rival had had something of the effect of a triumphal entry.
Jefferson had driven him straight to the Schoolhouse, but on the way
they had encountered old Susie, Jefferson's mother, who cooked, and old
Bob, who acted as butler, and the new maid who waited on the table.
These had followed the surrey as a sort of ecstatic convoy. Not a
boarder was in sight but behind the windows of the big house one was
aware of watching eyes.

"They are all crazy to meet you," Randy's mother had told him, as they
came into the Major's sitting-room after those first sacred moments when
the doors had been shut against the world, "they are all crazy to meet
you, but you needn't come over to lunch unless you really care to do it.
Jefferson can serve you here."

"What do you want me to do?"

"My dear, I'm so proud of you, I'd like to show you to the whole world."

"But there are so many of us, Mother."

"There's only one of you----"

"And we haven't come back to be put on pedestals."

"You were put on pedestals before you went away."

"I'll be spoiled if you talk to me like that."

"I shall talk as I please, Randy. Major Prime, isn't he as handsome as
a--rose?"

"_Mother_----"

"Well, you are----"

"Mother, if you talk like this to the boarders, I'll go back and get
shot up----"

She clung to him. "Randy, don't say such a thing. He mustn't talk like
that, must he, Major?"

"He doesn't mean it. Paine, this looks to me like the Promised Land----"

"I'm glad you like it," said Mrs. Paine, "and now if you don't mind,
I'll run along and kill the fatted calf----"

She kissed her son, and under a huge umbrella made her way through the
poppies that starred the grass----

"_On Flanders field--where poppies blow_"--the Major drew a sudden quick
breath---- He wished there were no poppies at King's Crest.

"I hate this hero stuff," Randy was saying, "don't you?"

"I am not so sure that I do. Down deep we'd resent it if we were not
applauded, shouldn't we?"

Randy laughed. "I believe we should."

"I fancy that when we've been home for a time, we may feel somewhat
bitter if we find that our pedestals are knocked from under us. Our
people don't worship long. They have too much to think of. They'll put
up some arches, and a few statues and build tribute houses in a lot of
towns, and then they'll go on about their business, and we who have
fought will feel a bit blank."

Randy laughed, "You haven't any illusions about it, have you?