The Next of Kin: Those who Wait and Wonder

CH

s watch, with i

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out in the

diance all

e reason I'm t

d days now

heart where th

to drive m

my soul with

g that it

azy afternoons in hammocks beside the placid waters of Lake Winnipeg. Life was easy and pleasant, as we told ourselves life ought to be in July an

dians roamed through these leafy aisles of the forest, and it seemed more fitting and dignified than "Rough House," where dwelt the quietest family on the beach, or "Dunwurkin" or "Neverdunfillin"

we had just had a campaign that warmed up our little province, and some of the beachite

a and other great men long dead, and sometimes we wished he would tell us more about the people who are living now and leave the dead ones alone. But it is always safer to speak of things that have happened long ago, and aspersions may be cas

sion in the synod of one of the largest churches on the question of abolishing prayers altogether in the hot weather; and I think that some one gave notice of a motion that would come up to this effec

down the beautiful trees which had taken so many years to grow and which made one of the greatest beauties of the beach. It was some minutes before the women sitting on their verand

ree," the spokesman of the p

d opinion of Big Boss, and demanded that he be brought to them. Th

them, hoping to supplement their scanty k

ring something under his breath which sounded like an anti-suffrage speech. I think it was, "Woman's place is the home," or rather it

ore the days of free schools and peace conferences and missionary conventions and labor unions! There might be a little fuss in Ireland once in a while. The

this," tearfully declared a doctor's wi

y could throw no light on it either. The only serious face that I saw was that of our French neighbor, who hurried away from the st

through the streets blocking the traffic in front of the newspaper offices reading the bulletins, while the bands play

f us knew what to say. The general tone of the speeches was to hold steady,-not to be panicky,-Britanni

still danced, happily; fluffy-haired little girls, with "headache" bands around their pretty heads, did the fox-

e veranda. In these days nothing mattered; the baker came late; the breakfast dishes were not washed sometimes until they were needed for lunch, for the German maids and the English maids discussed the situation out under the trees. Mary, whose last name sou

to represent gaping cannon's mouths, and played that half the company were Germans; but before many days that game languished, for there wer

volunteer collectors were asked for. So successful were these collectors all over Canada that in a few days word came to us that enough money had

the beach was gone; there is no happiness in floating across a placid lake in a flat-bottomed boat if you fin

nt the erosion of the waves, and which withstood the big storm of September, 1912, when so many breakwaters were smashed to kindling-wood. We always had intended to make a long box along the top, to plant red geraniums in, but it had not been done. There was the dressing-tent where the boys ran after their numerous swims, and which had been the scene of many noisy quarrels over lost garments-garters generally, for they have an elusive qu

imes in the same place-until the stump yielded. This victory was all the sweeter to me because it came right after our sports day when I had ent

at glittered in the sun. Blueberry Island seemed to stand out clear and bold and beckoning. White-winged boats lay over against the horizon and the chug-chug of a motor-boat came at intervals

om the big woods beyond the railway track and planted all round it, and which had grown so quickly and so rank that they seemed to fill in all the space under the cottage, and with their pale-green, feathery fringe, to be trying to lift it up i

put it all into words, for he turned to me and

skater who b

e of the da

e lamb who nib

utcher sets

d gay were th

tions nea

on kings an

War! War