and indeed do what they "came
for."

"It wasn't you," he said. She nodded gently, agreeing, and knew what it
was that sent him. Yet Ramsey had his own secret there, and did not tell
it. Sometimes there rose, faint in his memory, a whimsical picture, yet
one that had always meant much to him. He would see an old man sitting
with a little boy upon a rustic bench under a walnut tree to watch the
"Decoration Day Parade" go by--and Ramsey would see a shoot of sunshine
that had somehow got through the walnut tree and made a bedazzlement of
glinting fine lines over a spot about the size of a saucer, upon the old
man's thick white hair. And in Ramsey's memory, the little boy, sitting
beside the veteran, would half close his eyes, drowsily, playing that
this sunshine spot was a white bird's-nest, until he had a momentary
dream of a glittering little bird that dwelt there and wore a blue
soldier cap on its head. And Ramsey would bring out of his memory
thoughts that the old man had got into the child's head that day. "We
knew that armies fighting for the Freedom of Man _had_ to win, in the
long run.... We were on the side of God's Plan.... Long ago we began to
see hints of His Plan.... Man has to win his freedom from himself--men
in the light have to fight against men in the dark.... That light is the
answer.... We had the light that made us never doubt."

A long while Dora sat with the letter in her hand before she answered it
and took it upon her heart to wear. That was the place for it, since it
was already within her heart, where he would find it when he came home
again. And she beheld the revelation sent to her. This ordinary life of
Ramsey's was but the outward glinting of a high and splendid spirit, as
high and splendid as earth can show. And yet it was only the life of an
everyday American boy. The streets of the town were full, now, of boys
like Ramsey.

At first they were just boys in uniform; then one saw that they were
boys no more.

They were soldiers.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ramsey Milholland, by Booth Tarkington

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