The Little Warrior - Penn State University

for living in it. It presented itself to Jill on first acquaintance
in the aspect of a wind-swept railroad station,
dumped down far away from human habitation in the
middle of a stretch of flat and ragged country that reminded
her a little of parts of Surrey. The station was
just a shed on a foundation of planks which lay flush
with the rails. From this shed, as the train clanked in,
there emerged a tall, shambling man in a weatherbeaten
overcoat. He had a clean-shaven, wrinkled face,
and he looked doubtfully at Jill with small eyes. Something
in his expression reminded Jill of her father, as a
bad caricature of a public man will recall the original,
she introduced herself.
“If you’re Uncle Elmer,” she said, “I’m Jill.”
The man held out a long hand. He did not smile. He
was as bleak as the east wind that swept the platform.
“Glad to meet you again,” he said in a melancholy
voice. It was news to Jill that they had met before. She
wondered where. Her uncle supplied the information.
“Last time I saw you, you were a kiddy in short frocks,
running around and shouting to beat the band.” He
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looked up and down the platform. “I never heard a child
make so much noise!”
“I’m quite quiet now,” said Jill encouragingly. The
recollection of her infant revelry seemed to her to be
distressing her relative.
It appeared, however, that it was not only this that
was on his mind.
“If you want to drive home,” he said, “we’ll have to
phone to the Durham House for a hack.” He brooded
awhile, Jill remaining silent at his side, loath to break
in upon whatever secret sorrow he was wrestling with.
“That would be a dollar,” he went on. “They’re robbers
in these parts! A dollar! And it’s not over a mile
and a half. Are you fond of walking?”
Jill was a bright girl, and could take a hint.
“I love walking,” she said. She might have added that
she preferred to do it on a day when the wind was not
blowing quite so keenly from the East, but her uncle’s
obvious excitement at the prospect of cheating the rapacity
of the sharks at the Durham House restrained
her. Her independent soul had not quite adjusted itself