added as an after-thought, "unless it was Lloyd
George. Well, I must be going. I thought you'd be interested in hearing
about Miller so I ran up from the store, but I must hustle home for I
promised Luke MacAllister I'd help him build his grain stack this
evening. It's up to us girls to see that the harvest is got in, since
the boys are so scarce. I've got overalls and I can tell you they're
real becoming. Mrs. Alec Douglas says they're indecent and shouldn't be
allowed, and even Mrs. Elliott kinder looks askance at them. But bless
you, the world moves, and anyhow there's no fun for me like shocking
Kitty Alec."

"By the way, father," said Rilla, "I'm going to take Jack Flagg's place
in his father's store for a month. I promised him today that I would,
if you didn't object. Then he can help the farmers get the harvest in.
I don't think I'd be much use in a harvest myself--though lots of the
girls are--but I can set Jack free while I do his work. Jims isn't much
bother in the daytime now, and I'll always be home at night."

"Do you think you'll like weighing out sugar and beans, and trafficking
in butter and eggs?" said the doctor, twinkling.

"Probably not. That isn't the question. It's just one way of doing my
bit." So Rilla went behind Mr. Flagg's counter for a month; and Susan
went into Albert Crawford's oat-fields.

"I am as good as any of them yet," she said proudly. "Not a man of them
can beat me when it comes to building a stack. When I offered to help
Albert looked doubtful. 'I am afraid the work will be too hard for
you,' he said. 'Try me for a day and see,' said I. 'I will do my
darnedest.'"

None of the Ingleside folks spoke for just a moment. Their silence
meant that they thought Susan's pluck in "working out" quite wonderful.
But Susan mistook their meaning and her sun-burned face grew red.

"This habit of swearing seems to be growing on me, Mrs. Dr. dear," she
said apologetically. "To think that I should be acquiring it at my age!
It is such a dreadful example to the young girls. I am of the opinion
it comes of reading the newspapers so much. They are so full of
profanity and they do not spell it with stars either, as used to be
done in my young days. This war is demoralizing everybody."

Susan, standing on a load of grain, her grey hair whipping in the
breeze and her skirt kilted up to her knees for safety and
convenience--no overalls for Susan, if you please--neither a beautiful
nor a romantic f