"Yes, yes!" agreed Mr. Basset. "Old Dicker is a very fine fellow, straight as a line, and honest as the day, but I should have thought he was too peace-loving to have consented to his son being a soldier. I thought he hated war as much as I do."
"But you don't think it wrong to fight in a good cause?" questioned Donald eagerly.
"Certainly not, certainly not! It's the right thing to do—only people don't always do it."
"Then they're cowards!" declared the boy hotly.
Mr. Basset did not gainsay it. Hitherto the shadow of the war had not come very near him. He had subscribed to the hospital which was shortly to be opened in Midbury for wounded soldiers, as had his sister, and to various war funds; but until that morning it had not occurred to him, any more than it had to Miss Basset, that it might effect them personally. Now it seemed as if it might, for their dead brother's son was very dear to them.
"Oh, Donald, don't you wish there was something you and I could do for our country?" cried May. "If I was a little older I might be a Red Cross nurse—"
Donald interrupted her with a laugh. "I like that!" he cried; "you a Red Cross nurse indeed! Why, you haven't the pluck of a mouse! I shan't forget how you wept over that dead rabbit we found in a snare the other day!"
"That was because it had suffered," May answered; "you know it had been caught by the leg, not killed outright. If it had been living I should have loved to care for it till it was well."
Donald made no reply to this. He had suddenly remembered the hours his sister had devoted to him during his late illness, and felt ashamed that he had laughed at her tender-heartedness. He did not tell her so, however, and they went back to the house without speaking to each other again.
Punctually at ten o'clock Miss Cummings, the governess, arrived. She lived at Midbury with her widowed mother, and had held her present situation for years. She was a clever teacher, and a strict disciplinarian. May and Donald had a great respect but no affection for her. She was a tall, gaunt young woman, with a sallow complexion, grey eyes, and tightly-braided brown hair.