I found myself thinking that the boys who had been gassed at the front must have looked like that , and the thought haunted me amid all my dread and misery over Jims . And all the time the fatal membrane in his wee throat grew and thickened and he could n't get it up . `` Oh , I was just wild ! I never realized how dear Jims was to me until that moment . And I felt so utterly helpless . '' `` And then Susan gave up . ` We can not save him ! Oh , if your father was here -- look at him , the poor little fellow ! I know not what to do . ' `` I looked at Jims and I thought he was dying . Susan was holding him up in his crib to give him a better chance for breath , but it did n't seem as if he could breathe at all . My little war-baby , with his dear ways and sweet roguish face , was choking to death before my very eyes , and I could n't help him . I threw down the hot poultice I had ready in despair . Of what use was it ? Jims was dying , and it was my fault -- I had n't been careful enough ! `` Just then -- at eleven o'clock at night -- the door bell rang . Such a ring -- it pealed all over the house above the roar of the storm . Susan could n't go -- she dared not lay Jims down -- so I rushed downstairs . In the hall I paused just a minute -- I was suddenly overcome by an absurd dread . I thought of a weird story Gertrude had told me once .
An aunt of hers was alone XXXXX a house one night with her sick husband .
Of at by in like over so that to with