Trooper and commended the Lindsay boys, saying that
not even the ministry should keep Neil at home, he could not elicit
from them the smallest hint that they thought he was called to enlist.
And so he set his teeth, determined to Stand Fast though his heart
should break. But he was ashamed to be seen in public and he grew more
shy and reticent as the hard days dragged on. Gradually he dropped out
of all the activities that used to take him to the village. When he
went he always saw Christina and Wallace Sutherland together, and that
sight added to his misery. And finally he could not bear to hear
himself sing. He looked down at his big brawny hands and arms and felt
ashamed that he should be standing in a safe and peaceful place,
singing! He choked at the thought. He sometimes wished he were not so
big and strong. If he were small and weak like Willie Brown or even
had one leg like Duke it would be easier to bear.

He gave no reason when he suddenly left the choir the day the Honour
Roll was unveiled. He could not confess that he found it intolerable
to sit up there right next to that list of heroes. His Aunts
remonstrated gently, but though he answered as gently he was
unyielding. So he went back to the family pew and sat beside Auntie
Elspie. To be sure the growing Honour Roll faced him there, every name
written in letters of flame that leaped out and scorched him, but at
least he did not have to sing back there and could bear his shame
better.

His Aunts worried themselves almost ill over him. Auntie Janet dosed
him with medicine and compelled him to wear heavier underwear. Auntie
Flora was so fearful that his spiritual condition was languishing that
she spoke to Mr. Sinclair and he promised to see Gavin and talk to him.
Auntie Elspie said nothing but she watched him, and finally her keen
mother-heart divined his malady.

Auntie Flora had always been Gavin's instructor, and had led him along
the way of good books and into a slight knowledge of music, Auntie
Janet had been his playmate and confidante, the one with whom he had
always shared his secrets and to whom he had confessed his boyish
scrapes. But Auntie Elspie had been his mother, and she knew her boy.
At first she thought the trouble arose over Christina and was bitterly
disappointed when the handsome young man from town had stepped in and
ruined all Gavin's hopes. But she knew he was too proud to grieve
long, and he had laughed one night wh