top of his lungs before he
settled for the night, and the Hindmost Hymn louder and clearer than he
had ever sung it since the day the boys went away.

And the next morning he read again the 91st psalm, and his old shaking
voice rose high and strong as he came to the words that spoke the
triumph over all life's ills, and for the first time in her life
Christina understood them. "Surely He shall deliver thee from the
snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence.... Thou shall not
be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness."

The promise was literally true! The white Comrade walked beside her
warrior brothers and they were safe. And Christina learned that
morning that there was only one thing in life that mattered after all.
For even though the boys had had wealth and power and great fame and
social position none of these would have brought any real comfort to
the heart of the mother and grandfather at that moment. The knowledge
that they were safe from sin and its power was everything. And those
things upon which she had set her heart and counted of supreme
importance did not weigh at all in the great crisis of life.

And right on that day of exultation, when the psalm was still repeating
itself triumphantly in their ears, the dreaded word came from the
battlefield. Mr. Holmes received the telegram at the little office
behind the store. He had been very distant with Mr. Sinclair ever
since he joined the Methodists against the Presbyterians, but he forgot
all about their estrangement in the terrible task that faced him of
carrying the news to the Lindsay family. So he went hurriedly to the
Manse with his heavy burden, and Mr. Sinclair did not seem to think it
strange that he should come. The two men left their work and went up
the hill to the Lindsay home walking close together like children who
were afraid and were trying to give each other support.

And there by the bright fireside, sitting in the sunny window, where
her scarlet geraniums bloomed as gay as the poppies in Flanders Field,
they found Christina and told her the news: that Neil and Jimmie had
gone over the top, together, very eager and glad, and that they would
not come back.

Christina was thankful afterwards for the merciful numbness, that was
like an anaesthetic in a painful operation. She had a feeling that she
would awaken soon and realise fully the terrib