`` Tell Rilla I 'm glad her war-baby is turning out so well , and tell Susan that I 'm fighting a good fight against both Huns and cooties . '' `` Mrs. Dr. dear , '' whispered Susan solemnly , `` what are cooties ? '' Mrs. Blythe whispered back and then said in reply to Susan 's horrified ejaculations , `` It 's always like that in the trenches , Susan . '' Susan shook her head and went away in grim silence to re-open a parcel she had sewed up for Jem and slip in a fine tooth comb . CHAPTER XII IN THE DAYS OF LANGEMARCK `` How can spring come and be beautiful in such a horror , '' wrote Rilla in her diary . `` When the sun shines and the fluffy yellow catkins are coming out on the willow-trees down by the brook , and the garden is beginning to be beautiful I ca n't realize that such dreadful things are happening in Flanders . But they are ! `` This past week has been terrible for us all , since the news came of the fighting around Ypres and the battles of Langemarck and St. Julien . Our Canadian boys have done splendidly -- General French says they ` saved the situation , ' when the Germans had all but broken through . But I ca n't feel pride or exultation or anything but a gnawing anxiety over Jem and Jerry and Mr. Grant . The casualty lists are coming out in the papers every day -- oh , there are so many of them . I ca n't bear to read them for fear I 'd find Jem 's name -- for there have been cases where people have seen their boys ' names in the casualty lists before the official telegram came . As for the telephone , for a day or two I just refused to answer it , because I thought I could not endure the horrible moment that came between saying ` Hello ' and hearing the response . That moment seemed a hundred years long , for I was always dreading to hear ` There is a telegram for Dr. Blythe . ' Then , when I had shirked for a while , I was ashamed of leaving it all for mother or Susan , and now I make myself go . But it never gets any easier . Gertrude teaches school and reads compositions and sets examination papers just as she always has done , but I know her thoughts are over in Flanders all the time . Her eyes haunt me . `` And Kenneth is in khaki now , too . He has got a lieutenant 's commission and expects to go overseas in midsummer , so he wrote me .
There was n't much else in the letter -- he seemed XXXXX be thinking of nothing but going overseas .
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