The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Next of Kin, by Nellie L. McClung

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Title: The Next of Kin
Those who Wait and Wonder

Author: Nellie L. McClung

Release Date: August 19, 2005 [EBook #16552]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Next of Kin

_Those who Wait and Wonder_

By

Nellie L. McClung

Author of "Sowing Seeds in Denny," "The Second Chance,"
"The Black Creek Stopping House," and
"In Times like These"

TORONTO
THOMAS ALLEN
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
1917

1917, BY NELLIE L. McCLUNG

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published November 1917_

HOPE

Down through the ages, a picture has come of the woman who weepeth:
Tears are her birthright, and sorrow and sadness her portion:
Weeping endures for a night, and prolongeth its season
Far in the day, with the will of God
For a reason!

Such has the world long accepted, as fitting and real;
Plentiful have been the causes of grief, without stinting;
Patient and sad have the women accepted the ruling,
Learning life's lessons, with hardly a word of complaint
At the schooling.

But there's a limit to tears, even tears, and a new note is sounding:
Hitherto they have wept without hope, never seeing an ending;
Now hope has dawned in their poor lonely hearts,
And a message they're sending
Over the world to their sisters in weeping, a message is flashing,
Flashing the brighter, for the skies are so dark
And war thunders crashing!
And this is the message the war-stricken women send out
In their sorrow:
"Yesterday and to-day have gone wrong,
But we still have to-morrow!"

Contents

FOREWORD 1

I. BEACH DAYS 22

II. WORKING IN! 35

III. LET'S PRETEND 46