d never been content on the little Ontario farm
since the free days when he rode the plains, and soldiering would be a
grand job.

"Wonder if England'll be into this?" he asked eagerly.

"No danger," answered Mr. Holmes, puffing authoritatively. "England
don't want to get into a war any more'n I do. And nobody'd dare to go
to war with her, 'count of her navy."

"There's always some rumour about Germany makin' a war," said Old Tory
Brown. "I don't remember the time that it ain't been talked about."

"There'll never be any big kinda war no more, you may bank on that,"
said the postmaster, seating himself on a nail keg. "Things is too
much mixed up for that. Why, trade and commerce wouldn't stand it for
two days. The banks would all go busted and business would stop. And
the world has got to a place when business means more than anything
else. So there'll not be much of a war. 'Course there will always be
trouble in them Balkans, I suppose."

Trooper looked distinctly disappointed. "The Woman's always getting up
some storm that never comes to anything," he said aggrievedly. "I
thought she really meant it this time. Gosh, I wish there would be a
real bang-up fight with guns shootin' everywhere! Wish the States
would come over here or something and try to take Canada. But I guess
there's no such luck."

There were those who did not feel quite so secure as the Orchard Glen
postmaster. There was very terrible news coming from Europe soon, news
that a people brought up with liberty in the very air they breathed,
could not at first comprehend. There came fearful tales, only
half-credited as yet, of an iron nation gone mad with the lust of
power, and of a free race being trampled in blood and ruin. The cry of
Belgium was reaching to heaven, and a new spirit was beginning to stir
in Canadian hearts, the spirit that takes no thought for trade or
commerce, and counts gain as refuse. The new spirit, which is as old
as the cry for freedom, was aroused, and all Canada was listening,
breathless, for the Lion's roar, the sound that would tell that that
spirit had not perished from the heart of the British Nation.

And then it came! That call that thundered round the world into every
corner of the Empire, setting the hearts of her youth, whether they
beat under palm or pine, aflame for the Great Cause; and at its sound.
Freedom rose up once more from the blood-soaked soil of Flanders, and
gave back, yet again, a