Will you take my
place on guard? I want to go up to Philadelphia and see my girl, and I'm
sure of a pass, but I'm listed for guard duty. I'll do the same for you
sometime."

"Sure!" said Cameron heartily, and swung up stairs with a sudden
realization that he had been granted a streak of good luck. Yet somehow
he did not seem to care much.

He tiptoed over to his bunk among the rows of sleeping forms, removed
from it a pair of shoes, three books, some newspapers and a mess kit
which some lazy comrades had left there, and threw himself down with
scant undressing. It seemed as though a great calamity had befallen him,
although when he tried to reason it out he could not understand how
things were so much changed from what they had been that morning before
he received the letter. Ruth Macdonald had never been anything in his
life but a lovely picture. There was no slightest possibility that she
would ever be more. She was like a distant star to be admired but never
come near. Had he been fool enough to have his head turned by her writing
that kind letter to him? Had he even remotely fancied she would ever be
anything nearer to him than just a formal friend who occasionally stooped
to give a bright smile or do a kindness? Well, if he had, he needed this
knockdown blow. It might be a good thing that it came so soon before he
had let this thing grow in his imagination; but oh, if it had but come a
bit sooner! If it had only been on the way over to the Y.M.C.A. hut
instead of on the way back that letter would never have been written! She
would have set him down as a boor perhaps, but what matter? What was she
to him, or he to her? Well--perhaps he would have written a letter
briefly to thank her for her offer of knitting, but it would have been an
entirely different letter from the one he did write. He ground his teeth
as he thought out the letter he should have written:

MY DEAR MISS MACDONALD: (No "friend" about that.)

It certainly was kind of you to think of me as a possible recipient of a
sweater. But I feel that there are other boys who perhaps need things
more than I do. I am well supplied with all necessities. I appreciate
your interest in an old school friend. The life of a soldier is not so
bad, and I imagine we shall have no end of novel experiences before the
war is over. I hope we shall be able to put an end to this terrible
struggle very soon when we get over and make the world a safe and happy
place for you a