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Copyright 1945: Inlernalionol Silver Co.. Holmes & Edwards Dlv.,
Meriden,Conn.lnCanoao:rheT.EalonCo..lid "Reg.U S.Pol.OII.
with the brown bread we always had for Saturday supper, I was sure that she wasn't going to remind me that there were lots of boys in the world.
After supper John and I went to the movies at the neighborhood theater. He held my hand firmly all through the picture and all the way home. At the door, he lifted it, palm up, and kissed it. "Thank you, Beth," he said. "The whole day's been wonderful. It was like being home again — only better, because it was' with you."
"I had a lovely time," I began — and then I stopped, stiffening. John had put his arms around me, was bending his head to kiss me. And he must not — not because I didn't want his kisses, but because I wanted them too much. I turned my head away, stood rigid in his arms. "Too soon?" John whispered.
"Much too soon." I sounded sharp and prim.
There was his grin again, the warm, crinkly little grin. "Anything you say, honey — just so it doesn't mean I can't see you. How about tomorrow? Philip and I thought we'd hire a car and drive out to the country. . . ."
THAT was the beginning, the Sunday John and Philip and I went to the country. It was a day as beautiful as the preceding one had been dreary — all sunshine and smiling skies and the rich, damp fresh smell of black earth. We drove for miles with the top down, shouting at each other over the rush of wind, laughing, intoxicated with the swift motion and the feeling of freedom. •
"Good to be driving again!" Philip shouted. "Like peacetime, only there isn't so much traffic."
"Peactime," I thought achingly. This
was what I wanted when the war was over, to be driving with John down a highway like this. With John. ... I might as well have spoken aloud. John put his lips close to my ear and whispered, "We'll take a lot of trips after the war, Beth. The country around Maple Falls is beautiful."
We stopped the car on a side road, tramped through the woods, raced across fields that were soft and springy under the warm sun, and flung ourselves down, panting, on the bank of a small stream.
"Tired, Beth?" John asked.
I was, but I wouldn't admit it. "Not at all. I'll race you back to the car."
"We'll walk back to the car." Philip's tone was so positive that I looked at him in surprise.
John laughed. "I told you he looks after me, Beth. I had a bad case of sunstroke in Iran. I got over it, but I had spells of amnesia a couple of times afterward, when Philip found me walking around not knowing what I was doing. It was an after-effect of the stroke, the doctors said, and they told me I'd be all right if I took care of myself."
"But he doesn't," Philip put in. "He even had a touch of it when we landed down south here. I tell you, the man needs a nurse until he learns to slow down."
I looked from one to the other in consternation. The weather was unseasonably warm; I. was thinking of the long drive out of town with the top down on the car, of the race across the fields.
John reached over and took my hand. "Don't let him scare you, honey. I'm all right, and I do take care of myself more than he gives me credit for. I'm grateful for the times he's helped me