r at the Front yet."

"Plenty indeed," said Mr. Linton.

"I say, buck up, old chap," said Jim, patting Norah's shoulder very
hard. "One would think we were booked for the trenches to-night!"

"I wouldn't have made an ass of myself if you had been," said Norah,
shaking back her curls and mopping her eyes defiantly. "I was
prepared for that, and then you struck me all of a heap! Oh, Jimmy, I
am glad! I'd like to hug the War Office!"

"You're the first person I ever heard with such sentiments," returned
her brother. "Most people want to heave bombs at it. However,
they've treated us decently, and no mistake. You see, ever since June
we've kept bothering them to go out, and then getting throat-trouble
and having to cave in again; and now that we really are all right I
suppose they think they'll make sure of us. So that's that."

"I would have been awfully wild if they hadn't passed us," Wally said.
"But since they have, and they'll put us to work, I don't weep a bit
at being kept back for awhile. Lots of chaps seem to think being at
the Front is heavenly, but I'm blessed if I can see it that way. We
didn't have very much time there, certainly, but there were only three
ingredients in what we did have--mud, barbed wire, and gas."

"Yes, and it's not much of a mixture," said Jim. "All the same, it's
got to be taken if necessary. Still, I'm not sorry it's postponed for
a bit; there will be heaps of war yet, and meanwhile we're just
learning the trade." He straightened his great shoulders. "I never
felt so horribly young and ignorant as when I found grown-up men in
my charge in France."

"Poor old Jimmy always did take his responsibilities heavily," said
Wally, laughing.

Mr. Linton looked at his big son, remembering a certain letter from
his commanding officer which had caused him and Norah to glow with
pride; remembering, also, how the men on Billabong Station had worked
under "Master Jim." But he knew that soldiering had always been a
serious business to his boy. Personal danger had never entered into
Jim's mind; but the danger of ignorant handling of his men had been a
tremendous thing to him. Even without "mud, barbed-wire, and gas" Jim
was never likely to enjoy war in the light-hearted way in which Wally
would certainly take it under more pleasant conditions.

"Well--we've a week then, boys," he said cheerfully, "and no anxieties
immediately before us except the new cook-ladies."

"Well, goodn