holiday resort for many months has
given to the local Y.M.C.A. hut a shillingsworth of flowers each week,
as a thankoffering for what the Association has done for her husband and
son.

At Taunton a farm labourer called at the back door of the house of the
president of the local Y.M.C.A., and said he wanted to help the war
fund. It was the only thing he could do to help the men at the Front. He
had tried to enlist several times, but they would not have him. He laid
on the table fifty one-pound notes, and went back to his work on the
farm. Inquiries elicited the fact that he had given practically the
whole of his savings, and had done it in spite of his employer's urgent
advice to the contrary.

At the close of a meeting held by one of our workers, an elderly lady
came to him and said if he would go to her house she would give him a
sovereign. He went, and she gave him the coin, and then closing the
door of her private room, said, 'And now I am going to give you the most
precious possession I have in the world.' Her voice choked with emotion
as she proceeded, 'Years, many years ago, I was to have been married.
The arrangements were made, the day fixed, and the ring bought,
and--_then he died_!' And she sobbed as she spoke. Going to a bureau she
took out a little box and, handing it to him, said, 'The wedding ring is
in there. I have kept it all these years, but I promised the Lord I
would only keep it until He showed me what He would have me do with it,
and He told me while you were speaking. I give it to you for the
Y.M.C.A. and for the boys,' and she turned away utterly broken up.
Thousands of incidents could be related of equal interest to the
foregoing, did space permit, and all these incidents combine to give a
personal interest to the fund. We can only add that the greatest
possible care has been taken to administer the fund wisely and so avoid
waste, or anything that savours of extravagance. Of course, Y.M.C.A.
finance has come in for criticism. Certain people who have visited the
huts, and have seen the enormous business there transacted have come to
the conclusion that either very large profits are being made, or that
the business methods of the Association leave much to be desired. The
question has frequently been asked, 'What is done with the profits?' and
the fiction has got abroad that the Y.M.C.A. publishes no accounts and
is amassing huge sums of money. The real position is easily stated:--

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