Ingleside boys. They seemed to bear charmed lives.
Yet the suspense never grew any easier to bear as the weeks and months
of war went by.

"It isn't as if it were some sort of fever to which you might conclude
they were immune when they hadn't taken it for two years," sighed
Rilla. "The danger is just as great and just as real as it was the
first day they went into the trenches. I know this, and it tortures me
every day. And yet I can't help hoping that since they've come this far
unhurt they'll come through. Oh, Miss Oliver, what would it be like not
to wake up in the morning feeling afraid of the news the day would
bring? I can't picture such a state of things somehow. And two years
ago this morning I woke wondering what delightful gift the new day
would give me. These are the two years I thought would be filled with
fun."

"Would you exchange them--now--for two years filled with fun?"

"No," said Rilla slowly. "I wouldn't. It's strange--isn't it?--They
have been two terrible years--and yet I have a queer feeling of
thankfulness for them--as if they had brought me something very
precious, with all their pain. I wouldn't want to go back and be the
girl I was two years ago, not even if I could. Not that I think I've
made any wonderful progress--but I'm not quite the selfish, frivolous
little doll I was then. I suppose I had a soul then, Miss Oliver--but I
didn't know it. I know it now--and that is worth a great deal--worth
all the suffering of the past two years. And still"--Rilla gave a
little apologetic laugh, "I don't want to suffer any more--not even for
the sake of more soul growth. At the end of two more years I might look
back and be thankful for the development they had brought me, too; but
I don't want it now."

"We never do," said Miss Oliver. "That is why we are not left to choose
our own means and measure of development, I suppose. No matter how much
we value what our lessons have brought us we don't want to go on with
the bitter schooling. Well, let us hope for the best, as Susan says;
things are really going well now and if Rumania lines up, the end may
come with a suddenness that will surprise us all."

Rumania did come in--and Susan remarked approvingly that its king and
queen were the finest looking royal couple she had seen pictures of. So
the summer passed away. Early in September word came that the Canadians
had been shifted to the Somme front and anxiety grew tenser and deeper.
For the first t