An Englishwoman's Home

in on our little Island, Corne

meat, now due to be made, but for which there are no ingredients. A good many households in England and Scotland depended upon our Christmas puddings. I hate to have them go short, but diplomatic relations being what they are with Tino of Greece, we have no currants. It is th

ou last I have

efense. The cliffs bristle with guns, they have crept up from the fort, till the nearest one is over the garden wall not

gs to simple places untouched by conventionality, has surely gone, forever sac

o feel that if he had been given choice he would himself have chosen to sleep on the windy hill above the shore where

er's House. I think I must tell you here, my soul's friend, of a strange story I have had sent to me from France, a story which affects me and mine. The Boy had his father's genius for friendship, and clung to his chums with all the a

t a letter from his mother telling me how he had died. He had lingered three weeks, suffering no pain, fully aware that he could not recover, ready to die as he had lived, without fear, bravely, as brave men only can and do die. His mother was with him to the end. I am not sure whether I envy her. Mine went in a flash without pain or warning, or possible shrinking, straight from one home of love to another. It must wring a mother's heart to watch the candle flickering out so slowly.

lia-the veil is very thin, and the Lord Christ Himself

both out of it no

oy's passing-and though she stoutly denies it, the strain of the war had told on her very much. She must have a rest and get away for a while from the gu

is now in military possession! How truly Florence touched the spr

by giving up all we are and have, why then let us in the name of God do

e fight for. If they are

the stern discipline we call life. We really are in the fighting line from the cradle to the grave. I smiled this morning looking back to when I said it was necessary to take her out of the strain of the Coast Defence. Because she has come into the real war zone here

hts, to feel the thrill of tense fear which seizes the bravest when the warning sou

danger is most imminent. Florence takes special pride in the cellar; she keeps it very clean and snug, spreads old rugs and sets out the garden chairs. Then there is a

morning after a raid said she had been out buying dusters for her Zeppelin guests to hem in their forced seclusion.

want to be up and out if possible, facing the danger, of which I am yet mortally afraid. I don't

hree, but we could not see anything. They went straight over London, approaching as usual from the North, and just missing us. They dropped a good many bombs, and the air was fu

to retrace their steps, if I may

ere searching the sky for the enemy and presently one got above the stationary Zeppelin and found the range. It looked as

wly to descend. The cage became detached first and those who were near enough saw the body of its unfortunate occupant fall from it. It descended in a field behind the doctor's house at Potter's Bar, and such a cheer rent the air, ringing hoarse from a million throats, from London to the sea, that one felt positively thrilled, and

personal convenience. Nothing on earth would take him to the cellar, he simply planted himself with a very long pipe and a whiskey and soda in the library, where he sat with a suffering air, what we call the "O Lord

thes the war and all it stands for, and she will never give her son until she is obliged to; she is the living personification of the line, "I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier

She just shakes her head if you speak to her of the souls that are marching on. "I hope you're right," she

all-no wonder she clings to the material body of he

s sleep, and in the morning went over to Potter's Bar in t

for to see" just as our town swarmed with them when

engines-they had been removed in the small hours on a military truck. What we did see was the retrieval of the bodies from the wreckage-poor charred objects-perfectly unrecognisable. Mothers' sons every one, and somewhere in Ger

mpering and hardening of a naturally k

are all so changed that we shall be