"Walter,
you've got morbid--as Miss Oliver says she gets when she broods too
long over one thing."

"I can't get away from it at Redmond, Rilla. The whole college is
aflame over the war. A perfectly fit fellow, of military age, who
doesn't join up is looked upon as a shirker and treated accordingly.
Dr. Milne, the English professor, who has always made a special pet of
me, has two sons in khaki; and I can feel the change in his manner
towards me."

"It's not fair--you're not fit."

"Physically I am. Sound as a bell. The unfitness is in the soul and
it's a taint and a disgrace. There, don't cry, Rilla. I'm not going if
that's what you're afraid of. The Piper's music rings in my ears day
and night--but I cannot follow."

"You would break mother's heart and mine if you did," sobbed Rilla.
"Oh, Walter, one is enough for any family."

The holidays were an unhappy time for her. Still, having Nan and Di and
Walter and Shirley home helped in the enduring of things. A letter and
book came for her from Kenneth Ford, too; some sentences in the letter
made her cheeks burn and her heart beat--until the last paragraph,
which sent an icy chill over everything.

"My ankle is about as good as new. I'll be fit to join up in a couple
of months more, Rilla-my-Rilla. It will be some feeling to get into
khaki all right. Little Ken will be able to look the whole world in the
face then and owe not any man. It's been rotten lately, since I've been
able to walk without limping. People who don't know look at me as much
as to say 'Slacker!' Well, they won't have the chance to look it much
longer."

"I hate this war," said Rilla bitterly, as she gazed out into the maple
grove that was a chill glory of pink and gold in the winter sunset.

"Nineteen-fourteen has gone," said Dr. Blythe on New Year's Day. "Its
sun, which rose fairly, has set in blood. What will nineteen-fifteen
bring?"

"Victory!" said Susan, for once laconic.

"Do you really believe we'll win the war, Susan?" said Miss Oliver
drearily. She had come over from Lowbridge to spend the day and see
Walter and the girls before they went back to Redmond. She was in a
rather blue and cynical mood and inclined to look on the dark side.

"'Believe' we'll win the war!" exclaimed Susan. "No, Miss Oliver, dear,
I do not believe--I know. That does not worry me. What does worry me is
the trouble and expense of it all. But then you cannot make omelets
without breaking eggs, so we must j