re you jumped into your
fightin' clothes?"

"But this war means more than that."

"It sure does. But some of us ain't got the idee yet. 'Course all you
got to do to some folks is to say 'Fight' and they come a-runnin'. And
some of that kind make mighty good soldier boys. But the fella I'm
leavin' alone is the one what cinches up slow afore he climbs into the
saddle. When he goes into a fight it's like his day's work, and he don't
waste no talk or elbow action when he's workin'."

"I wish I were a man!"

"Well, some of us is right glad you ain't. A good woman can do just as
much for this country right now as any man. And I don't mean by dressin'
up in fancy clothes and givin' dances and shellin' out mebby four per
cent of the gate receipts to buy a ambulance with her name on it.

"And I don't mean by payin' ten dollars for a outfit of gold-plated
knittin'-needles to make two-bit socks for the boys. What I mean is that
a good woman does her best work to home; mebby just by sayin' the right
word, or mebby by keepin' still or by smilin' cheerful when her heart is
breakin' account of her man goin' to war.

"You can say all you like about patriotism, but patriotism ain't just
marchin' off to fight for your country. It's usin' your neighbors and
your country right every day in the week, includin' Sunday. Some folks
think patriotism is buildin' a big bonfire once a year and lettin' her
blaze up. But the real thing is keepin' your own little fire a-goin'
steady, right here where you live. And it's thinkin' of that little fire
to home that makes the best soldier.

"He's got a big job to do. He's goin' to get it done so he can go back
to that there home and find the little fire a-burning bright. What do
some of our boys do fightin' alongside of them Frenchmen and under the
French flag, when they get wounded and get a furlough? Set around and
wait to go back to fightin'? I reckon not. Some of 'em pack up and come
four, five thousand miles just to see their folks for mebby two, three
days. And when they see them little fires to home a-burnin' bright, why,
they say: 'This here is what we're fighting for.' And they go back,
askin' God A'mighty to keep 'em facin' straight to the front till the
job is done."

Dorothy, her chin in her hand, gazed at Bud. She had never known him to
be so intense, so earnest.

"Oh, I know it is so!" she cried. "But what can I do? I have only a
little money in the bank, and father makes just enou