bother you.” She took the little crumpled note and smoothed it out. “O my dear, you don’t understand,” sobbed Miss Marilla. “He’s been such a good, dear boy, and so ashamed he had troubled me! And really, Mary, he’ll not be able to stand it. Why, you ought to see how little clothes he had! So thin, and cotton underwear! I washed them and mended them, but he ought to have had an overcoat.” [116]“Oh, well, he’ll go to the city and get something warm, and go to a hospital if he feels sick,” said Mary Amber comfortably. “I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s a soldier. He’s stood lots worse things than a little cold. He’ll look out for himself.” [116] “Don’t!” said Miss Marilla fiercely. “Don’t say that, Mary! You don’t understand. He is sick, and he’s all the soldier-boy I’ve got; and I’ve got to go after him. He can’t be gone very far, and he really isn’t able to walk. He’s weak. I just can’t stand it to have him go this way.” Mary Amber looked at her with a curious light in her eyes. “And yet, Auntie Rill, you know it was fine of him to do it,” she said with a dancing dimple in the corner of her mouth. “Well, I see what you want; and, much as I hate to, I’ll take my car[117] and scour the country for him. What time did you say he left?” [117] “O Mary Amber!” smiled Miss Marilla through her tears. “You’re a good girl. I knew you’d help me. I’m sure you can find him if you try. He can’t have been gone over an hour, not much; for I’ve only fixed the chicken and put my bread in the pans since I left him.” “I suppose he went back to the village, but there hasn’t been any train since ten, and you say he was still there at ten. He’s likely waiting at the station for the twelve o’clock. I’ll speed up and get there before it comes. I have fifteen minutes. I”—glancing at her wrist-watch—“I guess I can make it.” “I’m not so sure he went that way,” said Miss Marilla, looking up the road past Mary Amber’s house. “He was on his way up that way when—” and then Miss Marilla suddenly shut her[118] mouth, and did not finish the sentence. Mary Amber gave her another curious, discerning look, and nodded brightly. [118] “You go in and get warm, Auntie Rill. Leave that soldier to me; I’ll bring him home.”
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