Mother-like she could not encourage my going, but she would
never lift a finger to deter me. Her answer was that it was
entirely a matter of what _I_ conscientiously felt was my
foremost duty. I never went near a recruiting meeting, so
that I should not be carried away by enthusiasm to the
recruiting office. I must decide when my thoughts were cool
and collected. The second week in November brought the
climax. I knew my duty was to fight.

"So I enlisted in a London Territorial Regiment whose first
battalion was already in France and would require frequent
drafts. I did not hesitate about joining a fighting unit.
Other units are very necessary, but I wouldn't let another
man do _my_ fighting for me. I had some difficulty about a
slightly weak heart caused by a severe illness a few years
before. However, with the words that 'the life would either
make or break me,' I was accepted for active service."

I am told that Sydney Baxter omits one thing here. Unlike so many in
those early days, when he announced to the chief that he had joined,
he asked no question about any possible allowance. He asked no advice,
he suggested no help. He just joined. All he said was, "I felt I had
to go, sir, and my mother says it will be all right. She says she will
be able to manage quite well." Let me pay my tribute to this one young
man's mother. There are so many like her that I pay it to thousands.
Not only did she refuse to put obstacles in the way, but she would
have no bargaining with patriotism. "She would manage quite well." It
meant more boarders in the little home, it meant the breaking up of
the old sweet privacy and quietude of the household, but--she would
manage quite well. God knows the heartache and the sorrow behind the