Where the Young Child Was; And Also the Spirit of the House, the Youngest Officer, Linden Goes Home, the Little Brown House, That Makes the World Go Round (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE YOUNGEST OFFICER JUNIOR'S consciousness of himself as an individual seems to have begun upon the day when the major's wife came out of his mother's room, and, finding him sitting lone- somely upon the stairs, sat down beside him and gathered him into a tight embrace. "Kindy," said he, kindly but insistently pressing a fat forefinger against her cheek, "you 're k'yin'. What you k'yin' 'bout, Kindy?" "Oh, precious little man!" murmured Mrs. Kennedy gulpingly. "And she so young? and so beautiful?and so loved?and with you and the captain?" The three-year-old wriggled his sturdy little body out of her embrace and got on his feet. His small shoulders straightened, a trick he had from his father. His clear and questioning eyes refused to be evaded. "Vey said," he whispered, " 'at she was goin' 'way, Kindy. Is she goin' 'way?" "Junior," began the major's wife miserably, "Junior?" "Is she goin' 'way, Kindy?" The major's wife began to weep then because she could n't help it. And somehow Junior understood. His gaze widened. "Is she 'fwaid to go, Kindy?" he wondered. "She?she?We haven't told her, Junior," quavered Mrs. Kennedy. She beat her hands together softly, palm to palm. "We?we can't tell her! She?oh, my God!" Junior pond'ered. It was characteristic of him that he usually knew what to do?and did it. Before Mrs. Kennedy could seize upon him again he had reached his mother's room, where his father stood with clenched hands and a face stony with agony. The colonel's wife, a stout old lady, sat in a chair, all in a pale heap. A doctor, compassionately professional, conferred in a low voice with a nurse who held a hypodermic syringe. The chaplain, with his face in his cupped hands, prayed in a trembling whisper. Junior paid no attention to these, but trotted...