The Trumpeter Swan

the old brick mansion by a wide expanse of unmowed lawn, thick now in midsummer with fluttering poppies. There was a flagged stone wa

had been added when Mrs. Paine had come as a widow to King's Crest with her small son, and had chosen the Schoolhouse as a quiet haven. Later, on the death of his grandparents,

chair, a broad couch, a big desk of dark seasoned mahogany, and over the mantel a steel engraving of Robert E. Lee. The low wind

had encountered old Susie, Jefferson's mother, who cooked, and old Bob, who acted as butler, and the new maid who waited on the table. These had

after those first sacred moments when the doors had been shut against the world, "they are all crazy to me

you want

f you, I'd like to show

re so many o

only one

come back to be

pedestals befor

d if you talk t

Randy. Major Prime, isn't

the

you a

this to the boarders, I'll

say such a thing. He mustn't t

ine, this looks to me l

ne, "and now if you don't mind, I'll

ge umbrella made her way through t

Major drew a sudden quick breath-- He wis

stuff," Randy was

wn deep we'd resent it if we we

d. "I believ

er us. Our people don't worship long. They have too much to think of. They'll put up some arches, and a few statues and build

haven't any illusion

now that it's all ri

ley where the river showed through the rain like a sil

thank

the high exaltation which had sent them over, or the quiet conviction of right which had helped them to carry on. What the

his uniform, bathed and came

of your uniform?"

haps if I'd been an

t be. I've no doub

s, of course, before I we

big house came the reverbe

. I'd rather face guns, but Mother w

Major rose, "I'm going t