They would meet around -- and there must be no eats -- Rilla knew she would have a pitched battle with Olive Kirk over that -- and everything should be strictly business-like and constitutional . Her minute book should be covered in white with a Red Cross on the cover -- and would n't it be nice to have some kind of uniform which they could all wear at the concerts they would have to get up to raise money -- something simple but smart ? `` You have basted the top hem of that sheet on one side and the bottom hem on the other , '' said Di . Rilla picked out her stitches and reflected that she hated sewing . Running the Junior Reds would be much more interesting . Mrs. Blythe was saying upstairs , `` Susan , do you remember that first day Jem lifted up his little arms to me and called me ` mo'er ' -- the very first word he ever tried to say ? '' `` You could not mention anything about that blessed baby that I do not and will not remember till my dying day , '' said Susan drearily . `` Susan , I keep thinking today of once when he cried for me in the night . He was just a few months old . Gilbert did n't want me to go to him -- he said the child was well and warm and that it would be fostering bad habits in him . But I went -- and took him up -- I can feel that tight clinging of his little arms round my neck yet . Susan , if I had n't gone that night , twenty-one years ago , and taken my baby up when he cried for me I could n't face tomorrow morning . '' `` I do not know how we are going to face it anyhow , Mrs. Dr. dear . But do not tell me that it will be the final farewell . He will be back on leave before he goes overseas , will he not ? '' `` We hope so but we are not very sure . I am making up my mind that he will not , so that there will be no disappointment to bear . Susan , I am determined that I will send my boy off tomorrow with a smile . He shall not carry away with him the remembrance of a weak mother who had not the courage to send when he had the courage to go . I hope none of us will cry . ''
`` I am not going to cry , Mrs. Dr. dear , and XXXXX you may tie to , but whether I shall manage to smile or not will be as Providence ordains and as the pit of my stomach feels .
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