"Why, Robert!" exclaimed Mrs. Cook. "How can you say such a thing? Just
think of all the fine young American boys who may be killed."

"I realize all that," said her husband. "At the same time I agree with
President Wilson that the German Government has gone mad, and as a
civilized nation it is our duty to defend civilization. The only way left
for us is to go in and give Germany a good beating."

"And I shall enlist and get a commission," cried Harold, their eldest
boy. "I am twenty-three years old. I have been at Plattsburg two summers,
and I have done a lot of studying; I know I can pass the examinations."

"What will you be if you do pass?" inquired his father. "A lieutenant?"

"Well," said Harold, "a second-lieutenant."

"I wish I could enlist," sighed Bob.

"Huh!" snorted his older brother. "You can't enlist. What military
training have you had? And besides, you're only seventeen; they wouldn't
take you."

The Cook family were seated at the dinner table, mother, father, and
three children, the two boys referred to above and a young daughter,
Louise, just thirteen years of age. Congress had that day declared war on
Germany, and naturally that was the one thing in every one's mind. Crowds
in front of the newspaper offices had greeted the news from Washington
with wild enthusiasm, patriotic parades had been organized, and from
almost every house and office streamed the Stars and Stripes.