[CHAPTER XXV]
DECORATING
Colonel Hathaway and Mary Louise were walking down the street one day when they noticed that the front of Jake Kasker's Clothing Emporium was fairly covered with American flags. Even the signs were hidden by a fluttering display of the Stars and Stripes.
"I wonder what this means?" said the colonel.
"Let's go in and inquire," proposed Mary Louise. "I don't suppose the man has forgiven me yet for suspecting his loyalty, but you've always defended him, Gran'pa Jim, so he will probably tell you why he is celebrating."
They entered the store and Kasker came forward to meet them.
"What's the meaning of all the flags, Jake?" asked the colonel.
"Didn't you hear?" said Kasker. "My boy's been shot—my little Jakie!" Tears came to his eyes.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Mary Louise, with ready sympathy; "I hope he—he isn't dead?"
"No," said Kasker, wiping his eyes, "not that, thank God. A shell splinter took out a piece of his leg—my little Jakie's leg!—and he's in a hospital at Soissons. His letter says in a few weeks he can go back to his company. I got a letter from his captain, too. The captain says Jakie is a good soldier and fights like wild-cats. That's what he says of Jakie!"
"Still," said Colonel Hathaway, with a puzzled look, "I do not quite understand why you should decorate so profusely on account of so sad an event."