Tree By Leaf Read Online Free PDF

She had removed the frogs that closed the neck and now she was taking off the collar piece. The tiny stitches came close together, and she bent over the work, with the light from the gas lamp illuminating each stitch. One after the other, with no discernible difference between them, the stitches waited. She severed them, each one. When she had a few inches done, she went back to pick out the threads. Her mind wandered off from the reading.
    They didn’t even know for sure about God, that was what the Bible was saying. There were people who said, and the minister had made sermons on the subject, that the war was foretold in Revelations, that the stars falling like figs were like the bombs falling, that the Anti-Christ was a symbol for the Germans and Austrians, that the four horsemen, who rode ahead of the Apocalypse itself, had been seen, riding across Europe. Clothilde almost hoped they were right, because then you could understand what God was up to.
    When Father told them he was going away to war, it was at Grandfather’s dinner table. Though dinner in Maine was eaten at the kitchen table, dinner at Grandfather’s had always been a formal meal. Onlyon Sunday night did Nate and Clothilde and Mother eat with Father’s family. So it must have been a Sunday.
    At Grandfather’s, the table was covered with linen, and the heavy silver was set out at each place, forks on the left, knife and spoons on the right. The servants didn’t sit down with them, of course. Harkness and May waited on the table, serving the food Mrs. Oxford had cooked. There was a lot of food, so if you wanted dessert you had to eat lightly of the other courses, the soup, the roast, the dishes of potatoes and vegetables Harkness and May carried around the table, offering servings. Grandfather sat at one end of the table and carved. Aunt Leona sat at the other, because she was the oldest woman, so she was the hostess. Father and Aunt Nora sat across from Mother, who had Nate on one side of her and Clothilde on the other. Clothilde remembered.
    “I’ve enlisted,” Father announced. In his white dress shirt and dark evening jacket, he was handsome. When he was happy, his dark blue eyes shone. They shone then, under the long golden lashes.
    “Why do a fool thing like that?” Grandfather said. The aunts murmured “Oh, Benjamin,” almost in unison, as if Father was Clothilde’s age and had beencaught with his fingers in one of Mrs. Oxford’s puddings. Mother didn’t say anything. She sat there as if she were nothing more than a painting, a portrait of a woman in a red-and-silver striped dress. “I asked you a question,” Grandfather said.
    “Well, sir, you know how everybody says
C’est la guerre
—this is my chance to find out what that means,” Father said. That was a joke, his smiling face said. Nobody smiled back at him.
    For a long time, nobody said anything. From where she sat, Clothilde could see Harkness make a face at May, the same kind of face Nurse made at Clothilde to warn her to be silent. The aunts waited for what Grandfather would say. Mother twisted her napkin in her hands. Clothilde couldn’t see Nate, but she guessed he must be proud. Father would make a fine soldier, she thought. He should be a captain, because he was so strong and brave. There wasn’t anyone who took fences as boldly as Father, and he was always there at the kill, when the fox was finally run to earth. She would have liked to say something, but she knew what would happen if she did. Children, as Nurse told them, were to be seen and not heard.
    Grandfather picked up his knife and fork again.He cut a bite of roast and chewed on it. He stared at Father, who leaned back and smiled. Grandfather took a drink of wine, still staring, and Father, who wasn’t afraid of Grandfather, smiled right back.
    But Grandfather was angry. He was always cross at Clothilde and Nate and Mother, but this was more. He picked up his fork and ate a carrot, chewed and swallowed it.