rest, brought the visit
to a speedy close.

"Give my love to Pen when you write to him," said Aleck, as he bade
them good-by; "the bravest soldier--and the dearest comrade--that ever
carried a gun."

After the winter holidays a week went by with no letter from Pen. The
colonel began to grow anxious, but it was not until the end of the
second week that he really became alarmed. And when three weeks had
gone by, and neither the mails nor the cable nor the wireless had
brought any news of the absent soldier, Colonel Butler was on the
verge of despair. He had haunted the post-office as before, he had
made inquiry at the state department at Washington, he had telegraphed
to Canada for information, but nothing came of it all. Aleck Sands had
heard absolutely nothing. Pen's mother, almost beside herself,
telephoned every day to Bannerhall for news, and received none. The
strain of apprehensive waiting became almost unbearable for them all.

One day, unable longer to withstand the heart-breaking tension, the
old patriot sent an agent post-haste to Toronto, with instructions to
spare no effort and no expense in finding out what had become of his
grandson.

Three days later, from his agent came a telegram reading as follows:

"Lieutenant Butler in hospital near Rouen. Wound severe. Suffering
now from pneumonia. Condition serious but still hopeful. Details
by letter."

This telegram was received at Bannerhall in the morning. In the early
afternoon of the same day Pen's mother received a letter written three
weeks earlier by his nurse at the hospital. She was an American girl
who had been long in France, and who, from the beginning of the war,
had given herself whole-heartedly to the work at the hospitals.

"Do not be unduly alarmed," she wrote, "he is severely wounded;
evidently a hand-grenade exploded against his breast; but if we
are able to ward off pneumonia he will recover. He has given me
your name and address, and wished me to write. I think an early
and cheerful letter from you would be a great comfort to him, and
I hope he will be able to appreciate some gifts and dainties from
home by the time they could reach here. Let me add that he is a
model patient, quiet and uncomplaining, and I am told that he was
among the bravest of all the brave Americans fighting with the
Canadian forces on the Somme."

Between Bannerhall and Sarah Butler's home at Lowbridge the tel