it. By his industry the
settler makes money for the railway company, but incidentally makes
his own chance of acquiring a neighbor more remote!

The wild-lands tax which prevails in the western provinces of the
Dominion, and which we hope will be increased, will make it
unprofitable to hold land idle, and will do much, if made heavy
enough, to liberate land for settlement.

As it is now, people who have no money to buy land have to go long
distances from the railroad to get homesteads, and there suffer all
the inconveniences and hardships and dangers of pioneer life, miles
from neighbors, many miles from a doctor, and without school or
church; while great tracts of splendid land lie idle and unimproved,
close beside the little towns, held in the tight clasp of a
hypothetical owner far away.

Western Canada has a land problem which war conditions have
intensified. But people are beginning to talk of these things, and the
next few years will see radical changes.

The coming of women into the political world should help. Women are
born conservationists. Their first game is housekeeping and
doll-mending. The doll, by preference, is a sick doll, and in need of
care. Their work is to care for, work for something, and if the
advent of women into politics does not mean that life is made easier
and safer for other women and for children, then we will have to
confess with shame and sorrow that politically we have failed! But we
are not going to fail! Already the angel has come down and has
troubled the water. Discussions are raging in women's societies and
wherever women meet together, and out of it something will come. Men
are always quite willing to be guided by women when their schemes are
sound and sane.

In New Zealand the first political activity of women was directed
toward lowering the death-rate among children, by sending out trained
nurses to care for them and give instruction to the mothers. Ours will
follow the same line, because the heart of woman is the same
everywhere. Dreams will soon begin to come true. Good dreams always
do--in time; and why not? There is nothing too good to be true! Here
is one that is coming!

Little Mary Wood set out bravely to do the chores; for it was
Christmas Eve, and even in the remoteness of the Abilene Valley, some
of the old-time festivity of Christmas was felt. Mary's mother had had
good times at Christmas when she was a little girl, and Mary's
imagination did the rest. Mar