Page:War; or, What happens when one loves one's enemy, John Luther Long, 1913.djvu/311

THE COST—WHO PAYS you were born. Ain't that something? And Jon wouldn't be anything without you. Honest! Jon's like the Siamese twins with you. Yes, Davy, I begun to have fun with you before you were a week old. You was such a comical little chap. And you were, really, all I had to have fun with. Your mother was dead, and Jon was too solemn. Why, Jon was nearly as old then as he is now. Davy, I wouldn't have you changed one jot or tittle. You were a sunbeam in a dark place. You have always been. I know you always will be."

"A sunbeam, daddy!" says Dave, with the glad light in his eyes once more.

"Yes, a sunbeam! I am not afraid to repeat it. A sunbeam! More than one! Don't you be so worked up about—ahem—us going to war. There's not much danger if you don't fool with the guns more than you have to. We'll get back all right. And, about Evelyn—Dave, you marry her. She loves you—that's as plain as a haystack. You love her—that's as plain as a red barn"—trying to be funny. 295