ting for bearers to
carry them into the huts. As he approached one stretcher, a cheery
voice called, "Hello, Mr. Bok. Here I am again."

It was the boy he had left just seventy-two hours before hearty and
well.

"Well, my boy, you weren't in it long, were you?"

"No, sir," answered the boy; "Fritzie sure got me first thing. Hadn't
gone a hundred yards over the top. Got a cigarette?" (the invariable
question).

Bok handed a cigarette to the boy, who then said: "Mind sticking it in
my mouth?" Bok did so and then offered him a light; the boy continued,
all with his wonderful smile: "If you don't mind, would you just light
it? You see, Fritzie kept both of my hooks as souvenirs."

With both arms amputated, the boy could still jest and smile!

It was the same boy who on his hospital cot the next day said: "Don't
you think you could do something for the chap next to me, there on my
left? He's really suffering: cried like hell all last night. It would
be a God-send if you could get Doc to do something."

A promise was given that the surgeon should be seen at once, but the
boy was asked: "How about you?"

"Oh," came the cheerful answer, "I'm all right. I haven't anything to
hurt. My wounded members are gone--just plain gone. But that chap has
got something--he got the real thing!"

What was the real thing according to such a boy's idea?

Bok had had enough of war in all its aspects; he felt a sigh of relief
when, a few days thereafter, he boarded _The Empress of Asia_ for home,
after a ten-weeks' absence. He hoped never again to see, at first
hand, what war meant!

CHAPTER XX

THE THIRD PERIOD

On the voyage home, Edward Bok decided that, now the war was over, he
would ask his company to release him from the editorship of _The
Ladies' Home Journal_. His original plan had been to retire at the end
of a quarter of a century of editorship, when in his fiftieth year. He
was, therefore, six years behind his schedule. In October, 1919, he
would reach his thirtieth anniversary as editor, and he fixed upon this
as an appropriate time for the relinquishment of his duties.

He felt he had carried out the conditions under which the editorship of
the magazine had been transferred to him by Mrs. Curtis, that he had
brought them to fruition, and that any further carrying on of the
periodical by him would be of a supplementary character. He had, too,
realized his hope of helping to create a national ins