May 20, 2023 • 15 mins
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Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian literature, existentialism, identity, love, relationships, social commentary, cultural norms, social class, personal growth, literary style, literary legacy, literary analysis, literary adaptation, literary criticism, Cairo, modernity, cultural influence, societal expectations, individualism, human nature, psychological analysis, Arab culture, family, urbanization
Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian literature, existentialism, identity, love, relationships, social commentary, cultural norms, social class, personal growth, literary style, literary legacy, literary analysis, literary adaptation, literary criticism, Cairo, modernity, cultural influence, societal expectations, individualism, human nature, psychological analysis, Arab culture, family, urbanization
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Chapter twelve, Corporal Cameron did notsoon return to his native town. An
epidemic of measles broke out in campjust before Thanksgiving and pursued its tantalizing course
through his special barracks with strenuous figure. Quarantine was put on for three weeks
and was but lifted for a fewhours when a new batch of cases came
(00:22):
down seven weeks. More of isolationfollowed, when the men were not allowed
away from the barracks except for long, lonely walks or gallops across camp.
Even the mild excitements of the YM c A Huts were not for them.
In these days. They were muchshut up to themselves, and latent
tendencies broke loose and ran. Riotshooting krepp became a passion. They gambled
(00:45):
as long as they had a dollarleft or could get credit on the next
month's pay day. Then they gambledfor their shirts and their bayonets all day
long. Whenever they were in thebarracks, you could hear the rattle of
the dice and the familiar call ofPhoebe, Dick, Big Nick, and
Little Joe. When they were noton drill, the men would infest the
barracks for hours at a time,gathered in crouching groups about the dice,
(01:08):
the air thick and blue with cigarettesmoke, while others had nothing better to
do than sprawl on their cots andtalk. And from their talk, Cameron
often turned away nauseated. The lowideals, the open boasting of shame,
the matter of course, conviction thatall men and most women were as bad
as themselves filled him with a deepboiling rage, and he would close his
(01:30):
book, or throw down the paperwith which he was trying to wile the
hour, and fling forth into thecold air for a solitary ride or walk.
He was sitting thus a cold,cheerless December day, with a French
book he had recently sent for,trying to study a little and prepare himself
for the new country to which hewas soon going. The door of the
(01:51):
barracks opened, letting in a rushof cold air, and closed quickly again.
A tall man in uniform with ared triangle on his arm, stood
off his woolen gloves and looking abouthim. Nobody paid him any attention.
Cameron was deep in his book anddid not even notice him. Off at
his left, a new crap gamewas just starting. The phraseology beat upon
(02:13):
his accustomed ears, like the buzzof bees or mosquitoes. I'll shoot a
buck, you're faded. Come onnow, there, dice, remember the
baby's shoes. Cameron had ceased tohear the voices. He was struggling with
a difficult French idiom. The strangertook his bearings deliberately and walked over to
Cameron, sitting down with a friendlyair on the nearest cot. Would you
(02:36):
be interested in having one of mylittle books? He asked, and his
voice had a clear ring that broughtCameron's thoughts back to the barracks again.
He looked up for a curt refusal. He did not wish to be bothered
now, but something in the youngman's earnest face held him. Y mcaman
in general were well enough, butCameron wasn't crazy about them, especially when
(02:58):
they were young. But this onehad a look about him that proclaimed him
neither a slacker nor a sissy.Cameron hesitated, what kind of a book?
He asked in a somewhat curt manner. The boy, for he was
only a boy, though he wastall as a man, did not hedge,
but went straight to the point,looking eagerly at the soldier. A
pocket testament, he said earnestly,and laid in Cameron's hand a little book
(03:23):
with limp leather covers. Cameron tookit up half curiously, then looked into
the other's face almost coldly. Youselling them, there was a covert sneer
in his tone. No, No, said the other quickly. I'm giving
them away for a promise. Yousee, I had an accident and one
of my eyes was put out awhile ago. Of course they wouldn't take
(03:44):
me for a soldier, and thenext best thing was to be all the
help I could to the fellows thatare going to fight. I figure that
book is the best thing I canbring you. The manly simplicity of the
boy held Cameron's gaze firmly fixed min what way. Cameron was turning the
leaves curiously, enjoying the silky finenessand the clear cut print and soft leather
(04:05):
binding. Life in the barracks wasso much in the rough that any bit
of refinement was doubly appreciated. Heliked the feel of the little book and
had a curious longing to be itspossessor. Why it gives you a pretty
straight line on where we're all going, what is expected of us, and
how we're to be looked out for. It shows one how to know God
(04:26):
and be ready to meet to deathif we have to. What makes you
think anyone can know God on thisearth, asked Cameron sharply, because I
have said the astonishing young man,quite as if he were saying he were
related to the president or something likethat. You have how did you get
to know him through that little bookand by following its teachings? Cameron turned
(04:49):
over the pages again, catching familiarphrases here and there as he had heard
them sometimes. And Sunday school yearsago you said something about a promise.
What was it that you'll carry thebook with you always and read at least
a verse in it every day.Well that doesn't sound hard, mused Cameron.
(05:09):
I guess I could stand for thatthe book is yours. Then would
you like to put your name tothat acceptance card in the front of the
book. What's that? Asked Cameronsharply, as if he had discovered the
fly in the ointment for which hehad all along been suspicious. Well,
I call it the first step inknowing God. It's your act of acceptance
(05:30):
of the way God has planned foryou to be forgiven and saved from sin.
If you sign that, you sayyou will accept Christ as your savior.
But suppose you don't believe in Christ. I can't commit myself to anything
like that till I know about it. Well, you see, that's the
first move in getting to know God, said the stranger with a smile.
God says he wants you to believein his son. He asks that much
(05:54):
of you if you want to getto know him. Cameron looked at him
with bewildered interest. Was here possibleanswer to the questions of his heart?
Why did this curious boy have alight in his face that never came from
earth or air? What was thereabout his simple earnestness that was so convincing.
Another crap game had started up onthe other side of them. A
(06:15):
musically inclined private was playing ragtime onthe piano, and another was trying to
accompany him on the banjo. Theair was hazier than ever. It seemed
strange to be talking of such thingsin these surroundings. Let's get out of
here and walk, said Cameron.I'd like to understand what you mean.
For two hours they tramped across thefrozen ground and talked, arguing this way
(06:39):
and that, much drawn toward oneanother. At last, in the solemn
background of a wall of whispering pinesthat shut them away from the stark gray
rows of barracks, Cameron took outhis fountain pen, and, with his
foot on a prone log, openedthe little book on his knee and wrote
his name and the date. Thenhe put it in his breast pocket.
With a solemn feeling that he hadtaken some kind of a great step toward
(07:02):
what his soul had been longing tofind. They knelt on the frozen ground
beside that log, and the strangerprayed simply, as if he were talking
to a friend. Thereafter, thatspot was hallowed ground to Cameron, to
which he came often to think andto read his little book. That night
he wrote to Ruth, telling ina shy way of his meeting with the
(07:24):
Testament man and about the little book. After he had mailed the letter,
he walked back again to the spotamong the pines, and, standing there,
looked up to the stars, andsomehow committed himself again to the covenant
he had signed in the little book. It was then that he decided that
if he got home again after quarantine, before he went over, he would
(07:45):
unite with the church. Somehow thestranger's talk that afternoon had cleared away his
objections on his way back to thebarracks, across the open field, up
through the woods, and over thecrest of the hill toward the road.
As he walked, thinking deeply,suddenly, from down below on the road,
a familiar voice floated up to him. He parted the branches of oak
(08:05):
underbrush that made a screen between himand the road, and glanced down to
get his bearings, the better toavoid an unwelcome meeting. It was inevitable
when one came near Lieutenant Wainwright thathe would overhear some part of a conversation,
for he had a carrying voice,which he never sought to restrain.
You sure she's a girl with pep? Are you? I don't want to
(08:28):
bother with any other kind? Allright? Tell her to wait for me
in the Washington Station tomorrow evening ateight. I'll look for her at the
right of the information booth. Tellher to wear a red carnation so i'll
know her. I'll show her agood time, all right, if she's
the right sort, I'll trust youthat she's a good booker. Cameron could
not hear the response, but thetwo were standing silhouetted against a distant light,
(08:52):
and something in the attitude of theother man held his attention. For
a moment he could not place him. Then it flashed across his mind that
this was the soldier Chambers, whohad been the means of his missing the
train at Chester on the memorable occasionwhen Ruth MacDonald had saved the day.
It struck him as a strange thingthat these two enemies of his, whom
(09:13):
he would have supposed to be strangersto one another, should be talking thus
Intimately, to make sure of theman's identity, he waited until the two
parted, and Wainwright went his way, and then, at a distance,
followed the other one until he wasquite certain. He walked back thoughtfully,
trying to make it out. HadWainwright then been at the bottom of his
trouble that day? It began toseem quite possible. And how had Ruth
(09:37):
McDonald happened to be so opportunely presentat the right moment, How had she
happened to turn down that road,a road that was seldom used by people
going to Baltimore. It was allvery strange and had never been satisfactorily explained.
Ruth had evaded the question most plausiblyevery time he had brought it up.
Could it be that Wainwright had toldher of a plot against him and
(10:00):
she had reached out to help him? His heart leapt at the thought.
Then at once he was sure thatWainwright had never told her, unless perhaps
he had told some tale against himand made him the butt of a great
joke. Well, if he had, she had cared enough to defend him
and help him out, without evergiving away the fact that she knew.
(10:20):
But here, too lay a thornto disturb him. Why had Ruth MacDonald
not told the plain truth? Ifshe knew, was she trying to shield
Harry Wainwright? Could she really carefor that contemptible scoundrel? The thought,
in all its phases, tore hismind and kept him awake for hours,
For the crux of the whole matterwas that he was afraid that Ruth MacDonald
(10:41):
was going to marry Lieutenant Wainwright,and he knew that it was not only
for her sake, but for hisalso that he did not want this,
that it was agony even to contemplate. He told himself, of course,
that his interest was utterly unselfish,that she was nothing to him but a
friend, and ever would be,and that while it might be hard to
(11:01):
see her belonged to some fine manand know he never might be more than
a passing friend, still it wouldnot be like seeing her tied to a
rotten, unprincipled fellow like Wainwright.The queer part of it was that the
word rotten in connection with his enemy, played a great part in his thoughts
that night. Somewhere in the watchesof the night, a memory came to
(11:24):
him of the covenant he had madethat day, and a vague, wistful
reaching of his heart after the Christto whom he was supposed to have surrendered
his life. He wondered if aChrist such as the Stranger had claimed he
had would take an interest in theaffairs of Ruth MacDonald. Surely such a
flower of a girl would be protected, if there was protection for anyone.
(11:45):
And somehow he managed a queer littleprayer for her, the first he had
tried to put up. It helpedhim a little, and toward morning he
fell asleep. A few days later, in glancing through his newly acquired Testament,
he came upon a verse which greatlytroubled him for a time. His
eye had caught it at random,and somehow it lodged in his mind.
(12:07):
Forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any even as Christ forgave you,so also do ye. Somehow the principle
of that verse did not fit withhis proud spirit. He thought instantly of
Wainwright's distasteful face and form. Itseemed to loom before him with a smug,
(12:28):
triumphal sneer. His enmity toward thefellow had been of year's standing,
and had been deepened many times byunforgettable acts. There was nothing about Wainwright
to make one forgive him. Therewas everything about him to make one want
to punish him. When the Verstfirst confronted Cameron, he felt a rising
indignation that there had been so muchas a connection in his thoughts with his
(12:50):
quarrel with Wainwright. Why anybody thatknew him knew Wainwright was wrong? God
must think so too. That versemight apply to little quarrels, not to
his feeling about the way Wainwright hadtreated him ever since they were children.
That was not to be born.Of course, those words he had called
Cameron's father, how they made hisblood boil even now. No, he
(13:13):
would not forbear, not forgive Wainwright. God would not want him to do
so. It was right he shouldbe against him forever. Thus he dismissed
the suggestion and turned to the beginningof his Testament, having determined to find
the Christ of whom the Stranger hadset him in search. On the fly
leaf of the little Book, theStranger had written a few words, and
(13:35):
ye shall find me when ye shallsearch for me with all your heart Jeremiah
twenty nine thirteen. That meant nohalfway business. He could understand that well.
He was willing to put himself intothe search fully. He understood that
it was worth a wholehearted search ifone were really to find God. As
(13:56):
a reward, that night he wrotea letter to the minister in bryne Haven,
asking for an interview when next hewas able to get leave from camp.
In the meantime, he kept outof the way of Wainwright most adroitly
and found many ways to avoid ameeting. There had been three awful days
when his peach of a captain aboutwhom he had spoken to Ruth, had
(14:16):
been called away on some military errand, and Wainwright had been the commanding officer.
There had been days of gaul andwormwood to Cameron, for his proud
spirit could not bend to salute theman whom he considered a scoundrel, and
Wainwright took a fine delight in usinghis power over his enemy to the limit.
If it had not been for theunexpected return of the captain a day
(14:39):
earlier than planned, Cameron might havehad to suffer humiliations far greater than he
did. The bitterness between the twogrew stronger, and Cameron went about with
his soul boiling with rage and rebellion. It was only when Ruth's letters came
that he forgot it all for afew minutes and lifted his thoughts to higher
things. End of Chapter twelve.
Chapter twelve, Corporal Cameron did notsoon return to his native town. An
epidemic of measles broke out in campjust before Thanksgiving and pursued its tantalizing course
through his special barracks with strenuous figure. Quarantine was put on for three weeks
and was but lifted for a fewhours when a new batch of cases came
(00:22):
down seven weeks. More of isolationfollowed, when the men were not allowed
away from the barracks except for long, lonely walks or gallops across camp.
Even the mild excitements of the YM c A Huts were not for them.
In these days. They were muchshut up to themselves, and latent
tendencies broke loose and ran. Riotshooting krepp became a passion. They gambled
(00:45):
as long as they had a dollarleft or could get credit on the next
month's pay day. Then they gambledfor their shirts and their bayonets all day
long. Whenever they were in thebarracks, you could hear the rattle of
the dice and the familiar call ofPhoebe, Dick, Big Nick, and
Little Joe. When they were noton drill, the men would infest the
barracks for hours at a time,gathered in crouching groups about the dice,
(01:08):
the air thick and blue with cigarettesmoke, while others had nothing better to
do than sprawl on their cots andtalk. And from their talk, Cameron
often turned away nauseated. The lowideals, the open boasting of shame,
the matter of course, conviction thatall men and most women were as bad
as themselves filled him with a deepboiling rage, and he would close his
(01:30):
book, or throw down the paperwith which he was trying to wile the
hour, and fling forth into thecold air for a solitary ride or walk.
He was sitting thus a cold,cheerless December day, with a French
book he had recently sent for,trying to study a little and prepare himself
for the new country to which hewas soon going. The door of the
(01:51):
barracks opened, letting in a rushof cold air, and closed quickly again.
A tall man in uniform with ared triangle on his arm, stood
off his woolen gloves and looking abouthim. Nobody paid him any attention.
Cameron was deep in his book anddid not even notice him. Off at
his left, a new crap gamewas just starting. The phraseology beat upon
(02:13):
his accustomed ears, like the buzzof bees or mosquitoes. I'll shoot a
buck, you're faded. Come onnow, there, dice, remember the
baby's shoes. Cameron had ceased tohear the voices. He was struggling with
a difficult French idiom. The strangertook his bearings deliberately and walked over to
Cameron, sitting down with a friendlyair on the nearest cot. Would you
(02:36):
be interested in having one of mylittle books? He asked, and his
voice had a clear ring that broughtCameron's thoughts back to the barracks again.
He looked up for a curt refusal. He did not wish to be bothered
now, but something in the youngman's earnest face held him. Y mcaman
in general were well enough, butCameron wasn't crazy about them, especially when
(02:58):
they were young. But this onehad a look about him that proclaimed him
neither a slacker nor a sissy.Cameron hesitated, what kind of a book?
He asked in a somewhat curt manner. The boy, for he was
only a boy, though he wastall as a man, did not hedge,
but went straight to the point,looking eagerly at the soldier. A
pocket testament, he said earnestly,and laid in Cameron's hand a little book
(03:23):
with limp leather covers. Cameron tookit up half curiously, then looked into
the other's face almost coldly. Youselling them, there was a covert sneer
in his tone. No, No, said the other quickly. I'm giving
them away for a promise. Yousee, I had an accident and one
of my eyes was put out awhile ago. Of course they wouldn't take
(03:44):
me for a soldier, and thenext best thing was to be all the
help I could to the fellows thatare going to fight. I figure that
book is the best thing I canbring you. The manly simplicity of the
boy held Cameron's gaze firmly fixed min what way. Cameron was turning the
leaves curiously, enjoying the silky finenessand the clear cut print and soft leather
(04:05):
binding. Life in the barracks wasso much in the rough that any bit
of refinement was doubly appreciated. Heliked the feel of the little book and
had a curious longing to be itspossessor. Why it gives you a pretty
straight line on where we're all going, what is expected of us, and
how we're to be looked out for. It shows one how to know God
(04:26):
and be ready to meet to deathif we have to. What makes you
think anyone can know God on thisearth, asked Cameron sharply, because I
have said the astonishing young man,quite as if he were saying he were
related to the president or something likethat. You have how did you get
to know him through that little bookand by following its teachings? Cameron turned
(04:49):
over the pages again, catching familiarphrases here and there as he had heard
them sometimes. And Sunday school yearsago you said something about a promise.
What was it that you'll carry thebook with you always and read at least
a verse in it every day.Well that doesn't sound hard, mused Cameron.
(05:09):
I guess I could stand for thatthe book is yours. Then would
you like to put your name tothat acceptance card in the front of the
book. What's that? Asked Cameronsharply, as if he had discovered the
fly in the ointment for which hehad all along been suspicious. Well,
I call it the first step inknowing God. It's your act of acceptance
(05:30):
of the way God has planned foryou to be forgiven and saved from sin.
If you sign that, you sayyou will accept Christ as your savior.
But suppose you don't believe in Christ. I can't commit myself to anything
like that till I know about it. Well, you see, that's the
first move in getting to know God, said the stranger with a smile.
God says he wants you to believein his son. He asks that much
(05:54):
of you if you want to getto know him. Cameron looked at him
with bewildered interest. Was here possibleanswer to the questions of his heart?
Why did this curious boy have alight in his face that never came from
earth or air? What was thereabout his simple earnestness that was so convincing.
Another crap game had started up onthe other side of them. A
(06:15):
musically inclined private was playing ragtime onthe piano, and another was trying to
accompany him on the banjo. Theair was hazier than ever. It seemed
strange to be talking of such thingsin these surroundings. Let's get out of
here and walk, said Cameron.I'd like to understand what you mean.
For two hours they tramped across thefrozen ground and talked, arguing this way
(06:39):
and that, much drawn toward oneanother. At last, in the solemn
background of a wall of whispering pinesthat shut them away from the stark gray
rows of barracks, Cameron took outhis fountain pen, and, with his
foot on a prone log, openedthe little book on his knee and wrote
his name and the date. Thenhe put it in his breast pocket.
With a solemn feeling that he hadtaken some kind of a great step toward
(07:02):
what his soul had been longing tofind. They knelt on the frozen ground
beside that log, and the strangerprayed simply, as if he were talking
to a friend. Thereafter, thatspot was hallowed ground to Cameron, to
which he came often to think andto read his little book. That night
he wrote to Ruth, telling ina shy way of his meeting with the
(07:24):
Testament man and about the little book. After he had mailed the letter,
he walked back again to the spotamong the pines, and, standing there,
looked up to the stars, andsomehow committed himself again to the covenant
he had signed in the little book. It was then that he decided that
if he got home again after quarantine, before he went over, he would
(07:45):
unite with the church. Somehow thestranger's talk that afternoon had cleared away his
objections on his way back to thebarracks, across the open field, up
through the woods, and over thecrest of the hill toward the road.
As he walked, thinking deeply,suddenly, from down below on the road,
a familiar voice floated up to him. He parted the branches of oak
(08:05):
underbrush that made a screen between himand the road, and glanced down to
get his bearings, the better toavoid an unwelcome meeting. It was inevitable
when one came near Lieutenant Wainwright thathe would overhear some part of a conversation,
for he had a carrying voice,which he never sought to restrain.
You sure she's a girl with pep? Are you? I don't want to
(08:28):
bother with any other kind? Allright? Tell her to wait for me
in the Washington Station tomorrow evening ateight. I'll look for her at the
right of the information booth. Tellher to wear a red carnation so i'll
know her. I'll show her agood time, all right, if she's
the right sort, I'll trust youthat she's a good booker. Cameron could
not hear the response, but thetwo were standing silhouetted against a distant light,
(08:52):
and something in the attitude of theother man held his attention. For
a moment he could not place him. Then it flashed across his mind that
this was the soldier Chambers, whohad been the means of his missing the
train at Chester on the memorable occasionwhen Ruth MacDonald had saved the day.
It struck him as a strange thingthat these two enemies of his, whom
(09:13):
he would have supposed to be strangersto one another, should be talking thus
Intimately, to make sure of theman's identity, he waited until the two
parted, and Wainwright went his way, and then, at a distance,
followed the other one until he wasquite certain. He walked back thoughtfully,
trying to make it out. HadWainwright then been at the bottom of his
trouble that day? It began toseem quite possible. And how had Ruth
(09:37):
McDonald happened to be so opportunely presentat the right moment, How had she
happened to turn down that road,a road that was seldom used by people
going to Baltimore. It was allvery strange and had never been satisfactorily explained.
Ruth had evaded the question most plausiblyevery time he had brought it up.
Could it be that Wainwright had toldher of a plot against him and
(10:00):
she had reached out to help him? His heart leapt at the thought.
Then at once he was sure thatWainwright had never told her, unless perhaps
he had told some tale against himand made him the butt of a great
joke. Well, if he had, she had cared enough to defend him
and help him out, without evergiving away the fact that she knew.
(10:20):
But here, too lay a thornto disturb him. Why had Ruth MacDonald
not told the plain truth? Ifshe knew, was she trying to shield
Harry Wainwright? Could she really carefor that contemptible scoundrel? The thought,
in all its phases, tore hismind and kept him awake for hours,
For the crux of the whole matterwas that he was afraid that Ruth MacDonald
(10:41):
was going to marry Lieutenant Wainwright,and he knew that it was not only
for her sake, but for hisalso that he did not want this,
that it was agony even to contemplate. He told himself, of course,
that his interest was utterly unselfish,that she was nothing to him but a
friend, and ever would be,and that while it might be hard to
(11:01):
see her belonged to some fine manand know he never might be more than
a passing friend, still it wouldnot be like seeing her tied to a
rotten, unprincipled fellow like Wainwright.The queer part of it was that the
word rotten in connection with his enemy, played a great part in his thoughts
that night. Somewhere in the watchesof the night, a memory came to
(11:24):
him of the covenant he had madethat day, and a vague, wistful
reaching of his heart after the Christto whom he was supposed to have surrendered
his life. He wondered if aChrist such as the Stranger had claimed he
had would take an interest in theaffairs of Ruth MacDonald. Surely such a
flower of a girl would be protected, if there was protection for anyone.
(11:45):
And somehow he managed a queer littleprayer for her, the first he had
tried to put up. It helpedhim a little, and toward morning he
fell asleep. A few days later, in glancing through his newly acquired Testament,
he came upon a verse which greatlytroubled him for a time. His
eye had caught it at random,and somehow it lodged in his mind.
(12:07):
Forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any even as Christ forgave you,so also do ye. Somehow the principle
of that verse did not fit withhis proud spirit. He thought instantly of
Wainwright's distasteful face and form. Itseemed to loom before him with a smug,
(12:28):
triumphal sneer. His enmity toward thefellow had been of year's standing,
and had been deepened many times byunforgettable acts. There was nothing about Wainwright
to make one forgive him. Therewas everything about him to make one want
to punish him. When the Verstfirst confronted Cameron, he felt a rising
indignation that there had been so muchas a connection in his thoughts with his
(12:50):
quarrel with Wainwright. Why anybody thatknew him knew Wainwright was wrong? God
must think so too. That versemight apply to little quarrels, not to
his feeling about the way Wainwright hadtreated him ever since they were children.
That was not to be born.Of course, those words he had called
Cameron's father, how they made hisblood boil even now. No, he
(13:13):
would not forbear, not forgive Wainwright. God would not want him to do
so. It was right he shouldbe against him forever. Thus he dismissed
the suggestion and turned to the beginningof his Testament, having determined to find
the Christ of whom the Stranger hadset him in search. On the fly
leaf of the little Book, theStranger had written a few words, and
(13:35):
ye shall find me when ye shallsearch for me with all your heart Jeremiah
twenty nine thirteen. That meant nohalfway business. He could understand that well.
He was willing to put himself intothe search fully. He understood that
it was worth a wholehearted search ifone were really to find God. As
(13:56):
a reward, that night he wrotea letter to the minister in bryne Haven,
asking for an interview when next hewas able to get leave from camp.
In the meantime, he kept outof the way of Wainwright most adroitly
and found many ways to avoid ameeting. There had been three awful days
when his peach of a captain aboutwhom he had spoken to Ruth, had
(14:16):
been called away on some military errand, and Wainwright had been the commanding officer.
There had been days of gaul andwormwood to Cameron, for his proud
spirit could not bend to salute theman whom he considered a scoundrel, and
Wainwright took a fine delight in usinghis power over his enemy to the limit.
If it had not been for theunexpected return of the captain a day
(14:39):
earlier than planned, Cameron might havehad to suffer humiliations far greater than he
did. The bitterness between the twogrew stronger, and Cameron went about with
his soul boiling with rage and rebellion. It was only when Ruth's letters came
that he forgot it all for afew minutes and lifted his thoughts to higher
things. End of Chapter twelve.
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