.

"Guess Monday has made up his mind to wait there till Jem comes back,"
said Shirley, trying to laugh as he rejoined the rest. This was exactly
what Dog Monday had done. His dear master had gone--he, Monday, had
been deliberately and of malice aforethought prevented from going with
him by a demon disguised in the garb of a Methodist minister.
Wherefore, he, Monday, would wait there until the smoking, snorting
monster, which had carried his hero off, carried him back.

Ay, wait there, little faithful dog with the soft, wistful, puzzled
eyes. But it will be many a long bitter day before your boyish comrade
comes back to you.

The doctor was away on a case that night and Susan stalked into Mrs.
Blythe's room on her way to bed to see if her adored Mrs. Dr. dear were
"comfortable and composed." She paused solemnly at the foot of the bed
and solemnly declared,

"Mrs. Dr. dear, I have made up my mind to be a heroine."

"Mrs. Dr. dear" found herself violently inclined to laugh--which was
manifestly unfair, since she had not laughed when Rilla had announced a
similar heroic determination. To be sure, Rilla was a slim, white-robed
thing, with a flower-like face and starry young eyes aglow with
feeling; whereas Susan was arrayed in a grey flannel nightgown of
strait simplicity, and had a strip of red woollen worsted tied around
her grey hair as a charm against neuralgia. But that should not make
any vital difference. Was it not the spirit that counted? Yet Mrs.
Blythe was hard put to it not to laugh.

"I am not," proceeded Susan firmly, "going to lament or whine or
question the wisdom of the Almighty any more as I have been doing
lately. Whining and shirking and blaming Providence do not get us
anywhere. We have just got to grapple with whatever we have to do
whether it is weeding the onion patch, or running the Government. I
shall grapple. Those blessed boys have gone to war; and we women, Mrs.
Dr. dear, must tarry by the stuff and keep a stiff upper lip."

CHAPTER VII

A WAR-BABY AND A SOUP TUREEN

"Liege and Namur--and now Brussels!" The doctor shook his head. "I
don't like it--I don't like it."

"Do not you lose heart, Dr. dear; they were just defended by
foreigners," said Susan superbly. "Wait you till the Germans come
against the British; there will be a very different story to tell and
that you may tie to."

The doctor shook his head again, but a little less gravely; perhaps
they all shared subconscious