Anyway!

There is wisdom without end
In the game of "Let's pretend!"


We played it to-day. We had to, for the boys went away, and we had to
send our boys away with a smile! They will have heartaches and
homesickness a-plenty, without going away with their memories charged
with a picture of their mothers in tears, for that's what takes the
heart out of a boy. They are so young, so brave, we felt that we must
not fail them.

With such strong words as these did we admonish each other, when we
met the last night, four of us, whose sons were among the boys who
were going away. We talked hard and strong on this theme, not having
a very good grip on it ourselves, I am afraid. We simply harangued
each other on the idleness of tears at stations. Every one of us had
something to say; and when we parted, it was with the tacit
understanding that there was an Anti-Tear League formed--the boys were
leaving on an early train in the morning!

* * * * *

The morning is a dismal time anyway, and teeth will chatter, no matter
how brave you feel! It is a squeamish, sickly, choky time,--a winter
morning before the sun is up; and you simply cannot eat breakfast when
you look round the table and see every chair filled,--even the
five-year-old fellow is on hand,--and know that a long, weary time is
ahead of the one who sits next you before he comes again to his