Nobody ever saw or heard anything quite like Norman Douglas these days , believe ME . He 's so tickled that he 's going to marry Ellen West after wanting her all his life . If I was Ellen -- but then , I 'm not , and if she is satisfied I can very well be . I heard her say years ago when she was a schoolgirl that she did n't want a tame puppy for a husband . There 's nothing tame about Norman , believe ME . '' The sun was setting over Rainbow Valley . The pond was wearing a wonderful tissue of purple and gold and green and crimson . A faint blue haze rested on the eastern hill , over which a great , pale , round moon was just floating up like a silver bubble . They were all there , squatted in the little open glade -- Faith and Una , Jerry and Carl , Jem and Walter , Nan and Di , and Mary Vance . They had been having a special celebration , for it would be Jem 's last evening in Rainbow Valley . On the morrow he would leave for Charlottetown to attend Queen 's Academy . Their charmed circle would be broken ; and , in spite of the jollity of their little festival , there was a hint of sorrow in every gay young heart . `` See -- there is a great golden palace over there in the sunset , '' said Walter , pointing . `` Look at the shining tower -- and the crimson banners streaming from them . Perhaps a conqueror is riding home from battle -- and they are hanging them out to do honour to him . '' `` Oh , I wish we had the old days back again , '' exclaimed Jem . `` I 'd love to be a soldier -- a great , triumphant general . I 'd give EVERYTHING to see a big battle . '' Well , Jem was to be a soldier and see a greater battle than had ever been fought in the world ; but that was as yet far in the future ; and the mother , whose first-born son he was , was wont to look on her boys and thank God that the `` brave days of old , '' which Jem longed for , were gone for ever , and that never would it be necessary for the sons of Canada to ride forth to battle `` for the ashes of their fathers and the temples of their gods . '' The shadow of the Great Conflict had not yet made felt any forerunner of its chill .
The lads who were to fight , and perhaps fall , on the fields XXXXX France and Flanders , Gallipoli and Palestine , were still roguish schoolboys with a fair life in prospect before them : the girls whose hearts were to be wrung were yet fair little maidens a-star with hopes and dreams .
If about at for in of on over that to