we are 'carrying on,' as the Tommies say.

New children, by the scores and hundreds, are brought into the
hospital bases daily, and many of them have been living for weeks,
and even months, filthy in cellars of Hun-shattered villages which
are almost continually under fire. They are generally sick,
naturally, indescribably dirty and, in fact, mere wraiths of
childhood. God, Don, it gets me when I imagine my own nephews and
nieces in their places!

We clean 'em up, give them help and something to live for. We have
already established hospitals, schools and nurseries in ---- and ----
and our ambulances and 'traveling baths' go out daily to give aid
to the less needy in the neighborhood. Can you picture _me_ acting
as chauffeur for a magnified bath tub for Belgian babies? That's
what I'm doing, now!

Get into the game, old man. We need you over here, and the kids of
the disgustingly rich at home will be the better for not having a
doctor to give them a pill every time their little noses run a bit.
Pack up your saws, axes and other trouble-makers in your old kit
bag and climb aboard a ship bound for France."

Donald saw that there were tears in Smiles' deep eyes as she silently
folded the pages, and replaced them in their envelope.

"Of course you ought to go," she said simply. "I spoke selfishly. But
oh, Don, I don't know what I shall do without you; you're the only
'family' I've got. I don't see you very often; but I know that you are
here in Boston, and I guess that I have got the habit of leaning on you
in my thoughts. You know I called you a tree, years and years ago."

"Yes, I remember, an 'oak,' wasn't it? I thought that you meant that I
was tough," he laughed. "The idea of _you_ leaning on any one is funny,
Rose." Then he added, with some hesitancy, "I've been thinking ...
Would you like to go over there, too, Rose? I could take you ... that
is, I am quite sure that I could arrange for you to do so, not as a Red
Cross nurse, of course, for they have to be graduates; but as a
volunteer helper in one of those base hospitals. It would be a wonderful
experience, and you would be performing the kind of service that you
like best. It would not be time wasted, by any means."

She started, and her lips parted eagerly; then the light slowly faded
from her eyes and she shook her head slowly.

"I would love it. It would be glori