"I shall talk as I please, Randy. Major Prime, isn't he as handsome as a—rose?"
"Mother——"
"Well, you are——"
"Mother, if you talk like this to the boarders, I'll go back and get shot up——"
She clung to him. "Randy, don't say such a thing. He mustn't talk like that, must he, Major?"
"He doesn't mean it. Paine, this looks to me like the Promised Land——"
"I'm glad you like it," said Mrs. Paine, "and now if you don't mind, I'll run along and kill the fatted calf——"
She kissed her son, and under a huge umbrella made her way through the poppies that starred the grass——
"On Flanders field—where poppies blow"—the Major drew a sudden quick breath—— He wished there were no poppies at King's Crest.