pillow:

"Uncle Ray, were you ever mean enough to be jealous?"

The captain looked quickly at the fair head on the pillow. "Jealous?"
said he, without a hint of surprise in his voice. "Why, yes--jealous of
my colonel, my lieutenants, my orderlies, my privates, my doctors, my
nurses--jealous of the very Filipino prisoners themselves--because they
all had legs and could walk."

"Oh, I know--I don't mean that!" cried Celia, "Of course you envied
everybody who could walk. Poor Uncle Ray! But you weren't small enough
to mind because the officers under you had got your chance?"

"Wasn't I, though? Well, maybe I wasn't," said the captain, speaking
low. "Perhaps I didn't lie and grind my teeth when they told me about
the gallant work Lieutenant Garretson had done with my men at Balangiga.
A mere boy, Garretson! The whole world applauded it. If I'd not been
knocked out so soon it would have been my name that would have gone into
history. Yes, I chewed that to shreds many a sleepless night, and hated
the fellow for getting my chance."

Captain Rayburn drew a long breath, while his fingers relaxed for an
instant; and it was Celia's hand which tightened over his.

"But I got past that," he said, quietly. "It came to me all at once that
Garretson and the other fellows in active service weren't the only ones
with chances before them. I had mine--a different commission from the
one I had coveted, to be sure, but a broader one, with infinite
possibilities, and no fear of missing further promotion if I earned it."

There was a little stillness after that. When the captain looked down at
Celia again he found her eyes full of pity, but this time it was not
pity for herself. He comprehended instantly.

"No, I don't need it, dear," he said, very gently. "I've learned some
things already in the hospital tent I wouldn't have missed for a year's
pay. And you, who are to be only temporarily on the sick-leave list, you
don't need to mind that the little second lieutenant--"

But the second lieutenant was rushing into the room, bearing on a plate
a great puffy, round loaf, brown and spicy.

"Look," she cried, "at my steamed brown bread! I've tried it four times
and slumped it every time. Now Fieldsy has shown me what was the
matter--I hadn't flour enough. Fieldsy is a dear--and so are you!"

She plunged at Celia, brown bread and all, and kissed the top of her
head, tweaked a lock of Captain Rayburn's thick hair, and was flying
away wh