The Next of Kin: Those who Wait and Wonder

SERVICE

e in some danger of losing their meaning. The snap goes out of them by too much handling,

ndard of comparison, the question of national service becomes very simple, indeed, for there is but one class, and no other that is even distantly related to it, but if national service is taken to m

vegetables, scarlet runners and cabbages, poppies and carrots, had mingled in wild profusion. The art-muslin curtains are dra

twenty-four children of school-age in the district, and in 1915, when Mr. Ellis taught there, the average attendance was nineteen. At the end of the term Mr. Ellis, who was a university student, abandoned his studies and took his place in the ranks of the Army Medical Corps, and is now nursing wounded men in France. He said

pheld her in this determination, and together they scraped up enough money to pay her railway fare, and board for one week, although it took all that they had been putting away to get Mrs

nse desire for an education to guide her through its devious ways. But the first night that Polly was away, her mother said an extra p

showed more courage than black-eyed Polly when she set forth on this lonely pilgrimage to find learning. She had heard of the danger of picking up with strangers, and the awfu

she would go in there and tell the lady that she wanted to get a room for one day, and then she would leave her bundle and go out and find a school and see the teacher. Teachers were all good men and would help you! Then she would find a place where they wanted a girl to mind a baby or wash dishes, or

of the station yard, following the crowd. The Travelers' Aid followed close b

of the Russian revolution; automobiles honked their horns, and street-cars clanged and newsboys shouted, and more people than Polly h

ad spoken to her at the station. In this great bus

d find a boarding-house?"

et; and when the street-car had clanged by and she could be heard, she told Po

sked her what was t

said the A

said. "Mr. Ellis said that was the place to go when you

is what we are for; we look after girls like you. W

delight. The big brick buildings, the store-windows, even the s

, "I like the c

A., and there, under the melting influence of Miss Bradshaw'

eacher, and three chairs and a painted table and a stove and a bed, and a brass knob on the door, and we always brought cream and eggs and bread for the teacher; and we washed his dishes for him, and the girl that had the best marks all week could scrub his floor on Friday afternoons. He was so nice to us all that we all cried when he enlisted, but he explained it all to us-that there are some things dearer than life

eal little Canadian now, Polly, and you are not a bit foreign. I wa

glish, and that is why she let me come away, and I will do all I can to learn, and I will be a teacher some day, and then I will go back and plant the garden and she will send me butter, for I will live in the cabin. But it is too bad

is little messenger from the up-country had carried her message right into th

ear for the meeting to begin, it became evident that great interest was being taken in the subject, for the room was full, and animated discussions were going on in every corner. This was not the first meeting that had been held o

u would have thought that common politeness would have prompted

ing. "They have their own troubles-think of Quebec! And then you know women's work is a

and that would set a lot of workers free. Why don't we register ourselves, all of us who mean business? This is our country, and if

knitting a dull gray sock or the easy task of collecting Red Cross funds from perfectly willing people who ask me to come in while they make me a cup of tea. I feel like a real slacker, for I have never yet done a hard thing. I did not let any one belonging to me go, for the fairly good reason that I have no male relatives; I give money,

to that without any help from you; and, anyway, we use incubators now and t

rnal talk of national service and nothing coming of it. Now, if any of you k

hen told of what a sacrifice the men make who go to the front, who lay their young lives down for their country and do it all so cheerfully. "And now," she said, "what about those of us who stay at h

use here, but Miss Wheatly sat

ry whispered to her when the speaker had finished with

suggestion. Wouldn't you like to help win the war? That sounds so foolish-of course we would like to win the war. It is like the

young girl from the North Country who had come to the meeting and wished to say a few words. There was a deep, wa

ng no reputation to sustain, and being possessed with one thought, and complete master of it, her speech

dy-teachers are all too scared, but I don't think they would be if they would only come, for we will chop the wood, and one of us will stay at night and sleep on the floor, and we will light the fires and get the breakfast, and we bring eggs and cream and everything like that, and we could give the teacher a cat and a dog; and the girl that had done the best work all week always

room which Polly mistook for a lack

ll so many women able to read right off, and all looking so smart at learning, I thought I would ask you if one of you would please come. We give our teacher sixty-five dollars a month, and when you want to come home we will bring you to the statio

the city; of the foreign-born to the n

"Madam President," she began in her even voice, "I have been waiting quite a while for this, I think. I said to-day that

eep me out of the holes, and I believe I can find enough of a diploma to satisfy the department, and as you have heard

ed just as they were passing through the door and made her quaint and gracef