haze of misted sea-miles and the
smoke of land-miles she perceived that brown line of ours, and knew it
stood there that Freedom, and the Nation itself, might not perish from
the earth.

And so, a week later, she went home, and came nervously to Ramsey's
mother and found how to direct the letter she wanted to write. He was in
France.

As the old phrase went, she poured out her heart. It seems to apply to
her letter.

She wrote:

Don't misunderstand me. I felt that my bitter speech to you had driven
you to take the step you did. I felt that I had sent you to be killed,
and that I ought to be killed for doing it, but I knew that you had
other motives, too. I knew, of course, that you thought of the country
more than you did of me, or of any mad thing I would say--but I thought
that what I said might have been the prompting thing, the word that
threw you into it so hastily and before you were ready, perhaps. I
dreaded to bear that terrible responsibility. I hope you understand.

My great mistake has been--I thought I sas so "logical"--it's been in
my starting everything with a thought I'd never proven; that war is the
worst thing, and all other evils were lesser. I was wrong. I was wrong,
because war isn't the worst evil. Slavery is the worse evil, and now
I want to tell you I have come to see that you are making war on those
that make slavery. Yes, you are fighting those that make both war and
slavery, and you are right, and I humbly reverence and honour all of
you who are in this right war. I have come home to work in the Red Cross
here; I work there all day, and all day I keep saying to myself--but I
really mean to _you_--it's what I pray, and oh, how I pray it: "God be
with you and grant you the victory!" For you must win and you will win.

Forgive me, oh, please--and if you will, could you write to me? I know
you have things to do more important than "girls"--but oh, couldn't you,
please?

This letter, which she had taken care not to dampen, as she wrote, went
in slow course to the "American Expeditionary Forces in France," and
finally found him whom it patiently sought. He delayed not long to
answer, and in time she held in a shaking hand the pencilled missive he
had sent her.

You forget all that comic talk about me enlisting because of your
telling me to. I'd written my father I was going at the first chance a
month and a half before that day when you said it. My mind was made up
at the first time there