Page:Gadsby.djvu/196

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
GADSBY

dious young lady’s famous biological and microscopic ability holding out an opportunity for most practical work; for Branton Hills’ shot-torn boys would soon start drifting in. And thus it was; with Lucy, Sarah and Virginia inspiring Branton Hills’ womanhood to knit, knit, knit! You saw knitting on many a porch; knitting in railway trains; knitting during band music in City Park; knitting in shady arbors out at our big zoo; at many a woman’s club,—and,—actually, knitting in church!! Finally a big factory, down by our railway station, put out a call for “anybody, man or woman, who wants to work on munitions;” and many a dainty Branton Hills girl sat at big, unfamiliar stamping, punching, grinding, or polishing outfits; tiring frail young backs and straining soft young hands; knowing that this factory’s output might—and probably would,—rob a woman across that big Atlantic of a husband or son,—but, still, it is war!

Gadsby, smoking on his ivy-clad porch, as his Lady was industriously knitting, said, in a sort of soliloquy:—

“War! That awful condition which a famous military man in command of a division, long ago, said was synonymous with Satan and all his cohorts! War! That awful condition of human minds coming down from way, way back of all his-

[ 188 ]