ne stood uttering no word. The sight of these lads stepping to
the drum beat so proudly had sent a chill to her heart and tears to
her eyes. "Oh, Ethel," she cried, touching her friend's arm, "isn't it
terrible?"

"Why, what's the matter?" cried Ethel, glancing at her. "Think of what
they are marching to!"

"Oh, I can't bear it," said Jane.

But Ethel was more engaged with the appearance of the battalion, from
the ranks of which she continued to pick out the faces of her friends.
"Look," she cried, "that surely is not Kellerman! It is! It is! Look,
Jane, there's that little Jew. Is it possible?"

"Kellerman?" cried Jane. "No, it can't be he. There are no Jews in the
Ninetieth."

"But it is," cried Ethel. "It is Kellerman. Let us go up to Broadway and
we shall meet them again."

They turned up a cross street and were in time to secure a position
from which they could get a good look at the faces of the lads as they
passed. The battalion was marching at attention, and so rigid was
the discipline that not a face was turned toward the two young ladies
standing at the street corner. A glance of the eye and a smile they
received from their friends as they passed, but no man turned his head.

"There he is," said Jane. "It is Kellerman--in the second row, see?"

"Sure enough, it is Kellerman," said Ethel. "Well, what has come to
Winnipeg?"

"War," said Jane solemnly. "And a good many more of the boys will be
going too, if they are any good."

As Kellerman came stepping along he caught sight of the girls standing
there, but no sign of recognition did he make. He was too anxious to
be considered a soldier for that. Steadiness was one of the primary
principles knocked into the minds of recruits by the Sergeant Major.

The girls moved along after the column had passed at a sufficient
distance to escape the rabble. At the drill hall they found the street
blocked by a crowd of men, women and children.

"What is all this, I wonder?" said Ethel. "Let us wait here awhile.
Perhaps we may come across some one we know."

It was a strange crowd that gathered about the entrance to the drill
hall, not the usual assemblage of noisy, idly curious folk of the
lighter weight that are wont to follow a marching battalion or gather
to the sound of a band. It was composed of substantial and solid people,
serious in face and quiet in demeanour. They were there on business, a
business of the gravest character. As the girls stood waiting