taincy); of making them “snap into it”; of Paula; of his mother, even. Two months before the war’s close he succeeded in getting over; but Paris was his headquarters.
Between Dirk and his mother the first rift had appeared.
“If I were a man,” Selina said, “I’d make up my mind straight about this war and then I'd do one of two things. I'd go into it the way Jan Snip goes at forking the manure pile—a dirty job that’s got to be cleaned up; or I'd refuse to do it altogether if I didn’t believe in it as a job for me. I'd fight, or I'd be a conscientious objector. There’s nothing in between for any one who isn’t old or crippled, or sick.”
Paula was aghast when she heard this. So was Julie whose wailings had been loud when Eugene had gone into the air service. He was in France now, thoroughly happy. “Do you mean,” demanded Paula, “that you actually want Dirk to go over there and be wounded or killed!”
“No. If Dirk were killed my life would stop. I'd go on living, I suppose, but my life would have stopped.”
They all were doing some share in the work to be done.
Selina had thought about her own place in this war welter. She had wanted to do canteen work in France but had decided against this as being selfish. “The thing for me to do,” she said, “is to go on raising vegetables and hogs as fast as I can.” She supplied count-
