tary drill. I joined it, of course We drill two afternoons each week. I bought a Manual of Arms and I am studying it hard Of course I am not twenty-one until next July, but I believe in preparedness. I guess I won't play on the ball team this year. mean to put all my athletics into military drill. Then when I graduate I shall be in good shape if I am drafted or if I enlist. It looks as if our country were in for a big, hard fight. It won't be any easy job to down those Huns, but we are going to do it, all the same. I see that dad has got his fighting clothes on. He wrote me a letter last week full of pep. The war is getting on his nerves, as it is with all patriotic men. You must not think that I am neglecting my studies, muddie. I am keeping up my work O. K. That is why I am so busy-that and all this military business. I presume that I had better not come home this vacation-better stay here and put in the time drilling, don't you think? Of course I would rather come home, but there are times that call for hard things. We Americans have been too soft. This war is the first consideration. Every one of us must get into the game. You won't feel too badly if I don't come home this vacation, will you, muddie? I received your package with the book and the underwear. The best little muddie any fellow ever had. Your boy, BILLY.

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No; I simply told him what I thought about those damned Germans."

"It would be such a shame for him to leave college now, when he needs only a few more months to graduate," said she, sadly. "Think of the good work he has been doing and think of all these years that you and I have planned and worked for Billy's education. And then, besides, why should Billy need to hurry? Why not wait until the country actually needs him? After he becomes of age, if he is drafted, why then, of course, he will go. The country doesn't really need him now. There are hundreds of thousands of young men who can go without making such a sacrifice."

"Yes, it always looks easy for the other fellow," said Pete. "But war always rips things up the back. It upsets everybody's personal plans especially the mothers'. If you should go out here and take the first thousand mothers you meet, why, every one of them would give you a good reason why an exception should be made in the case of her boy-that is the mother of it. So far as Billy's education goes, he has got about all that the University can give him. He won't lose that. The fact is, Jen, you don't want Billy to get into the war at all.”

"Pete!" exclaimed she, in alarm. "Do you wish Billy to enlist?"

"I wouldn't exactly say that," replied he. "I don't know what to think about it. He is my flesh and blood, Jen, as well as yours, and he is my only boy, but, great Scott-this war! It has got to come right home to every one of us. It's a personal matter with every American citizen. Those infernal Huns are after our scalp-don't make any mistake about that. They will do to us just what they have done to Belgium and Russia and Serbia if they can. A free nation can't live on peaceable terms with those Prussian Junkers-they won't let us. And when I think of a free-born American bowing his neck to Prussianism it makes me boil inside. We have got to smash them or they will eventually smash us, and every mother's son of us has got to do his share. And, say, Jen, what have we done so far you and I? We are two patriotic citizens; but what have we done to help win this war? You have done some knitting and I have done some talking and have put my money into Liberty Bonds-a mighty good investment, too-no credit

to me.

But have we done anything that actually hurt? Anything that made us groan a little! Nit! But we've got to come to it. War is a devilish bloody business, and war is our busi

ness first now. Billy is right about it-we are too soft. If I were ten years younger, I would get into the push myself. I get tired of just talking. By George, the next time I hear one of these pro-Germans getting off any of his yammer I am going to paste him one, if it costs me a fine of fifty dollars! But that is neither here nor there. The great big thing that we must do, Jen, is to give ourselves to this war, no matter what it costs

us.

"But listen, Pete," she persisted. "Billy is still under age. The Government has fixed the age limit for military service. There will be no shirking on our part if we wait until he reaches the draft age."

"It isn't a matter of age, Jen," asserted Pete. "Billy is an athlete. He has played on the varsity football and baseball teams for two years. He weighs a hundred and sixty pounds. Why, the last time I put on the gloves with him he stood me off in great shape, and intellectually he is two or three years ahead of his age. Billy is a full-grown man, but I guess you will never let your boy grow up. Your idea of Billy is, and always will be, that up there," and Pete pointed to an enlarged photograph upon the wall-a chubby-faced six-year-old boy. The point I am making, Jen, is this. Billy is fit and he has reached a point where he is capable of making his own decision." "Then you won't write and persuade him not to enlist?” she faltered, and, being unable longer to control her feelings, she burst into tears.

66

"Oh, come now, little girl," soothed Pete. "I haven't said yet just what I shall do. Let's not cross that bridge until we get to it. Billy won't enlist before writing and asking our advice." Upon the following Monday morning, after Pete had departed upon his weekly trip, Mrs. Crowther wrote a letter to her son. My Darling Boy:

your

received your letter Saturday morning. I am glad that you are taking that military drill, and if you think it best to remain there over vacation I shall miss you awfully, but I know that time will be well employed. It is quite probable that you will be drafted next summer after you reach the military age, and I agree with you that you ought to get some training in the meantime. It is dreadful to think of my boy going into the war, but if your country calls you I shall try and be a good patriot. I am so glad that you will be able to complete your college course and graduate before you are subject to military duty. We have always been so anxious for you to get a thorough college education, and we shall be quite as proud as you are when you finally get your diploma. I have felt a little worried, fearing that the war excitement in the college might interfere with your school work, but I know that my dear boy will be cool-headed and not allow himself to be swept off his feet. I do not doubt that many of the boys there who have enlisted would have done better to have kept on with their college. It is so easy to yield to inpulse in such times. You won't allow yourself to be stampeded, will you, Billy, dear? You are so near to graduation. I am sure that you will not let anything interfere with that. I know that you will hold yourself ready when your country really needs you and calls you, but you won't be so foolish as to anticipate it by enlisting, will you, Billy? The Government has wisely fixed the age for service, and you will be doing your full duty if you comply with it. It may be that you will not be needed in the service at all, and in that event you may be sure that after this awful war is over our country will have great need for all of its ambitious educated young men. You can hold yourself in readiness for either, and I know that you will do your duty whatever comes. I will write another letter to-morrow and tell you the home news. Lovingly, MOTHER.

P. S.-Promise me, Billy, dear, that you won't enlist.

are usually mixed. I could give you several reasons that operated on Bud."

"All right; let's have a few."

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Well, for one thing, by enlisting he had his choice of the branch of the service that he preferred. He intends to study engineering, you know. He enlisted in the Engineering Corps."

"I don't see any patriotism in that. That was nothing but self-interest."

"Then again," continued Ned, "Bud likes out-of-doors pretty well, and that military life out in the open looked pretty good to him."

"Where does patriotism come in? He was simply following his inclination there."

"Wait a minute. I haven't told you his great big reason. The fact is that Bud is fighting mad and has been for about two years. It started when the Germans raped Belgium. That got on his nerves. Then, when those Prussian Junkers began their arrogant treatment of our Government Bud kept getting hotter all the time, and when they blew up the Lusitania-well, Bud blew up too. But when they ordered us off the high seasoh, say-Bud beat President Wilson to it. He declared war before Wilson did."

"Yes, Bud is 'a born scrapper; but really, now, wasn't it natural belligerency rather than patriotism?" objected Billy. "What was back of the belligerency? What started it going? Wasn't it Bud's Americanism? A free-born American can't stand for such things. What is patriotism, anyway? Isn't it where a man stands for what America stands for? And hasn't Germany been trampling on everything that America stands for, and isn't that what got Bud going?"

"Yes, I guess that is true," admitted Billy. "I confess that I feel that way myself most of the time.

"The fact is," continued Ned, "Bud would have enlisted a long time ago only for one thing."

"What was that?"

"His mother."

"His mother?"

"Yes. When Bud wrote home that he was thinking about enlisting, his mother went up into the air. She came here last week to see him, and I guess she rubbed it into him good and plenty; but after she left Bud decided to go into it. He said that there wasn't anything else to do."

"I presume he was right about it," said Billy, thoughtfully. "Mothers can't very well help taking the personal view of it, but war is no respecter of personal relationships. War demands a man's life, and that includes everything; and if the cause is big enough then he should be willing to hazard his life. And, believe me, we've got a great big cause all right! I confess that those Germans have got me scared up."

"Scared up! Has German frightfulness got your goat, Billy?"

"Not exactly that. It isn't that I would be afraid to fight Prussians. But we've got to hand it to those Germans for being the most remarkable people on earth. Why, that whole German Empire is only about the size of the State of Texas. They have no great natural resources either. But see what they have accomplished in business and natural sciences and finance and military organization! They simply-"

"Bud and I had a good many arguments about the German menace," broke in Ned. "I claimed that we exaggerate it. Those Germans are crowded into such a small territory that they simply have got to expand. Wouldn't we try to expand if we were hemmed in like that? I claimed that if Germany should acquire a reasonable amount of territory after this war so that she would have more elbow room she would settle down and content herself with commercial development and-" "Forget it, Ned-forget it!" cried Billy, hotly. "You miss the point entirely. The German menace is found in that Prussian military spirit—a hoggish greed for power coupled with the ferocity and moral standards of a wild boar! This war has shown that up. There isn't a crime on the statute-books that those Prussian Junkers would hesitate to commit in order to have their own way. Now when you take that kind of a spirit in connection with a high degree of intelligence and scientific efficiency, you have something positively devilish. Nothing can

satisfy a spirit like that, Ned. It grows with what it feeds upon. It is the same old Bible story of the devil aiming at universal domination, and that is why I am scared up."

"Do you think they are going to win, Billy?"

"Not on you life! I have just enough religion_in me so that I can't see those Prussian devils winning out. I admit their power and efficiency, but they remind me of what Sancho Panzo said about the devil. He said, 'The devil is an ass,' and Sancho was right. That Prussian devil is an ass because he just can't see that any man or any nation can be animated by a spirit of honor and truth and justice, and so of course he doesn't under stand its power. He thinks that it's a matter of brute force instead of a matter of spirit. I believe we are going to win this war, Ned, because I believe in God."

"So do Hindenburg and the Kaiser," retorted Ned. "Doesn't Hindenburg keep telegraphing the Kaiser about the great vie tories he has won with the help of 'Gott'? Aren't those Prus sians always claiming a special partnership with Gott'?" "Yes, and they are right about it, too.' "Right!"

"Sure. What is a man's god, anyway? Isn't it what he worships and believes in as the Ultimate Power? What do those Prussians really worship? What is their idea of Ultimate Power? Isn't it Brute Force? So there is your Prussian 'Gott-Brute Force-and Hindenburg is right when he says that Gott' helped him. But that isn't the God I referred to I meant the God of honor and righteousness, and if I read his tory right it is that spirit that eventually wins out. The Prus sian devil is an ass because he thinks that lies and intrigue and brute force can win. The Prussian devil has got to be licked too, and it will take force-all the force we've got to do it; but the most important thing of all is the spirit back of your force. It is the American spirit of honor and international square-dealing back of her punch that is going to turn the scale, and it is up to us to put over the knock-out punch. France and England are fighting with their backs against the wall. The sooner we get over there with our whole punch, the sooner the war will end."

"When are you going to enlist, Billy?" grinned Ned.

"I don't know," replied Billy, gloomily. "The only thing that is holding me back is what held Bud Carter back." "Your mother?"

"Yes, I have the finest little mother in the world, Ned, but when it comes to motherhood with a capital'M' I'll bet that Bud's mother wouldn't be in the running with mine." That evening Billy wrote the following letter to his father: Dear Dad:

I have been thinking a lot about this war lately, and I have come to the conclusion that I ought to get into it. I believe that I ought to enlist. I wish you would write and tell me what you think about it. This isn't any hasty decision upon my part, dad. It represents my deliberate judgment, although I don't deny that I feel fighting mad most of the time. After all that you and mother have done for me, I wouldn't wish to take such a step without your consent. What do you say, dad?

BILLY.

Pete lighted another cigar, and again fell to pacing the floor. He picked up his letter and read it. He threw away his cigar, but immediately lighted another one. Then he read the letter again. He shook his head. "That isn't fair to Jen-no, it isn't fair," he muttered. "There's a good deal to be said from her standpoint. Maybe I ought to put both sides to him." He tore the letter up, and, once more seating himself, he wrote a longer letter: