m. Two
things I never did, Mrs. Dr. dear, were write letters and read
politics. Yet here I am doing both regular and I find there is
something in politics after all. Whatever Woodrow Wilson means I cannot
fathom but I am hoping I will puzzle it out yet."

Susan, in her pursuit of Wilson and politics, presently came upon
something that disturbed her and exclaimed in a tone of bitter
disappointment,

"That devilish Kaiser has only a boil after all."

"Don't swear, Susan," said Dr. Blythe, pulling a long face.

"'Devilish' is not swearing, doctor, dear. I have always understood
that swearing was taking the name of the Almighty in vain?"

"Well, it isn't--ahem--refined," said the doctor, winking at Miss
Oliver.

"No, doctor, dear, the devil and the Kaiser--if so be that they are
really two different people--are not refined. And you cannot refer to
them in a refined way. So I abide by what I said, although you may
notice that I am careful not to use such expressions when young Rilla
is about. And I maintain that the papers have no right to say that the
Kaiser has pneumonia and raise people's hopes, and then come out and
say he has nothing but a boil. A boil, indeed! I wish he was covered
with them."

Susan stalked out to the kitchen and settled down to write to Jem;
deeming him in need of some home comfort from certain passages in his
letter that day.

"We're in an old wine cellar tonight, dad," he wrote, "in water to our
knees. Rats everywhere--no fire--a drizzling rain coming down--rather
dismal. But it might be worse. I got Susan's box today and everything
was in tip-top order and we had a feast. Jerry is up the line somewhere
and he says the rations are rather worse than Aunt Martha's ditto used
to be. But here they're not bad--only monotonous. Tell Susan I'd give a
year's pay for a good batch of her monkey-faces; but don't let that
inspire her to send any for they wouldn't keep.

"We have been under fire since the last week in February. One boy--he
was a Nova Scotian--was killed right beside me yesterday. A shell burst
near us and when the mess cleared away he was lying dead--not mangled
at all--he just looked a little startled. It was the first time I'd
been close to anything like that and it was a nasty sensation, but one
soon gets used to horrors here. We're in an absolutely different world.
The only things that are the same are the stars--and they are never in
their right places, somehow.

"Tell mother