obert. Wasn't he their nearest
neighbor, and hadn't the Blisses entertained the Ellinses a lot? Not
that she put it that way, exactly. But when she came with this hunch
about gettin' sonny a snap job on some sort of naval construction work,
why, of course, Mr. Robert couldn't duck. Yes, he thought he could place
Wilfred. And he did--time-keeper, six-hour shift, and near enough so he
could run back and forth every day in his machine.

That might have been good enough for some folks. It meant dodgin' the
draft for Wilfred, dead sure. But mother didn't stay satisfied long. She
went investigatin' around the plant. She found the office stuffy,
Wilfred's desk had no electric fan on it, she wasn't sure of the
drinkin' water, and the foreman was quite an impossible sort of person
who always sneered when he had anything to say to Wilfred. Couldn't Mr.
Robert attend to some of these things? Mr. Robert said he'd try--if he
had time. He didn't get the time. More visits from mother.

Then this latest catastrophe. The Stanton Blisses had been away from
home for three weeks or more, house-partyin' and motorin' through the
mountains. Poor Wilfred had had to stay behind. What a stupidly
distressin' thing war was, wasn't it? But he had been asked to spend his
nights and Sundays with a college chum whose home was several miles
nearer the works.

And then they had come back to find this scribbled note. Things had been
gettin' worse and worse, Wilfred wrote. Some young hoodlums around the
plant had shouted after him as he drove off in his car. Even young
girls. The men had been surly to him, and that beastly foreman---- Well,
he wasn't goin' to stand for it, that was all. He didn't know just what
he was goin' to do, but he was clearin' out. They'd hear from him later.

They had. This six-word message from Philadelphia, dated nearly two
weeks ago, was also waitin'. It said that he'd enlisted, was all right,
and for them not to worry. Nothin' more.

You couldn't blame mother for bein' stirred up. Her Wilfred had gone.
Somewhere in some army camp or other, or at some naval trainin' station,
the son and heir of the house of Bliss was minglin' with the coarse sons
of the common people, was eatin' common food, was wearin' common
clothes, was goin' up against the common thing generally. And that
wasn't the worst of it. Where? Why didn't Mr. Robert tell her where? And
couldn't he get him away at once? Mr. Robert had almost gone hoarse
tryin' t