Page:Honore Willsie--Benefits Forgot.djvu/61

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

WAR

again to High Hill. Jason disembarked from the packet late one November afternoon, carrying his carpet bag. Even in November, High Hill was beautiful. Through his sadness, Jason again felt the thrill of the giant headlands, the thousand hills of his boyish imaginings.

There was the same little cottage, more weather-beaten than he had remembered it. His mother was waiting for him at the door. The four years had changed her, yet she seemed to Jason more beautiful than his men tal picture of her had been.

She kissed him with trembling lips. "He's still with us," she whispered. "I'm sure he waited for you." "What is the matter with him?" asked Jason, huskily, as he deposited his carpet bag on the sitting-room table.

"Lung fever. He took a bad cold a month ago coming home from West Virginia in the rain. He was absent-minded, you know. If


[47]