Would n't I feel just so lonely and forsaken and frightened that I 'd have to cry ? Rilla hopped out . She picked Jims out of his basket and took him into her own bed . His hands were cold , poor mite . But he had promptly ceased to cry . And then , as she held him close to her in the darkness , suddenly Jims laughed -- a real , gurgly , chuckly , delighted , delightful laugh . `` Oh , you dear little thing ! '' exclaimed Rilla . `` Are you so pleased at finding you 're not all alone , lost in a huge , big , black room ? '' Then she knew she wanted to kiss him and she did . She kissed his silky , scented little head , she kissed his chubby little cheek , she kissed his little cold hands . She wanted to squeeze him -- to cuddle him , just as she used to squeeze and cuddle her kittens . Something delightful and yearning and brooding seemed to have taken possession of her . She had never felt like this before . In a few minutes Jims was sound asleep ; and , as Rilla listened to his soft , regular breathing and felt the little body warm and contented against her , she realized that -- at last -- she loved her war-baby . `` He has got to be -- such -- a -- darling , '' she thought drowsily , as she drifted off to slumberland herself . In February Jem and Jerry and Robert Grant were in the trenches and a little more tension and dread was added to the Ingleside life . In March `` Yiprez , '' as Susan called it , had come to have a bitter significance . The daily list of casualties had begun to appear in the papers and no one at Ingleside ever answered the telephone without a horrible cold shrinking -- for it might be the station-master phoning up to say a telegram had come from overseas . No one at Ingleside ever got up in the morning without a sudden piercing wonder over what the day might bring .
`` And I used to welcome the mornings so , '' thought XXXXX .
Grant Ingleside Jem Jims Rilla Susan daily morning slumberland station-master