The Able McLaughlins
of hers grown a strange man in the midst of horrors unimaginable? He lay very still looking at her. The kettle was singing on the stove. Through the door, he saw the red calf sleeping in the sunshine. A wave of joy, of ecstasy complete passed over him. Oh, the heaven of home, the peace of it, of a good bed, of a mother calmly getting dinner!
"I'm starved, mother!" he sang out suddenly to her. She hurried to the cellar, and brought him cool milk and two cookies. The children, hearing him, came in to watch him. He sat down in the doorway, and began throwing beans up, and catching them skillfully, to win the friendship of the doubtful little Sarah. David watched him eagerly. Presently Hughie said:
"Mother, why did yon strange man not say the Psalm?"
"You mus'na stare so at visitors, Hughie!"
"But why, mother? Why did he not say it?"
"Maybe he did'na ken it."
"Did'na ken what?"
"The Psalm."
"Did'na ken the fifteenth Psalm, and him a man grown!" Hughie had never seen anyone before who couldn't say the fifteenth Psalm.
"Aw, mother!" he exclaimed remonstratingly. "Even Davie knows that!"
Wully chuckled. He knew the world. He had seen cities. He had marched across states. He had eaten ice cream.
