y he went to church with him and insisted on
going right into our pew, where he went to sleep on Jem's feet. In the
middle of the sermon he woke up and seemed to think he must welcome Jem
all over again, for he bounded up with a series of barks and wouldn't
quiet down until Jem took him up in his arms. But nobody seemed to
mind, and Mr. Meredith came and patted his head after the service and
said, "'Faith and affection and loyalty are precious things wherever
they are found. That little dog's love is a treasure, Jem.'

"One night when Jem and I were talking things over in Rainbow Valley, I
asked him if he had ever felt afraid at the front.

"Jem laughed.

"'Afraid! I was afraid scores of times--sick with fear--I who used to
laugh at Walter when he was frightened. Do you know, Walter was never
frightened after he got to the front. Realities never scared him--only
his imagination could do that. His colonel told me that Walter was the
bravest man in the regiment. Rilla, I never realized that Walter was
dead till I came back home. You don't know how I miss him now--you
folks here have got used to it in a sense--but it's all fresh to me.
Walter and I grew up together--we were chums as well as brothers--and
now here, in this old valley we loved when we were children, it has
come home to me that I'm not to see him again.'

"Jem is going back to college in the fall and so are Jerry and Carl. I
suppose Shirley will, too. He expects to be home in July. Nan and Di
will go on teaching. Faith doesn't expect to be home before September.
I suppose she will teach then too, for she and Jem can't be married
until he gets through his course in medicine. Una Meredith has decided,
I think, to take a course in Household Science at Kingsport--and
Gertrude is to be married to her Major and is frankly happy about
it--'shamelessly happy' she says; but I think her attitude is very
beautiful. They are all talking of their plans and hopes--more soberly
than they used to do long ago, but still with interest, and a
determination to carry on and make good in spite of lost years.

"'We're in a new world,' Jem says, 'and we've got to make it a better
one than the old. That isn't done yet, though some folks seem to think
it ought to be. The job isn't finished--it isn't really begun. The old
world is destroyed and we must build up the new one. It will be the
task of years. I've seen enough of war to realize that we've got to
make a world where wars c