leave for training-camp to-night.

HILDA. To-night?

WALLACE. Yes, mother. Once I made up my mind, I couldn't wait to
be drafted. I wanted to offer myself. I didn't want to be made to
go.

HILDA (_hardly grasping it_). But you are too young.

WALLACE. I lied about my age. You and father can stop me if you
tell the truth. That's why I've come back. I want you to promise
you won't tell.

HILDA. _You_ ask me to aid you in what I don't believe?
WALLACE. But you said you'd stick by me if _I_ thought it
was right.

HILDA. But--

WALLACE (_with fervor_). And I tell you, mother, I do feel it was
right for America to go in. I see now we ought to have declared
war when they crushed Belgium. Yes; we ought to have gone in when
the Lusitania was sunk. But we've been patient. The President
tried to keep us out of it until we _had_ to go in to save
our self-respect. We had to go in to show we were men of honor,
not pussy-cats. We had to go in to show the world the Stars and
Stripes wasn't a dish-rag on which the Germans could dry their
bloody hands!

HILDA (_gazing at him incredulously_). You hate them as much as
that?

WALLACE. Hate? No, mother, no. (_As if questioning himself_) I
really haven't any hate for the German _people_. People are
just people everywhere, I suppose, and they're tricked and fooled
by their rotten government, as the President says.

HILDA. Then why fight them?

WALLACE. Because they're standing back of their government, doing
what it says. And they've got to be licked to show them what kind
of a government they have.

HILDA. At least you have no hate in your heart--that's something.

WALLACE. Oh, yes, I have, mother. But it isn't for the poor
devils I've got to shoot. It's for the stay-at-home fellow here
in America who sits in a comfortable armchair, who applauds
patriotic sentiment, cheers the flag, and does nothing for his
country but hate and hate--while we fight for him. That's the
fellow I'll hate all right when I sit in the trenches. And that's
why I couldn't look myself in the face if I stayed out a day
longer; why I've got to go in; why I'm going to die if I must,
because _everybody_ ought to be willing to die for what he
believes.

HILDA. You are my son, _too_! For I would willingly have
died if it could have kept us out of this war.

WALLACE. Yes. I am your son, too. And that's why you wouldn't
respect me if I didn't go through.

HILDA. No. I wouldn't have respected you. But