"Of course. How stupid of me to overlook that. How would you like to see no soldiers in the street?"
"I shouldn't like it at all, papa."
"Yes, my dear boy," he proceeded, turning to Sam, "I would not want to have it repeated in my district, but I confess that I am always homesick for Whoppington when I am here. That's the real world there. There's the State Department where they manage all the foreign affairs of the world. What could we do without foreign affairs? And the Agricultural Department. How could we get in our crops without it? And the Labor Department. Every man who does a day's work depends on the Labor Department for his living, we may say. And the——"
"The War Department," said Sam.
"Yes, the War Department. We depend on that for our wars. Perhaps at first that does not seem to be so useful, but——"
"Oh! but, Uncle George, surely it is the most useful of all. What could we do without wars. Just fancy a country without wars!"
"I don't know but you're right, Sam."
"And then the Treasury Department depends a good deal on the War Department," said Sam, in triumph, "for without the War Department and the army it wouldn't have any pensions to pay."
"That's so."
"Papa," said Mary Jinks, who had modestly taken no part in a conversation whose wisdom was clearly beyond her comprehension—"papa, why didn't everybody go to the war like Mr. Reddy, and then they'd all have pensions and nobody'd have to work."