Page 81 (1/1)

It was a clear, crisp day in March with just a s in the air, when Ca time to think about it Quarantine had extended itself away into February, and while his coular drill and hard work, there had been no leave fro canteens They had been shut up to the company of the members of their own barracks, and there were tiree Once when it had snowed for three days, and rained on the top of it, and a chill wind had swept into the cracks and crannies of the barracks, and poured down fro their best to keep up good cheer, and thetheir vile stories, one after another, each to sound bigger than the last, so into a chat on a sort of philosophy of the lowest ideals Cauard all night, and a letter from Ruth was in his inside pocket with a comfortable crackle, but the talk that drifted about him penetrated even his army blankets when he drew them up over his ears

The fellows had arrived at a point where a young lad froirls were h standards of womanhood was all bosh; that there was one standard for men and women, yes, but it was man's standard, not woman's, as ritten so!

In vain Cameron stuffed the blanket about his ears, resolutely shut his eyes and tried to sleep His very blood boiled in his veins The letter in his pocket cried out to be exonerated fro the blanket frole motion, a tall soldier with a white fla with fire They called him in friendly derision the "Silent Corporal" because he kept so much to himself, but now he blazed forth at them: "You lie, Kelly! You know you do! The whole lot of you are liars! You know that rot you've been talking isn't true You know that it's to cover up your own vile deeds and to excuse your own lustful passions that you talk this way and try to persuade your hearts and consciences that you are no worse than the girls you have dishonored! But it isn't so and you know it! There are good women! There always have been and there alill be! You, every one of you, know at least one You are dishonoring your mothers and your sisters when you talk that way You are worse than the beasts you are going out to fight That's the rotten stuff they are teaching They call it Kultur! You'll never win out against the o clean! If there's a God in heaven He's in this war, and it's got to be a clean war! And you've got to begin by thinking differently of women or you're just as bad as the Huns!"