* * * * *

[Illustration: A LEAN DAY.

_Luncheon Hostess_. "I DO HOPE YOU DON'T MIND, MRS. STOKER, BUT ON
WEDNESDAYS WE ONLY HAVE MEAT AT DINNER."

_Dinner Hostess_. "I DO HOPE YOU DON'T MIND, MRS. STOKER, BUT ON WEDNESDAYS
WE ONLY HAVE MEAT AT LUNCHEON."]

* * * * *

_MON SOLDAT ET MON CURE._

"Donne un peu, Maman, s'il te plait," said Jeanne eagerly.

Maman handed over the newspaper from which she had just read aloud and
explained the passage so full of touching interest to them both, and
Jeanne, with help at the difficult places, read out:--

_"'CITATIONS A L'ORDRE DU JOUR._

_Jacques Martin, soldat au 170e d'infanterie, grenadier d'elite, au cours
des combats du 26 et du 27 novembre, 1916, a, par son mepris du danger et
par son ardeur, assure la progression dans un boyau defendu pas a pas par
l'ennemi._

_Le soldat Jacques Martin est Monsieur l'abbe Martin, cure de ----.'_

"Oui, nous savons bien d'ou il est cure!" cried Jeanne, in admiration and
awe. "C'est bien beau, hein, Maman?" Then suddenly she became silent and
thoughtful, remembering the subsequent fate of her friend and hero.

"Dire qu'il est maintenant prisonnier en Alle... en Bochie!" she said. They
had known long ago that he was mentioned in despatches, and they had been
on the look-out for the glorious details in print, but only this morning
had they heard of his capture.

How proud they were of their gentle cure and brave soldier! Jeanne had at
first been greatly perplexed by the strange dual personality, with its
incompatibilities, and many were the questions that had arisen in her
active little mind. "Le cure de Suzanne, c'est autre chose," she reflected,
for though technically a soldier was he not a _brancardier_ rescuing the
wounded? Her own practical conclusions, however, and the answers to her
questions smoothed away many difficulties, and perfect faith in her friend
did the rest.

Still she had never been able quite to merge the _religieux_ and the
_poilu_ into one picture; besides, she liked to play with the idea and
confront the one with the other. "Que va dire Monsieur le cure lorsque le
soldat tuera un homme?" And she had slipped into the habit of calling him
"Mon soldat et mon cure," suddenly inspired to adapt the title of Cousin
Juliette's absorbing book, _Mon Oncle et mon Cure_, and she refused to
abandon it when told that they were two separate persons. For that m