Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/66



N ALL the years which had passed since the famous day when brother John had not come home from school, brother John had never come home at all. He wrote often, in a strangely mature, far-off way, but the various ships in which he lived and labored were far-off ships, which carried the Stars and Stripes into far-off spicy seas. When it became possible he left the navy and shipped on a merchantman.

The navy, he wrote, was not acareer. To begin with, it wasn't a navy, just the same old square-riggers left over from the Civil War. He had hoped to find a ship which was bound for New York, but he had fallen in with a skipper who was bound the other way who had offered to make a second mate of him. ..

It was fine that Ruth was going to be married—it didn't matter about there being so much money—if only Armitage was a straight, honest young fellow.

Please give his best regards to the young couple. He was sending Ruth a Philippine shawl.