sunshine that flooded the river and
danced on the water so gladly and joyously that the girls and boys
shouted with delight.

"You wonderful old sun!" cried Lucile. "Why, it makes the world a
different place to live in!"

"It is all the difference between night and day," said Major Ridgely,
Gordon's father, a tall, well-built man with a mass of iron-gray hair
framing a strong-featured face--the face of a scholar and a gentleman.
"And it's like the difference," he continued, slowly and with emphasis,
"it's like the difference between peace and--war."

There was silence for a full moment while the young folks regarded him
with astonishment and interest, for they sensed a deeper meaning behind
his words.

"You mean," it was Mr. Payton that spoke, "you mean, Major, that you
think there is any immediate danger of--war?"

"War--is--imminent." The Major spoke slowly, pronouncing each word with
exaggerated distinctness. "I am no prophet, sir, but, unless I am very
much mistaken, the month of August will see part of this continent
plunged in the bloodiest war the world has ever known."

"War! War!" The word ran from one to the other, as the Major continued:

"It has been coming for years. For years the interests and ambitions of
at least two great nations--Germany and Russia--have been antagonistic.
For years the countries of Europe have been looking forward to the time
when the slender strand of national amity would be snapped like a thread
and the nations plunged into deadly conflict. And now, it seems to me,
the time is ripe!"

The young folks had been drinking in the conversation eagerly. War! Why,
they had read of war, of course, in their history books; but war, in
their time, in their generation, under their very noses, as it were! Why,
it was impossible!

But the Major was speaking again. "For years the sole aim and goal of the
German house of Hohenzollern has been the perfection to a marvelous
degree of her policy of militarism. Why, there is not a man in the whole
German Empire, who, at the command of his country, could not take his
place, a trained soldier, in the tremendous, perfected military machine
that is the German army."

"Why, Dad, does that mean that we may have to fight?" fairly shouted
Phil, who could not restrain himself a moment longer. "Now, right
away----"

"We won't son," said his father, kindly. "Thank Heaven, we will have the
broad Atlantic between us and the horrors of war!"

"War? W