Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/192

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Rare Earth

the old colored woman. The breeze sighed lazily through the tree-tops. Except for that one soft sound there was silence everywhere.

And Jethro said slowly, "Did you ever stop to think about 'The Unknown Soldier'? Each nation paying the highest tribute to one unknown boy who typifies all the youth that was sacrificed in France. Suppose the 'Unknown Soldier' was Enoch. Suppose all the nations of the world were honoring your boy, a colored boy. That is the beautiful thing about the pageant of 'The Unknown Soldier.' Every mother whose son did not come back can believe that 'The Unknown Soldier' is her boy. And of course he is."

Linda Joel could not speak. She put out a feeble, trembling hand and patted the shoulder of Jethro Trent. But she did not speak and Jethro was glad. What strange emotions were stirred within him? He felt more at peace than at any time since he had become aware of Scobee's blindness. What was the peculiar attraction that bound these two people of different

worlds together? Why should he find

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