ides knitting," the first speaker
said; "it could be done better and cheaper anyway by machinery, and
that would set a lot of workers free. Why don't we register ourselves,
all of us who mean business? This is our country, and if the
Government is asleep at the switch, that is no reason why we should
be. I tell you I am for conscription for every man and woman."

"Well, suppose we all go with you and sign up--name, age, present
address; married?--if so, how often?--and all that sort of thing; what
will you do with us, then?" asked Miss Wheatly, who was just back from
the East where she had been taking a course in art. "I am tired of
having my feelings all wrought upon and then have to settle down to
knitting a dull gray sock or the easy task of collecting Red Cross
funds from perfectly willing people who ask me to come in while they
make me a cup of tea. I feel like a real slacker, for I have never yet
done a hard thing. I did not let any one belonging to me go, for the
fairly good reason that I have no male relatives; I give money, but I
have never yet done without a meal or a new pair of boots when I
wanted them. There is no use of talking of putting me to work on a
farm, for no farmer would be bothered with me for a minute, and the
farmer's wife has trouble enough now without giving her the care of a
greenhorn like me--why, I would not know when a hen wanted to set!"

"You do not need to know," laughed the conscriptionist; "the hen will
attend to that without any help from you; and, anyway, we use
incubators now and the hen is exempt from all family cares--she can
have a Career if she wants to."

"I am in earnest about this," Miss Wheatly declared; "I am tired of
this eternal talk of national service and nothing coming of it. Now,
if any of you know of a hard, full-sized woman's job that I can do,
you may lead me to it!"

Then the meeting began. There was a very enthusiastic speaker who told
of the great gift that Canada had given to the Empire, the gift of men
and wheat, bread and blood--the sacrament of empire. She then told of
what a sacrifice the men make who go to the front, who lay their
young lives down for their country and do it all so cheerfully. "And
now," she said, "what about those of us who stay at home, who have
three good meals every day, who sleep in comfortable beds and have not
departed in any way from our old comfortable way of living. Wouldn't
you like to do something to help win the war?"