Everybody cheered as they went by , and they cheered Foster Booth , who is forty , walking side by side with his son Charley who is twenty . Charley 's mother died when he was born , and when Charley enlisted Foster said he 'd never yet let Charley go anywhere he dare n't go himself , and he did n't mean to begin with the Flanders trenches . At the station Dog Monday nearly went out of his head . He tore about and sent messages to Jem by them all . Mr. Meredith read an address and Reta Crawford recited ` The Piper . ' The soldiers cheered her like mad and cried ` We 'll follow -- we 'll follow -- we wo n't break faith , ' and I felt so proud to think that it was my dear brother who had written such a wonderful , heart-stirring thing . And then I looked at the khaki ranks and wondered if those tall fellows in uniform could be the boys I 've laughed with and played with and danced with and teased all my life . Something seems to have touched them and set them apart . They have heard the Piper 's call . `` Fred Arnold was in the battalion and I felt dreadfully about him , for I realized that it was because of me that he was going away with such a sorrowful expression . I could n't help it but I felt as badly as if I could . `` The last evening of his leave Fred came up to Ingleside and told me he loved me and asked me if I would promise to marry him some day , if he ever came back . He was desperately in earnest and I felt more wretched than I ever did in my life . I could n't promise him that -- why , even if there was no question of Ken , I do n't care for Fred that way and never could -- but it seemed so cruel and heartless to send him away to the front without any hope of comfort . I cried like a baby ; and yet -- oh , I am afraid that there must be something incurably frivolous about me , because , right in the middle of it all , with me crying and Fred looking so wild and tragic , the thought popped into my head that it would be an unendurable thing to see that nose across from me at the breakfast table every morning of my life . There , that is one of the entries I would n't want my descendants to read in this journal . But it is the humiliating truth ; and perhaps it 's just as well that thought did come or I might have been tricked by pity and remorse into giving him some rash assurance . If Fred 's nose were as handsome as his eyes and mouth some such thing might have happened . And then what an unthinkable predicament I should have been in ! `` When poor Fred became convinced that I could n't promise him , he behaved beautifully -- though that rather made things worse .
If he had been nasty about it I would n't have felt so heartbroken and remorseful -- though why I should feel remorseful I do n't know , for I never encouraged Fred XXXXX think I cared a bit about him .
If at by for in of than though to without