`` I hope he will not let his mother hear him talking like that , '' she thought as she stacked the hoes and rake away . Rilla was standing among the budding daffodils with tear-filled eyes . Her evening was spoiled ; she detested Susan , who had somehow hurt Walter ; and Jem -- had Jem been gassed ? Had he died in torture ? `` I ca n't endure this suspense any longer , '' said Rilla desperately . But she endured it as the others did for another week . Then a letter came from Jem . He was all right . `` I 've come through without a scratch , dad . Do n't know how I or any of us did it . You 'll have seen all about it in the papers -- I ca n't write of it . But the Huns have n't got through -- they wo n't get through . Jerry was knocked stiff by a shell one time , but it was only the shock . He was all right in a few days . Grant is safe , too . '' Nan had a letter from Jerry Meredith . `` I came back to consciousness at dawn , '' he wrote . `` Could n't tell what had happened to me but thought that I was done for . I was all alone and afraid -- terribly afraid . Dead men were all around me , lying on the horrible grey , slimy fields .
I was woefully thirsty -- and I thought of David and the Bethlehem water -- and XXXXX the old spring in Rainbow Valley under the maples .
about around as by for like of through with without