lasted for fifteen minutes.
I shook like a leaf. It left me, and then I got a terrible pain in
my side. But I didn't give in, which I feel now was a mistake. I
stayed up till I dropped.

I'm here in the hospital. It's a long shed with three stoves, and a
lot of beds with other sick boys. My bed is far away from a stove.
The pain is bad yet, but duller, and I've fever. I'm pretty sick,
honey. Tell mother and dad, but not the girls. Give my love to all.
And don't worry. It'll all come right in the end. This beastly
climate's to blame.

_Later_,--It's night now. I was interrupted. I'll write a few more
lines. Hope you can read them. It's late and the wind is moaning
outside. It's so cold and dismal. The fellow in the bed next to me
is out of his head. Poor devil! He broke his knee, and they put off
the operation--too busy! So few doctors and so many patients! And
now he'll lose his leg. He's talking about home. Oh, Lenore! _Home!_
I never knew what home was--till now.

I'm worse to-night. But I'm always bad at night. Only, to-night I
feel strange. There's a weight on my chest, besides the pain. That
moan of wind makes me feel so lonely. There's no one here--and I'm
so cold. I've thought a lot about you girls and mother and dad. Tell
dad I made good.

Jim

CHAPTER XXV

Jim's last letter was not taken seriously by the other members of the
Anderson family. The father shook his head dubiously. "That ain't like
Jim," but made no other comment. Mrs. Anderson sighed. The young sisters
were not given to worry. Lenore, however, was haunted by an unwritten
meaning in her brother's letter.

Weeks before, she had written to Dorn and told him to hunt up Jim. No
reply had yet come from Dorn. Every day augmented her uneasiness, until
it was dreadful to look for letters that did not come. All this
fortified her, however, to expect calamity. Like a bolt out of the clear
sky it came in the shape of a telegram from Camp ---- saying that Jim
was dying.

The shock prostrated the mother. Jim had been her favorite. Mr. Anderson
left at once for the East. Lenore had the care of her mother and the
management of "Many Waters" on her hands, which duties kept her
mercifully occupied. Mrs. Anderson, however, after a day, rallied
surprisingly. Lenore sensed in her mother the strength of the spirit
that sacrificed to a noble and universal cause. It