hat
the world had ever known.

In Pen's second letter home from Canada he told of the arrival and
enlistment of Aleck Sands, and of the complete blotting out of the old
feud that had existed between them. Later on he wrote them, in many
letters, all about his barrack life, and of how contented and happy he
was, and how eagerly he was looking forward to the day when he and his
comrades should cross the water to those countries where the great war
was a reality. The letter that he wrote the day before he sailed was
filled with the brightness of enthusiasm and the joy of anticipation.
And while the long period of drill on English soil became somewhat
irksome to him, as one reading between the lines could readily
discover, he made no direct complaint. It was simply a part of the
game. But it was when he had reached the front, and his letters
breathed the sternness of the conflict and echoed the thunder of the
guns, that he was at his best in writing. Mere salutations some of
them were, written from the trenches by the light of a dug-out candle,
but they pulsated with patriotism and heroism and a determination to
live up to the best traditions of a soldier's career.

Colonel Butler devoured every scrap of news that came from the front
in the half dozen papers that he read daily. He kept in close touch
with the international situation, he fumed constantly at the
inactivity of his own government in view of her state of
unpreparedness for a war into which she must sooner or later be
inevitably plunged. He lost all patience with what he considered the
timidity of the President, and what he called the stupidity of
congress. Was not the youngest and the reddest and the best of the
Butler blood at the fighting line, ready at any moment to be spilled
to the death on the altar of the world's liberty? Why then should the
government of the United States sit supinely by and see the finest
young manhood of her own and other lands fighting and perishing in the
cause of humanity when, by voicing the conscience of her people, and
declaring and making war on the Central Powers, she could most
effectually aid in bringing to a speedy and victorious end this
monstrous example of modern barbarism? Why, indeed!

One day Colonel Butler suggested to his daughter that she go up to
Lowbridge and again inquire whether Pen's mother had any needs of any
kind that he could possibly supply.

"And," he added, "I wish you to invite her to Bannerhall fo