t would have delighted Grandpa
if he could have heard it. And Sandy said that when he saw the
devastation Sin could bring, it had made him want to be a preacher more
than ever before. And then it was Jimmie's turn, and he confessed that
something about military camp life gave him a feeling of physical
nausea at first. For a month he didn't want to go beyond the Y. M. C.
A. tent, and then he began to get used to it all, but he never had the
smallest inclination to mix in it. He's the same bright, clean boy
that left you, Mother, a great deal older and wiser, but no sadder, and
you need not fear for him. We were saying that it was you who had
given us our strength against temptation, because you never set
anything but the highest before us and Sandy remarked that you had
buckled our armour on tight before you sent us out to battle, and then
Jimmie said, 'It's like being in one of the Tanks. You ride right over
everything in the biggest show the Huns can pull off and nothing can
touch you.'"

"I think that was a fine description of what you gave us, don't you,
Mother? You had no money to give us, but you built and riveted a Tank
with your years of hard toil, and you put us all inside and we are safe
there forever. And so you must not worry about us. For even if we are
called upon to pay the price, what does that matter?"

When the letter was read and reread, Christina was surprised to see her
mother put it carefully away in the pocket of her skirt; and putting on
her bonnet and cloak, she slipped out quietly and went away across the
Short Cut towards the village. Christina wondered that she had said
nothing about where she was going and stood at the window watching her
with anxious loving eyes and wondering if she were wearing warm enough
clothing as the wind swayed her bent old figure. She supposed her
mother had gone to see Granny Minns, but Joanna dropped in with some
Red Cross work on her way up to Mrs. Johnnie Dunn's for an afternoon's
sewing, and told Christina that she had seen her mother sitting in the
churchyard beside her father's grave.

Christina's eyes filled with tender tears; she understood. Her mother
had gone with the boys' letters to share with their father the glad
news that had lifted the burden from her heart.

Christina read all Neil's letter to Grandpa that night. It was no
light task, but she could not bear that he miss a word. She had her
reward, for he sang the 103rd psalm at the