Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/81

Rh warmth of his heart blazing white hot from his eyes. When last I saw him, it seemed to me he was an arrow strung back on the bow to the head. The change in him!

Then the last to go—the youngest, the tallest, the straightest; his brows a little knit—puzzled—not wholly understanding this thing that told him to put his boyhood behind him and become, too soon, a man. Still, eager, frightened, and very brave—he went.

These stars of mine "A nickel a piece; The three of them for fifteen cents!" I thought I laughed. But maybe not, for through the dusk the vender peered at me strangely. Then—

"Can't pay?" he asked. "Too much?"

I fastened my Service-pin to my breast.

"No," I said. "I can pay. It costs a lot, but—not too much."

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