sea from the grasp of the hills that hemmed it in on all sides, the
river always fascinated me. It was new every time I reached its edge.

An early Saturday morning in August found me jogging slowly along the
trail to Dog Creek. Dog Creek was our post-office and trading-center.
This morning, however, my mind was less on the beauties of the Fraser
than on the Dog Creek hotel. Every week I had my dinner there before
starting in mid-afternoon on my return to the ranch, and this day had
succeeded one of misunderstanding with "Cookie" wherein all the boys of
our outfit had come off second-best. I was hungry and that dinner at the
hotel was going to taste mighty good. Out there on the range we had
heard rumors of a war in Europe. We all talked it over in the evening
and decided it was another one of those fights that were always starting
in the Balkans. One had just been finished a few months before and we
thought it was about time another was under way, so we gave the matter
no particular thought. But when I got within sight of Dog Creek I knew
something was up. The first thing I heard was that somebody had
retreated from Mons and that the Germans were chasing them. So, the
Germans were fighting anyway. Then a big Indian came up to me as I was
getting off my pony and told me England's big white chief was going to
war, or had gone, he wasn't certain which, but he was going too. Would
I?

I laughed at him. "What do you mean, go to war?" I asked him.

I wasn't English; I wasn't Canadian. I was from the good old U.S.A. and
from all we could understand the States were neutral. So, I reasoned, I
ought to be neutral too, and I went in to see what there might be to
eat.

There was plenty of excitement in the dining-room. Under its influence I
began to look at the thing in a different light. While I was an alien, I
had lived in Canada. I had enjoyed her hospitality. Much of my education
was acquired in a Canadian school. Canadians were among my dearest
friends. Some of these very fellows, there in Dog Creek, were "going
down" to enlist.

All the afternoon we argued about it. Politics, economics, diplomacy;
none of them entered into the question. In fact we hadn't the faintest
idea what the war was all about. Our discussion hinged solely on what
we, personally, ought to do. England was at war. She had sent out a call
to all the Empire for men; for help. Dog Creek heard and was going to
answer that call. Even if I were an alien I