ethearts was like that, they wouldn't be no conscription. But
they ain't. I'm no hand at understandin' wimmin-folks, but I know the
mother of a strappin' young fella in this town that says she would
sooner see her boy dead in her front yard than for him to go off and
fight for foreigners. She don't know what this country's got to fight
for pretty quick or she wouldn't talk like that. And she ain't the only
one. Now, when wimmin talks that way, what do you expect of men? I
reckon the big trouble is that most folks got to see somethin' to fight
afore they get goin'. Fightin' for a principle looks just like poundin'
air to some folks. I don't believe in shootin' in the dark. How come,
I've plugged a rattlesnake by just shootin' at the sound when he was
coiled down where I couldn't see him. But this ain't no kind of talk for
you to listen to, missy."

"I--you won't say that I spoke of Lorry?"

"Bless your heart, no! And he'll figure it out hisself. But don't you
get disap'inted if he don't go right away. It's mighty easy to set back
and say 'Go!' to the other fella; and listen to the band and cheer the
flag. It makes a fella feel so durned patriotic he is like to forget he
ain't doin' nothin' hisself.

"Now, missy, suppose you was a sprightin' kind of a boy 'bout nineteen
or twenty, and mebby some gal thought you was good-lookin' enough to
talk to after church on a Sunday; and suppose you had rustled like a
little nigger when you was a kid, helpin' your ma wash dishes in a hotel
and chop wood and sweep out and pack heavy valises for tourists and fill
the lamps and run to the store for groceries and milk a cow every night
and mornin'.

"And say you growed up without breakin' your laig and went to punchin'
cattle and earnin' your own money, and then mebby you got a job in the
Ranger Service, ridin' the high trails and livin' free and independent;
and suppose a mighty pretty gal was to come along and kind of let you
take a shine to her, and you was doin' your plumb durndest to put by a
little money, aimin' to trot in double harness some day; and then
suppose your daddy was to offer you a half-interest in a growin' cattle
business, where you could be your own boss and put by a couple of
thousand a year. And you only nineteen or twenty.

"Suppose you had been doin' all that when along comes word from 'way off
somewhere that folks was killin' each other and it was up to you to stop
'em. Wouldn't you do some hard thinkin' afo