`` This very evening as I put Jims to bed he looked up and asked me gravely , ` Why ca n't yesterday come back , Willa ? ' `` Oh , why ca n't it , Jims ? That beautiful ` yesterday ' of dreams and laughter -- when our boys were home -- when Walter and I read and rambled and watched new moons and sunsets together in Rainbow Valley . If it could just come back ! But yesterdays never come back , little Jims -- and the todays are dark with clouds -- and we dare not think about the tomorrows . '' 11th December 1917 `` Wonderful news came today . The British troops captured Jerusalem yesterday . We ran up the flag and some of Gertrude 's old sparkle came back to her for a moment . '' ` After all , ' she said , ` it is worth while to live in the days which see the object of the Crusades attained . The ghosts of all the Crusaders must have crowded the walls of Jerusalem last night , with Coeur-de-lion at their head . ' `` Susan had cause for satisfaction also . '' ' I am so thankful I can pronounce Jerusalem and Hebron , ' she said . ` They give me a real comfortable feeling after Przemysl and Brest-Litovsk ! Well , we have got the Turks on the run , at least , and Venice is safe and Lord Lansdowne is not to be taken seriously ; and I see no reason why we should be downhearted . ' `` Jerusalem ! The ` meteor flag of England ! ' floats over you -- the Crescent is gone . How Walter would have thrilled over that ! '' 18th December 1917 `` Yesterday the election came off . In the evening mother and Susan and Gertrude and I forgathered in the living-room and waited in breathless suspense , father having gone down to the village .
We had no way of hearing the news , for Carter Flagg 's store is not on our line , and when we tried XXXXX get it Central always answered that the line ` was busy ' -- as no doubt it was , for everybody for miles around was trying to get Carter 's store for the same reason we were .
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