Rilla of Ingleside
"Norman Reese said in school to-day that he would like to tie the
Kaiser to a tree and set cross dogs to worrying him," said Bruce
gravely. "And Emily Flagg said she would like to put him in a cage and
poke sharp things into him. And they all said things like that. But
Mrs. Blythe"--Bruce took a little square paw out of his pocket and put
it earnestly on Anne's knee--"I would like to turn the Kaiser into a
good man--a very good man--all at once if I could. That is what I would
do. Don't you think, Mrs. Blythe, that would be the very worstest
punishment of all?"
"Bless the child," said Susan, "how do you make out that would be any
kind of a punishment for that wicked fiend?"
"Don't you see," said Bruce, looking levelly at Susan, out of his
blackly blue eyes, "if he was turned into a good man he would
understand how dreadful the things he has done are, and he would feel
so terrible about it that he would be more unhappy and miserable than
he could ever be in any other way. He would feel just awful--and he
would go on feeling like that forever. Yes"--Bruce clenched his hands
and nodded his head emphatically, "yes, I would make the Kaiser a good
man--that is what I would do--it would serve him 'zackly right."
CHAPTER XXVI
SUSAN HAS A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE
An aeroplane was flying over Glen St. Mary, like a great bird poised
against the western sky--a sky so clear and of such a pale, silvery
yellow, that it gave an impression of a vast, wind-freshened space of
freedom. The little group on the Ingleside lawn looked up at it with
fascinated eyes, although it was by no means an unusual thing to see an
occasional hovering plane that summer. Susan was always intensely
excited. Who knew but that it might be Shirley away up there in the
clouds, flying over to the Island from Kingsport? But Shirley had gone
overseas now, so Susan was not so keenly interested in this particular
aeroplane and its pilot. Nevertheless, she looked at it with awe.
"I wonder, Mrs. Dr. dear," she said solemnly, "what the old folks down
there in the graveyard would think if they could rise out of their
graves for one moment and behold that sight. I am sure my father would
disapprove of it, for he was a man who did not believe in new-fangled
ideas of any sort. He always cut his grain with a reaping hook to the
day of his death. A mower he would not have. What was good enough for
his father was good enough for him, he used to say. I hope it is not
unfilial to say that I think he was wrong in that point of view, but I
am not sure I go so far as to approve of aeroplanes, though they may be
a military necessity. If the Almighty had meant us to fly he would have
provided us with wings. Since He did not it is plain He meant us to
stick to the solid earth. At any rate, you will never see me, Mrs. Dr.
dear, cavorting through the sky in an aeroplane."
"But you won't refuse to cavort a bit in father's new automobile when
it comes, will you, Susan?" teased Rilla.
"I do not expect to trust my old bones in automobiles, either,"
retorted Susan. "But I do not look upon them as some narrow-minded
people do. Whiskers-on-the-moon says the Government should be turned
out of office for permitting them to run on the Island at all. He foams
at the mouth, they tell me, when he sees one. The other day he saw one
coming along that narrow side-road by his wheatfield, and Whiskers
bounded over the fence and stood right in the middle of the road, with
his pitchfork. The man in the machine was an agent of some kind, and
Whiskers hates agents as much as he hates automobiles. He made the car
come to a halt, because there was not room to pass him on either side,
and the agent could not actually run over him. Then he raised his
pitchfork and shouted, 'Get out of this with your devil-machine or I
will run this pitchfork clean through you.' And Mrs. Dr. dear, if you
will believe me, that poor agent had to back his car clean out to the
Lowbridge road, nearly a mile, Whiskers following him every step,
shaking his pitchfork and bellowing insults. Now, Mrs. Dr. dear, I call
such conduct unreasonable; but all the same," added Susan, with a sigh,
"what with aeroplanes and automobiles and all the rest of it, this
Island is not what it used to be."
The aeroplane soared and dipped and circled, and soared again, until it
became a mere speck far over the sunset hills.
"'With the majesty of pinion Which the Theban eagles bear Sailing with
supreme dominion Through the azure fields of air.'"
quoted Anne Blythe dreamily.
"I wonder," said Miss Oliver, "if humanity will be any happier because
of aeroplanes. It seems to me that the sum of human happiness remains
much the same from age to age, no matter how it may vary in
distribution, and that all the 'many inventions' neither lessen nor
increase it."
"After all, the 'kingdom of heaven is within you,'" said Mr. Meredith,
gazing after the vanishing speck which symbolized man's latest victory
in a world-old struggle. "It does not depend on material achievements
and triumphs."
"Nevertheless, an aeroplane is a fascinating thing," said the doctor.
"It has always been one of humanity's favourite dreams--the dream of
flying. Dream after dream comes true--or rather is made true by
persevering effort. I should like to have a flight in an aeroplane
myself."
"Shirley wrote me that he was dreadfully disappointed in his first
flight," said Rilla. "He had expected to experience the sensation of
soaring up from the earth like a bird--and instead he just had the
feeling that he wasn't moving at all, but that the earth was dropping
away under him. And the first time he went up alone he suddenly felt
terribly homesick. He had never felt like that before; but all at once,
he said, he felt as if he were adrift in space--and he had a wild
desire to get back home to the old planet and the companionship of
fellow creatures. He soon got over that feeling, but he says his first
flight alone was a nightmare to him because of that dreadful sensation
of ghastly loneliness."
The aeroplane disappeared. The doctor threw back his head with a sigh.
"When I have watched one of those bird-men out of sight I come back to
earth with an odd feeling of being merely a crawling insect. Anne," he
said, turning to his wife, "do you remember the first time I took you
for a buggy ride in Avonlea--that night we went to the Carmody concert,
the first fall you taught in Avonlea? I had out little black mare with
the white star on her forehead, and a shining brand-new buggy--and I
was the proudest fellow in the world, barring none. I suppose our
grandson will be taking his sweetheart out quite casually for an
evening 'fly' in his aeroplane."
"An aeroplane won't be as nice as little Silverspot was," said Anne. "A
machine is simply a machine--but Silverspot, why she was a personality,
Gilbert. A drive behind her had something in it that not even a flight
among sunset clouds could have. No, I don't envy my grandson's
sweetheart, after all. Mr. Meredith is right. 'The kingdom of
Heaven'--and of love--and of happiness--doesn't depend on externals."
"Besides," said the doctor gravely, "our said grandson will have to
give most of his attention to the aeroplane--he won't be able to let
the reins lie on its back while he gazes into his lady's eyes. And I
have an awful suspicion that you can't run an aeroplane with one arm.
No"--the doctor shook his head--"I believe I'd still prefer Silverspot
after all."
The Russian line broke again that summer and Susan said bitterly that
she had expected it ever since Kerensky had gone and got married.
"Far be it from me to decry the holy state of matrimony, Mrs. Dr. dear,
but I felt that when a man was running a revolution he had his hands
full and should have postponed marriage until a more fitting season.
The Russians are done for this time and there would be no sense in
shutting our eyes to the fact. But have you seen Woodrow Wilson's reply
to the Pope's peace proposals? It is magnificent. I really could not
have expressed the rights of the matter better myself. I feel that I
can forgive Wilson everything for it. He knows the meaning of words and
that you may tie to. Speaking of meanings, have you heard the latest
story about Whiskers-on-the-moon, Mrs. Dr. dear? It seems he was over
at the Lowbridge Road school the other day and took a notion to examine
the fourth class in spelling. They have the summer term there yet, you
know, with the spring and fall vacations, being rather backward people
on that road. My niece, Ella Baker, goes to that school and she it was
who told me the story. The teacher was not feeling well, having a
dreadful headache, and she went out to get a little fresh air while Mr.
Pryor was examining the class. The children got along all right with
the spelling but when Whiskers began to question them about the
meanings of the words they were all at sea, because they had not
learned them. Ella and the other big scholars felt terrible over it.
They love their teacher so, and it seems Mr. Pryor's brother, Abel
Pryor, who is trustee of that school, is against her and has been
trying to turn the other trustees over to his way of thinking. And Ella
and the rest were afraid that if the fourth class couldn't tell
Whiskers the meanings of the words he would think the teacher was no
good and tell Abel so, and Abel would have a fine handle. But little
Sandy Logan saved the situation. He is a Home boy, but he is as smart
as a steel trap, and he sized up Whiskers-on-the-moon right off. 'What
does "anatomy" mean?' Whiskers demanded. 'A pain in your stomach,'
Sandy replied, quick as a flash and never batting an eyelid.
Whiskers-on-the-moon is a very ignorant man, Mrs. Dr. dear; he didn't
know the meaning of the words himself, and he said 'Very good--very
good.' The class caught right on--at least three or four of the
brighter ones did--and they kept up the fun. Jean Blane said that
'acoustic' meant 'a religious squabble,' and Muriel Baker said that an
'agnostic' was 'a man who had indigestion,' and Jim Carter said that
'acerbity' meant that 'you ate nothing but vegetable food,' and so on
all down the list. Whiskers swallowed it all, and kept saying 'Very
good--very good' until Ella thought that die she would trying to keep a
straight face. When the teacher came in, Whiskers complimented her on
the splendid understanding the children had of their lesson and said he
meant to tell the trustees what a jewel they had. It was 'very
unusual,' he said, to find a fourth class who could answer up so prompt
when it came to explaining what words meant. He went off beaming. But
Ella told me this as a great secret, Mrs. Dr. dear, and we must keep it
as such, for the sake of the Lowbridge Road teacher. It would likely be
the ruin of her chances of keeping the school if Whiskers should ever
find out how he had been bamboozled."
Mary Vance came up to Ingleside that same afternoon to tell them that
Miller Douglas, who had been wounded when the Canadians took Hill 70,
had had to have his leg amputated. The Ingleside folk sympathized with
Mary, whose zeal and patriotism had taken some time to kindle but now
burned with a glow as steady and bright as any one's.
"Some folks have been twitting me about having a husband with only one
leg. But," said Mary, rising to a lofty height, "I would rather Miller
with only one leg than any other man in the world with a
dozen--unless," she added as an after-thought, "unless it was Lloyd
George. Well, I must be going. I thought you'd be interested in hearing
about Miller so I ran up from the store, but I must hustle home for I
promised Luke MacAllister I'd help him build his grain stack this
evening. It's up to us girls to see that the harvest is got in, since