nd
Venice is safe and Lord Lansdowne is not to be taken seriously; and I
see no reason why we should be downhearted.'

"Jerusalem! The 'meteor flag of England!' floats over you--the Crescent
is gone. How Walter would have thrilled over that!"

18th December 1917

"Yesterday the election came off. In the evening mother and Susan
and Gertrude and I forgathered in the living-room and waited in
breathless suspense, father having gone down to the village. We had
no way of hearing the news, for Carter Flagg's store is not on our
line, and when we tried to get it Central always answered that the
line 'was busy'--as no doubt it was, for everybody for miles around was
trying to get Carter's store for the same reason we were.

"About ten o'clock Gertrude went to the 'phone and happened to catch
someone from over-harbour talking to Carter Flagg. Gertrude shamelessly
listened in and got for her comforting what eavesdroppers are
proverbially supposed to get--to wit, unpleasant hearing; the Union
Government had 'done nothing' in the West.

"We looked at each other in dismay. If the Government had failed to
carry the West, it was defeated.

"'Canada is disgraced in the eyes of the world,' said Gertrude bitterly.

"'If everybody was like the Mark Crawfords over-harbour this would not
have happened,' groaned Susan. 'Yhey locked their Uncle up in the barn
this morning and would not let him out until he promised to vote Union.
That is what I call effective argument, Mrs. Dr. dear.'

"Gertrude and I couldn't rest after all that. We walked the floor until
our legs gave out and we had to sit down perforce. Mother knitted away
as steadily as clockwork and pretended to be calm and serene--pretended
so well that we were all deceived and envious until the next day, when
I caught her ravelling out four inches of her sock. She had knit that
far past where the heel should have begun!

"It was twelve before father came home. He stood in the doorway and
looked at us and we looked at him. We did not dare ask him what the
news was. Then he said that it was Laurier who had 'done nothing' in
the West, and that the Union Government was in with a big majority.
Gertrude clapped her hands. I wanted to laugh and cry, mother's eyes
flashed with their old-time starriness and Susan emitted a queer sound
between a gasp and a whoop.

"This will not comfort the Kaiser much,' she said.

"Then we went to bed, but were too excited to sleep. Really, as S