“If I tell them, they will try to keep me from going, or at least until the end of the school year. Of course Mother would not give her consent, anyway, even if Father were willing.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” said Betty. “And I think it would be dreadful to go without saying goodbye.”
“Oh, I’d get off, probably, to say goodbye before I went to France.”
“You don’t know what might happen. Here is Alma. Thank you, Alma. Come on, Donald, to the bench at the end of the hall. We’ll not be interrupted there. The girls will be singing and playing in the parlors.”
Donald and Betty walked to the end of the corridor, past the reception rooms, to where a long, old-fashioned bench filled part of an alcove, by the large windows which looked out upon the wood.
“Now,” said Betty, “tell me all about it.”
“I have to go, that’s all,” said Donald grimly. “I can’t study. Nobody can at the academy. The commandant is as stirred up as anybody, though he tries not to show it. We heard that he is trying to get back in the regular army and go to France with the first troops. Van Horne is going, and Maxwell, as soon as they can. They are enlisting with the National Guard, and are only waiting to do it till they can arrange about the school. They don’t want to leave the commandant in the lurch. But there will be precious few of the older boys left to teach, and school closes soon anyhow. They are going to hurry up the work and Commencement, they say now. Some of the boys say that the school will close, but nobody knows for sure. I’ll not miss much.”
“Donald,” said Betty soberly, “I’d be the last one to say ‘don’t go,’ but, honestly, I think that you might take time enough to write home about it. Because you boys are full of patriotism—that isn’t going to get you to France any sooner. And until the camps get started, where could you get better military training than right here in a military school?”
“That is so, Betty, but perhaps some of us can help in the training, and we’d like to get into the real stuff!”
“I think that your mother will consent to your going, since you are so nearly of age, and perhaps she would not care about your finishing the school year, either. You see, my cousins from Canada are in the war, and I know how my aunt feels. Please promise me to write to your mother!”