially stressing its Christian character, which for the moment somewhat dampened George’s ardor. But he soon forgot that aspect and grew interested in the personality of the different speakers and singers. For the young men sang solos and gave testimonies about what the college had done for them, until George grew deeply interested. Religion, of course, wasn’t his specialty, yet these fellows didn’t look like sissies.

Then suddenly a very tall sailor from the navy was introduced as the speaker of the evening, and immediately the audience was breathless, enthralled with the young man’s story.

He had been a student in the college before he enlisted in the navy. Three years he had been out in active duty on the sea and had participated in all but one of the great naval battles.

Simply, unostentatiously, he told his story and made those terrible battles live before his audience.

And the strange thing about this story was that the young man constantly spoke of the Lord as his companion all the way through. And he talked so naturally and easily and enthusiastically that one could not possibly think he was proud of his own achievements, or even that he was dragging in the religious aspect.

He spoke of his first impressions of the college and how surprised he was that every day began with prayer, prayer meetings of groups in their rooms, an atmosphere of prayer and dependence upon God. It opened a new view of life to the brother and sister who sat listening in wonder.

When the service was over they all gathered around the young talent and talked, especially with the young navy man who had spoken. Corliss lingered nearby listening to every word he said. Corliss had never heard a young man talk this way, as if he knew the Lord personally and yet wasn’t afraid of Him.

But George was talking to the dean, asking questions, accepting a bunch of printed material, looking at the papers in his hand and then asking more questions, and when they all finally parted at the church door, the dean and George seemed like old friends, and the dean’s last words were, “Well, Huntley, glad we met, and I’ll be looking for you next week. Good night.”

It was on the way home that George spoke. “I’m all kinds of glad, Dale, that you took us to that meeting tonight. I’m going to that college! What do you think of that?”

“I think it is simply wonderful, George! I couldn’t ask anything better for you. I’ve known a lot about that institution, and it’s great!”

“Oh,” said Corliss aghast, “but—what will Mamma say? Will she let you go? And what will you do for money? She’ll never let you have any if she doesn’t like the college.”

George was still for a moment, and then he said, “I’m not going to ask Mother, not till I get everything arranged. I’m going to
work
my way through. The dean said they had an arrangement for that, and that speaker said he did, you know. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“Oh, but George, you can’t go away and leave me,” said Corliss pitifully. “I just can’t stand it! You know Mamma won’t let me do a thing if you’re not with me, or else she’ll send me away to some stuffy girls’ school, and I’d
die.
I’d just
die
without you.”

“Maybe you could go to this same college, kid? Girls go there, you know. There were all those girls there in the glee club. Don’t girls go there, Dale?”

“Oh yes, but would your mother let you go there? Perhaps she does not believe in coeducational schools.”

“No, I don’t believe she does,” said Corliss. “And besides, I never finished the last year of high school. You can’t go into college without credits. You know that.”

“Oh, we can fix that up somehow. You can get a tutor and catch up. There are always things you can do. We’ll see. But don’t you say anything about this, not to Mom or anybody else, till we find out more. I’m going down to that college and see that dean again, and I’m going to telephone to my old principal at high school and get him to send by credentials. And then, you know, Grandmother left me that thousand dollars. I suppose I could use that in a pinch, couldn’t I? Dale, don’t you think Grandmother would like me to use it that way?”

“Why yes, I think she would. But George, I don’t just know how that was left. Haven’t you a guardian or something? Perhaps you could get his permission. We might ask Mr. Granniss. He drew up the will. Probably he could tell us all about it.”

“Yes, would you mind doing that?”

“Not at all. Mr. Granniss is very nice. If there is any way you can use it, he will know. When are you of age, George?”

“Oh bother. Not for two years yet. But when that comes, then I’d have to go into service if the war’s still on. Of course I wouldn’t mind that, but that’s the reason Mom wouldn’t want me out of her sight. She wants to keep me young so they can’t get me. But I’ve been figuring to get into the marines somehow and then be with that crowd who are in college at first, until they are called. I tried to get Mom to let me go into a college that way. But she had nine fits. She doesn’t want me to go to war, and she says anyway it will soon be over,” the boy said glumly.

“Well, don’t worry. We’ll find out just what rights you have, and then when your mother comes here perhaps there will be a way to get her consent.”

“Consent nothing!” said the boy. “She’ll never do that. But she can’t tie me to her apron strings all the rest of my life. I’ve got to be a
man
!”

“There’ll be a way, George,” said Dale comfortingly. “Don’t let’s worry about it tonight. But I can’t tell you how glad I am that you feel this way about this grand college. You don’t know what it will do for you if you go there. I’ve known a lot of boys and girls, too, who have gone there and they have all been rather wonderful.”

Corliss looked up sadly. “Yes, Dale, I can see it is a wonderful place, but just for that reason Mamma wouldn’t like it. She would never consent, not for anything.”

“Well, Corliss dear, suppose we hand this over to the Lord and see if He will do anything about it for you. Meantime, George, when are you going down to the college?”

“Next Tuesday. I hope that’s not the day the doctor picks out to send Mom home. I’d like to get this settled before she gets here, for something tells me there won’t be much chance after she comes. She’d find some other college right away. She wouldn’t think this was swell enough, I’m afraid,” said George dejectedly.

“Well, don’t worry about it. Things may work out your way yet,” said Dale cheerily.

“Fat chance!” said Corliss dejectedly.

But George set his lips firmly. “They are
going
to work out the way
I
want them for
me,
anyway,” he said. “I think I’m old enough to say where I’ll go to college, and I mean to do it. If I have to work my way through, why then all right, but I’ll choose the college, see? This is the first college I ever heard of that appealed to me, and I don’t mean to let it go for any other, no matter how noted the other is.”

Dale smiled quietly to herself. This was better than she had hoped. If George did get to go to such a college, he would surely learn what the Lord could do for him in his life. But then, on the other hand, it might make a lot of trouble for him in his home life, and would she be blamed for it? Probably. But what of that if it worked out for George’s good? Well, this was one more thing to be prayed about and put in God’s keeping.

Dale sat up a little while that night after the others had gone to bed. Somehow she felt as if she must write and tell David about what had happened that day. He might not get the letter for weeks or even months, and of course he might not ever get it on this earth, but still it helped her to bear the long absence and the terrible possibilities if she kept in touch with him by writing, even if he could not answer her. That she was prepared for. He had told her it might probably be a very long time before he could send a letter out to her. But it comforted her to talk to him on paper.

So she wrote a long letter, telling of all the problems about her aunt and how she hoped some of them were working out. Thanking him for the prayers she knew he was putting up in their behalf. And then she wrote of the wonderful Christian college and the interest her young cousins were taking in it. Another item for his prayers. Perhaps the Holy Spirit would guide his prayers for her problems.

It was quite late when the letter was finished, and she slipped quietly into her room and got into bed, so quickly and silently that she hoped she had not woken Corliss. But after she had cautiously settled herself in her bed, Corliss’s hand came stealing over and clasped hers, squeezing her fingers, and then Corliss whispered, “Oh Dale, this has been a perfectly wonderful evening. I’m so glad you took us. And oh, I do so want to go to that college!”

“Dear child!” said Dale tenderly, “I hope you can.”

“I was thinking, Dale, if Mamma should go up to Aunt Evelyn’s perhaps, just
perhaps,
she might let me stay here a little while and study. Wouldn’t there be a tutor around here I could get, or couldn’t
you
help me get ready to pass an examination so I could go to that college, too? I could get a job somewhere that would only be part-time and I could pay you for teaching me—”

“Corliss, dear! I wouldn’t want any pay, if I would be good enough. We’d have to find out about that, of course, in case there was such a chance. But you wouldn’t need to get a job. I could give you one. Not a very lucrative one, of course, but one that would give you a little spending money. I thought perhaps you could help me with that little school I’m likely taking over when the way is clear. How would you like that?”

“I’d love it. But wouldn’t I really be in your way, Dale? Wouldn’t you hate having me here for several months till I was allowed to go to college?”

“No dear, I wouldn’t hate it. I would love it. You have grown to be very dear to me since we have been through so much together, and I’d love having you. But of course that would all have to depend on your mother and what she is willing for you to do. But I’d love teaching you if I know enough. I’d have to find out the requirements, of course, maybe I could. If I couldn’t, there would be somebody else, I’m sure.”

Talking quietly, their voices presently faded into silence, and then Dale heard the soft even breathing of Corliss and knew she was asleep and for the time being out of her perplexities. It was strange, wasn’t it, how pleasant it had been to have Corliss want to stay with her? And such a few short days before, what a trial it would have been. She wondered what had made the difference. Was it because she had been trying to make it pleasant for them, and how she seemed to have come to love them?

Ruminating over the wonder of a God-given love where there had been natural dislike, it was not unlike the God-given love of her young man. Softly she fell asleep praying for her beloved, so very far away. What would she have thought could she have known that her beloved was not alone on a wide, turbulent sea, tossing in a little toy of a lifeboat, even though the man who had rescued him and put him there had gone back for some cans of provisions and met a bomb instead. A rescuer who had lost his life! And a rescued man who had been struck by a falling spar was delirious, alone, on the wide ocean, under a dark, starless sky, burning with fever, with no provisions and no companion, with a wounded shoulder, full of pain, too far gone to know his own situation. Now and again a scrap of a song from out of his past floated out hoarsely from the little boat into the night. “All through the night, all through the night, my Savior has been watching over me.”

Was David taking his last journey, on his way to meet his God?

I
t was a sunny, bright day when they brought Mrs. Huntley from the hospital, in the very best ambulance the institution boasted, with two of the choicest nurses in charge. The nurses had not been the choice of the hospital, but the patient had made such a terrific uproar about the matter that, rather than have the uproar kept up, the hospital arranged to give her what she wanted on the way over. However, the nurse who was to remain with her for a week or two was not the one she had asked for and expected to have, but a younger nurse, a recent trainee, because they could not spare the best nurses from the busy institution. The nurse who was to remain was sitting in front quite meekly with the driver and pledged to say nothing about it until the patient was well settled in the new bed and the other two had disappeared around the corner where the ambulance would be waiting for them. Then she was to arrive at the bedside and take up her duties. It was not going to be easy for either the nurse or the family, to say nothing about the patient.