The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The next time we went into town, we saw an enormous poster pasted to the
brick wall near the train station. Jamie stopped to stare. “What’s it say?” he
asked.
Miss Smith read it aloud, tapping the words with her fingers as she went,
“‘Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution, will bring us victory.’”
“That’s stupid,” I said. “It sounds like we’re doing all the work.”
Miss Smith looked at me and laughed. “You’re right,” she said.
“It should be, ‘our courage,’” I said. “Our courage, our cheerfulness, our
resolution, will bring us victory.”
“Absolutely,” Miss Smith said. “I’ll write the War Office and suggest a
revision.”
I couldn’t tell if she meant it or not. I hated when I didn’t understand her.
“I shouldn’t underestimate you, should I?” Miss Smith went on.
How should I know? I scowled.
“Oh, come on, you cranky child,” she said, touching my shoulder lightly.
“You can help me pick out the veg.”
Jamie was tugging on my arm. He pointed across the street, to Stephen
White holding on to the arm of a very old man. Actually, I saw, it was the old
man holding on to Stephen.
“A friend of yours?” Miss Smith asked.
“No,” I said. “It’s Billy’s brother.”
Miss Smith nodded. “You can go and say hello.”
I felt funny doing it, but I did want to know why Stephen hadn’t gone
home with the rest of his family. I made my way across the street.
Stephen saw me. He stopped, and when he did the old man stopped too,
turning odd milky eyes toward me.
Stephen gestured toward the crutches. “Good,” he said. “You should have
had those before.”
I thought of him carrying me to the station, and my face went hot.