ddenly seemed a small matter. He
put on his new sweater and swelled around the way the other boys did,
letting them all admire him. He examined the wonderful socks almost
reverently, putting a large curious finger gently on the red and blue
stripes and thrilling with the thought that her fingers had plied the
needles in those many, many stitches to make them. He almost felt it
would be sacrilege to wear them, and he laid them away most carefully and
locked them into the box under his bed lest some other fellow should
admire and desire them to his loss. But with the letter he walked away
into the woods as far as the bounds of the camp would allow and read and
reread it, rising at last from it as one refreshed from a comforting meal
after long fasting. It was on the way back to his barracks that night,
walking slowly under the starlight, not desiring to be back until the
last minute before night taps because he did not wish to break the
wonderful evening he had spent with her, that he resolved to try to get
leave the next Saturday and go home to thank her.

Back in the barracks with the others he fairly scintillated with wit and
kept his comrades in roars of laughter until the officer of the night
suppressed them summarily. But long after the others were asleep he lay
thinking of her, and listening to the singing of his soul as he watched a
star that twinkled with a friendly gleam through a crack in the roof
above his cot. Once again there came the thought of God, and a feeling of
gratitude for this lovely friendship in his life. If he knew where God
was he would like to thank Him. Lying so and looking up to the star he
breathed from his heart a wordless thanksgiving.

The next night he wrote and told her he was coming, and asked permission
to call and thank her face to face. Then he fairly haunted the post
office at mail time the rest of the week hoping for an answer. He had not
written his mother about his coming, for he meant not to go this week if
there came no word from Ruth. Besides, it would be nice to surprise his
mother. Then there was some doubt about his getting a pass anyway, and so
between the two anxieties he was kept busy up to the last minute. But
Friday evening he got his pass, and in the last mail came a special
delivery from Ruth, just a brief note saying she had been away from home
when his letter arrived, but she would be delighted to see him on Sunday
afternoon as he had suggested.

He felt like a