over which no
feeble human ward has any power, and which can only be cast out by the
transforming power of God's grace.

Therefore to men and women everywhere who love a fair deal, and are
willing to give it to everyone, even women, this book is respectfully
dedicated by the author.

NELLIE L. McCLUNG.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE WAR THAT NEVER ENDS
II. THE WAR THAT ENDS IN EXHAUSTION SOMETIMES MISTAKEN FOR PEACE
III. WHAT DO WOMEN THINK OF WAR? (NOT THAT IT MATTERS)
IV. SHOULD WOMEN THINK?
V. THE NEW CHIVALRY
VI. HARDY PERENNIALS!
VII. GENTLE LADY
VIII. WOMEN AND THE CHURCH
IX. THE SORE THOUGHT
X. THE LAND OF THE FAIR DEAL
XI. AS A MAN THINKETH
XII. THE WAR AGAINST GLOOM

IN TIMES LIKE THESE

CHAPTER I

THE WAR THAT NEVER ENDS

If, at last the sword is sheathed,
And men, exhausted, call it peace,
Old Nature wears no olive wreath,
The weapons change--war does not cease.

The little struggling blades of grass
That lift their heads and will not die,
The vines that climb where sunbeams pass,
And fight their way toward the sky!

And every soul that God has made,
Who from despair their lives defend
And struggling upward through the shade,
Break every bond that will not bend,
These are the soldiers, unafraid
In the great war that has no end.

We will begin peaceably by contemplating the world of nature, trees and
plants and flowers, common green things against which there is no
law--for surely there is no corruption in carrots, no tricks in
turnips, no mixed motive in marigolds.

To look abroad upon a peaceful field drowsing in the sunshine, lazily
touched by a wandering breeze, no one would suspect that any struggle
was going on in the tiny hearts of the flowers and grasses. The lilies
of the field have long ago been said to toil not, neither spin, and the
inference has been that they in common with all other flowers and
plants lead a "lady's life," untroubled by any thought of ambition or
activity. The whole world of nature seems to present a perfect picture
of obedience and peaceful meditation.

But for all their quiet innocent ways, every plant has one ambition and
will attain it by any means. Plants have one ambition, and therein
they have the advantage of us, who sometimes have too many, and
sometimes none at all! Their ambition is to grow--to spread--to
travel--to get away from home. Home is