ind of vivid dream always 'comes true' with
me."

"I hope it doesn't mean there's a storm coming up from the east to
spoil the party," murmured Rilla.

"Incorrigible fifteen!" said Miss Oliver dryly. "No, Rilla-my-Rilla, I
don't think there is any danger that it foretells anything so awful as
that."

There had been an undercurrent of tension in the Ingleside existence
for several days. Only Rilla, absorbed in her own budding life, was
unaware of it. Dr. Blythe had taken to looking grave and saying little
over the daily paper. Jem and Walter were keenly interested in the news
it brought. Jem sought Walter out in excitement that evening.

"Oh, boy, Germany has declared war on France. This means that England
will fight too, probably--and if she does--well, the Piper of your old
fancy will have come at last."

"It wasn't a fancy," said Walter slowly. "It was a presentiment--a
vision--Jem, I really saw him for a moment that evening long ago.
Suppose England does fight?"

"Why, we'll all have to turn in and help her," cried Jem gaily. "We
couldn't let the 'old grey mother of the northern sea' fight it out
alone, could we? But you can't go--the typhoid has done you out of
that. Sort of a shame, eh?"

Walter did not say whether it was a shame or not. He looked silently
over the Glen to the dimpling blue harbour beyond.

"We're the cubs--we've got to pitch in tooth and claw if it comes to a
family row," Jem went on cheerfully, rumpling up his red curls with a
strong, lean, sensitive brown hand--the hand of the born surgeon, his
father often thought. "What an adventure it would be! But I suppose
Grey or some of those wary old chaps will patch matters up at the
eleventh hour. It'll be a rotten shame if they leave France in the
lurch, though. If they don't, we'll see some fun. Well, I suppose it's
time to get ready for the spree at the light."

Jem departed whistling "Wi' a hundred pipers and a' and a'," and Walter
stood for a long time where he was. There was a little frown on his
forehead. This had all come up with the blackness and suddenness of a
thundercloud. A few days ago nobody had even thought of such a thing.
It was absurd to think of it now. Some way out would be found. War was
a hellish, horrible, hideous thing--too horrible and hideous to happen
in the twentieth century between civilized nations. The mere thought of
it was hideous, and made Walter unhappy in its threat to the beauty of
life. He would not t