a Lindsay to assist and
take the minutes when the children were so bad that nobody could manage
them. There was a large executive committee besides, but all these
officials were quite irrelevant, for Mrs. Johnnie Dunn was the real
head and body and limbs of the society, and looked after all its
business.

Then The Woman brought out the materials for sewing and knitting from
Algonquin, and returned the garments when she thought they ought to be
finished, and woe betide the unlucky Red Cross worker who was behind a
day with a shirt or a pair of socks! For she decreed just how much was
to be done each week, and no Prussian Militarist ever ruled with so
high a hand.

"Just add another roll o' towelling to that order," she would command
the Algonquin woman who was handing out her month's work, "there's a
lot o' lazy lumps out at our corner that's sittin' pickin' their
fingers for want o' somethin' to do."

The Society followed The Woman and the President was left far in the
rear. Indeed Orchard Glen was rather proud of Mrs. Johnnie Dunn. She
was so clever and made such a name for them in Red Cross circles. The
valentine episode was forgotten with other pre-war trivialities and she
was reinstated in her old place of leadership.

Mrs. Sutherland presided at all Red Cross meetings with something of
the air of a Queen ruling a much limited monarchy, over which a
strenuous and efficient Prime Minister is wielding unlimited power. It
was an unpleasant position and the rightful monarch might have made
efforts to retain her authority but for the ambassador who kept peace
between the Queen and the Prime Minister. The peacemaker was the last
woman in Orchard Glen to be chosen for such a task, and yet a real
peacemaker Joanna proved herself.

Joanna Falls would never have filled the position, but Joanna Boyd, as
every one was discovering, was a new creature. She came back from her
brief trip with Trooper, when the first contingent left for England.
She had a wedding ring on her hand and a new light in her handsome
eyes. And she was so gentle and kindly that those who did not stop to
remember that love works miracles scarcely knew her.

She became Mrs. Sutherland's life-long friend on the very day the Red
Cross Society was formed. It was after the meeting and people were
standing about asking questions and delivering opinions, Mrs.
Sutherland was still sitting on the platform with the visitors from
town and called Joan