Died in Service

688 IMPROVEMENT ERA

of a mile from the farm. His eyes were bright and his cheeks flushed as he started through the familiar fields. He thrilled with mingled joy and pain at the sight of each dear familiar object. How good it was to be treading his own land! He tried to shut out the realization that this wondrous joy was to be of such short duration. Ben had gone to town to spend Thanksgiving with his mother and sisters, so Mary and little Danny were alone to welcome, the homecomer. It would be hard to depict the joy of that reunion. All the yearning hunger of three long years must be appeased in one short day. And yet, Dan and Mary were thankful for even that brief happiness. At first their hearts were too full for words. They could only stand with clasped hands and misty eyes, in glad realization that they were together once more. Then came the touching introduction of the father and the little son. The baby's natural shyness and the father's first real overwhelming sense of fatherhood. Dan had thought he had realized it before, but now he sensed it first in all its sacred fulness with the touch of the baby form against his breast. Mary watched the growing acquaintance with anxious eyes. She knew the influence of this hour would be great in both the life of the man and that of the little boy. As if by mutual consent, both Dan and Mary refrained from letting the thought of their coming separation mar the bliss of the present. They would live in the present alone, for this one day, and make it a thanksgiving day in very deed, yielding to them its maximum of joy. And so, during that first evening and all through the next day they laughed and talked and played, trying to forget there was a morrow. In the afternoon of Thanksgiving day they took a long walk over the farm. Little Danny kept his father busy listening to the wonderful things they would do together, when Jack Frost went away and they could plant the gardens again. Mary knew how the child's words must be wrenching the man's heart, but Dan made no sign. After supper Dan and the baby had a long romp in the living room, then the father undressed the tired little fellow and carried him into bed. "I's glad you'se corned home," Danny confided as the father knelt beside the little white bed and held a pair of chubby hands. "Mama an' Danny won't be lonesome now." He sighed happily and closed two sleepy eyes. A lump came into the father's throat. Ought he to break the child's illusion. At seven o'clock in the morning the train would carry him back to the prison walls. Danny would wake up and ask for him.