a keen interest in some big things--all the chips
are blue, you know; we don't feel ready for halos, nor for other
uncomfortable honours; we deserve less than we get and are content
with what the gods send. This, I take it, is all that Martin[27]
would call a comfortable mood for Christmas; and we are old enough
and tough enough to have thick armour against trouble. When Worry
knocks at the door, the butler tells him we're not at home.

And I see the most interesting work in the world cut out for me
for the next twenty-five or thirty years--to get such courtesy into
our dealings with these our kinsmen here, public and private--as
will cause them to follow us in all the developments of democracy
and-in keeping the peace of the world secure. I can't impress it on
you strongly enough that the English-speaking folk have got to set
the pace and keep this world in order. Nobody else is equal to the
job. In all our dealings with the British, public and private, we
allow it to be assumed that _they_ lead: they don't. _We_ lead.
They'll follow, if we do really lead and are courteous to them. If
we hold back, the Irishman rears up and says we are surrendering to
the English! Suppose we go ahead and the English surrender to us,
what can your Irishmen do then? Or your German? The British Navy is
a pretty good sort of dog to have to trot under your wagon. If we
are willing to have ten years of thoughtful good manners, I tell
you Jellicoe will eat out of your hand.

Therefore, cheer up! It's not at all improbable that Ford[28] and
his cargo of cranks, if they get across the ocean, may strike a
German mine in the North Sea. Then they'll die happy, as martyrs;
and the rest of us will live happy, and it'll be a Merry Christmas
for everybody.

Our love to Mrs. House.

Always heartily yours,

W.H.P.

_To Frank N. Doubleday and Others_

London, Christmas, 1915.

DEAR D.P. & Co.

... Now, since we're talking about the war, let me deliver my
opinion and leave the subject. They're killing one another all
right; you needn't have any doubt about that--so many thousand
every day, whether there's any battle or not. When there's "nothing
to report" from France, that means the regular 5,000 casualties
that happen every day. There isn't any way o