nd when I went to shut the door, she sat there all
ruffled up. I reached out to feel her, she looked so humped-up, and
the minute I touched her, she fell off the roost; and when I picked
her up, she was dead! You see, she got herself balanced so she would
stay on the roost, and then died--bluffed it out to the last, and died
standing up! That's what we should all try to do!" she concluded; "go
down with a smile--I say--hustling and cheerful to the last!"

I commended her philosophy, but the other woman sat silent, and her
knitting lay idle on her knee.

After all, the biggest thing in life is the mental attitude!

This was the third time a boy on a wheel
Had come to her gate
With the small yellow slip, with its few curt words,
To tell her the fate
Of the boys she had given to fight
For the right to be free!
I thought I must go as a neighbor and friend
And stand by her side;
At least I could tell her how sorry I was
That a brave man had died.

She sat in a chair when I entered the room,
With the thing in her hand,
And the look on her face had a light and a bloom
I could not understand.
Then she showed me the message and said,
With a sigh of respite,--
"My last boy is dead. I can sleep. I can sleep
Without dreaming to-night."

CHAPTER VI

SURPRISES

When all the evidence is in--
When all the good--and all the sin--
The Impulses--without--within
Are catalogued--with reasons showing--
What great surprises will await
The small, the near-great and the great
Who thought they knew how things were going!

Stories crowd in upon me as I write. Let no one ever say that this is
a dull world! It is anything but dull! It is a pitiful, heartbreaking
world, full of injustice, misunderstandings, false standards, and
selfishness, but it is never dull. Neither is it a lost world, for the
darkest corners of it are illuminated here and there by heroic deeds
and noble aspirations. Men who hilariously sold their vote and
influence prior to 1914, who took every sharp turn within the law, and
who shamelessly mocked at any ideals of citizenship, were among the
first to put on the King's uniform and march out to die.

To-day I read in the "paper from home" that Private William Keel is
"missing, believed killed"; and it took me back to the old days
before the war when the late Private Keel was accustomed to hold up
the little town. Mr. Keel was a sobe