"Oh, are they, Hiram?" said my young mistress in the indulgent tone of a grown-up person discussing its toys with some child. She always adopts this tone towards her cousin's invention. "And what do they think they're goin' to use it for, eh?"
The young American looked round the table at each of the faces turned towards him.
Then, in a detached tone, he made the announcement of that which was to make all the difference in the world to all of us.
"I guess they'll use it—in this coming war!"
Well, of course we'd seen "rumours of wars" in the day-old papers that had reached us in our wet Welsh valley. But a houseful of women recks little of newspaper news—or did reck little. It all seemed as far away, as little to do with us as, say, the report of some railway accident in Northern China!
Now the young inventor's simple words brought it home to us!