Men without women
lay in the dark with my eyes open and thought of all the girls I had
ever known and what kind of wives they would make. It was a very
interesting thing to think about and for a while it killed off
trout-fishing and interfered with my prayers. Finally, though, I went
back to trout-fishing, because I found that I could remember all the
streams and there was always something new about them, while the girls,
after I had thought about them a few times, blurred and I could not call
them into my mind and finally they all blurred and all became rather the
same and I gave up thinking about them almost altogether. But I kept on
with my prayers and I prayed very often for John in the nights and his
class was removed from active service before the October offensive. I
was glad he was not there, because he would have been a great worry to
me. He came to the hospital in Milan to see me several months after and
was very disappointed that I had not yet married, and I know he would
feel very badly if he knew that, so far, I have never married. He was
going back to America and he was very certain about marriage and knew it
would fix up everything.
* * * * *
TRANSCRIBER NOTES
Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple
spellings occur, majority use has been employed.
Punctuation has been maintained except where obvious printer errors
occur.