uise, discouragement would prove me a dub. I'm
puzzled, though, just now, and feeling around blindly in the dark to
grab a thread that may lead me to success. If I have luck, presently
I'll find it."

She put away the envelopes, as she spoke, and resuming her seat drew
out her tablets and examined the notes she had made thereon. Josie used
strange characters in her memoranda, a sort of shorthand she had
herself originated and which could be deciphered only by her father or
by herself.

"Here's a list of suspects," she said. "Not that they're necessarily
connected with our case, but are known to indulge in disloyal
sentiments. Hal Grober, the butcher, insists on selling meat on
meatless days and won't defer to the wishes of Mr. Hoover, whom he
condemns as a born American but a naturalized Englishmen. He's another
Jake Kasker, too noisy to be guilty of clever plotting."

"They're both un-American!" exclaimed Mary Louise. "There ought to be a
law to silence such people, Josie."

"Don't worry, my dear; they'll soon be silenced," predicted her friend.
"Either better judgment will come to their aid or the federal courts
will get after them. We shouldn't allow anyone to throw stones at the
government activities, just at this crisis. They may _think_ what they
please, but must keep their mouths shut."

"I'm sorry they can even think disloyalty," said Mary Louise.

"Well, even that will be remedied in time," was the cheerful response.
"No war more just and righteous was ever waged than this upon which our
country has embarked, and gradually that fact will take possession of
those minds, which, through prejudice, obstinacy or ignorance, have not
yet grasped it. I'm mighty proud of my country, Mary Louise, and I
believe this war is going to give us Americans a distinction that will
set us up in our own opinion and in the eyes of the world. But always
there is a willful objection, on the part of some, toward any good and
noble action, and we must deal charitably with these deluded ones and
strive to win them to an appreciation of the truth."

"Isn't that carrying consideration too far?" asked Mary Louise.

"No. Our ministers are after the unregenerates, not after the godly.
The noblest act of humanity is to uplift a fellow creature. Even in our
prisons we try to reform criminals, to make honest men of them rather
than condemn them to a future of crime. It would be dreadful to say:
'You're _all_ yellow; go to thunder!'"