It is very tiresome trying to entertain young men when you are not accustomed to it . '' Rilla carried Jims upstairs and went to bed , but not before she had sat for a long time at her window reconstructing her rainbow castle , with several added domes and turrets . `` I wonder , '' she said to herself , `` if I am , or am not , engaged to Kenneth Ford . '' CHAPTER XVII THE WEEKS WEAR BY Rilla read her first love letter in her Rainbow Valley fir-shadowed nook , and a girl 's first love letter , whatever blase , older people may think of it , is an event of tremendous importance in the teens . After Kenneth 's regiment had left Kingsport there came a fortnight of dully-aching anxiety and when the congregation sang in Church on Sunday evenings , `` Oh , hear us when we cry to Thee For those in peril on the sea , '' Rilla 's voice always failed her ; for with the words came a horribly vivid mind picture of a submarined ship sinking beneath pitiless waves amid the struggles and cries of drowning men . Then word came that Kenneth 's regiment had arrived safely in England ; and now , at last , here was his letter . It began with something that made Rilla supremely happy for the moment and ended with a paragraph that crimsoned her cheeks with the wonder and thrill and delight of it . Between beginning and ending the letter was just such a jolly , newsy epistle as Ken might have written to anyone ; but for the sake of that beginning and ending Rilla slept with the letter under her pillow for weeks , sometimes waking in the night to slip her fingers under and just touch it , and looked with secret pity on other girls whose sweethearts could never have written them anything half so wonderful and exquisite . Kenneth was not the son of a famous novelist for nothing . He `` had a way '' of expressing things in a few poignant , significant words that seemed to suggest far more than they uttered , and never grew stale or flat or foolish with ever so many scores of readings . Rilla went home from Rainbow Valley as if she flew rather than walked . But such moments of uplift were rare that autumn . To be sure , there was one day in September when great news came of a big Allied victory in the west and Susan ran out to hoist the flag -- the first time she had hoisted it since the Russian line broke and the last time she was to hoist it for many dismal moons . `` Likely the Big Push has begun at last , Mrs. Dr. dear , '' she exclaimed , `` and we will soon see the finish of the Huns . Our boys will be home by Christmas now . Hurrah ! '' Susan was ashamed of herself for hurrahing the minute she had done it , and apologized meekly for such an outburst of juvenility . `` But indeed , Mrs. Dr. dear , this good news has gone to my head after this awful summer of Russian slumps and Gallipoli setbacks . '' `` Good news ! '' said Miss Oliver bitterly .
`` I wonder XXXXX the women whose men have been killed for it will call it good news .
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