“Well, then, there is no reason for regret. Boris has taken the path of honour.”
“That may be so, but for the time to come I shall put little trust in him. Going such a dubious way, he might well have stopped for a God Bless Thee!”
“Would thou have said that?”
“Why should we ask about things impossible? Dost thou know, Grandfather, at what time the recruiting party passed Kirkwall?”
“Nobody knows. I heard music out at sea three nights ago, just after midnight. There are no Shetland boats carrying music. It is more likely than not to have been the recruiting party saluting us with music as they went by.”
“Yes! I think thou art right. Grandfather, I want thee to tell me what we are fighting about.”
“Many times thou hast said ‘it made no matter to thee.’”
“Now then, it is different. Since Boris and so many of our men went away, Mistress Ragnor and Thora talk of the war and of nothing but the war. They know all about it. They wanted to tell me all about it. I said thou had told me all that was proper for me to know, and now then, thou must make my words true. What is England quarrelling about? It seems to me, that somebody is always looking at her in a way she does not think respectful enough.”
“This war is not England’s fault. She has done all she could to avoid it. It is the Great Bear of Russia who wants Turkey put out of Europe.”