without a word as she led the way to the room upstairs
where two children slept sweetly.

"They are mine, Fred,--mine until the war is over, at least, and
Private Wilson comes back; and if he does not come back, or if he will
let me have them, they are mine forever."

He stared at this new woman, who looked like his wife.

"It was your last speech, Fred,--what you said to that young man. You
told him to go ahead--his wife would come around, you said--she would
see her selfishness. Then I saw a light shine on my pathway. Every
speech has stiffened my backbone a little. I was like the mouse who
timidly tiptoed out to the saucer of brandy, and, taking a sip, went
more boldly back, then came again with considerable swagger; and at
last took a good drink and then strutted up and down saying, 'Bring on
your old black cat!' That's how I feel, Fred,--I'm going to be a
mother to these two little children whose own mother has passed on and
whose father is holding up the pillars of the Empire. It would hardly
be fair to leave them to public charity, now, would it?"

"Well, Nettie," the Doctor said slowly, "I'll see that you do not
attend any more recruiting meetings--you are too literal. But all the
same," he said, "I am proud of my convert."

Olga Jasonjusen tiptoed gently away from the door, and going down the
back stairs hugged herself gayly, saying, "All over--but the kissing.
Oh, gee! He ain't too bad! He's just needed some one to cheek up to
him. Bet she's sorry now she didn't sass him long ago."

CHAPTER XII

THE WAR-MOTHER

I saw my old train friend again. It was the day that one of our
regiments went away, and we were all at the station to bid the boys
good-bye.

The empty coaches stood on a siding, and the stream of khaki-clad men
wound across the common from the Fair buildings, which were then used
as a military camp. The men were heavily loaded with all their
equipment, but cheerful as ever. The long-looked-for order to go
forward had come at last!

Men in uniform look much the same, but the women who came with them
and stood by them were from every station in life. There were two
Ukrainian women, with colored shawls on their heads, who said good-bye
to two of the best-looking boys in the regiment, their sons. It is no
new thing for the Ukrainian people to fight for liberty! There were
heavily veiled women, who alighted from their motors and silently
watched the coaches filling with soldiers. Every