Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-12-16
THEWLFE
By Jane Phelps,
DISTRUST, UNBELIEF AND
JEALOUSY
By Jane Phelps.
sBBBBBBBBBBeG
CHAPTER GXI.

| NhAI In Val. o.
Perhaps nothing so initiates against
the happiness of married people, es-
pecially young people, as the triangle;
distrust, unbelief, and Jealousy. And it
was this triangle which now made Ruth
hackett very miserable, very unhappy.
sHer feet Jagged as she went about
her work at the shop. Often she was
inattentive. Brian was quietly making
ready to go, They talked little about it,
but Ruth IS intuition was keen; and she
note dthe isgns of preparation. There
was much talk that the States would
surely have to join the Allies, and she
wanted to urge him to wait. But she
lacked the nerve to talk of it. But fin
ally the papers began to clamor for
preparation. Brian himself spoke of it
one evening:
II guess 1 won't go with the Can.
adams, after all. Uncle Sam will need
me in a few weeks or | miss my
guess"
"You don It think it really will come
to us - Ruth asked.
"No-we win go to IT", facetiously
repned BRIAN.
"Please don't joke, dear; it would
be too awful"
I'm not joking-really. We are 60
ing to get in this muss, and we might as
well make up our minds to it. With all
my heart hope so We can't stay out
much longer and be able to hold up
or heads.'
"But Brian, it will take so long to
get men fit to fight. The war won It
last long enough"
"It won It take very long to fit Amer
leans to fight. We are used to doing
things in hurry. Wen have to do in
a few months what those dirty Germans
took forty years to do. And III make
you a bet right now that wen do it,,
too. Not only do it, but we will whip
them to a standstill if we get a whack
at them.'
"You have more faith than I have. 1t
will be very hard to take office boys,
bookkeepers and stenographers, clerks
and farmers, and make good soldiers of
them. Not only will it be hard, but it
will take time. "
You'll seel Why when Uncle Sam
really sets out to do anything he al
ways succeeds. Why should you think
he would fail in this We CAN'T fail.
1t wouldn't be Americana ilsT j.. III
"You certainly have faith in your
country" R,1th smiled, as she looked
at him. She felt happy, happier than
since Brian had told her she wos going
overseas, and that Mollie. King was go,
ing-too. 1t was at least respite Ruth
did not truly believe America would
participate. She, like so many others,
thought there would soon be some sort
of an armistice. 1t seemed improbable
that the United States, three thousand
miles away, would be drawn into it.
We were all unprepared, seemed all
useless for any such thing as immediate
warfare.
'G'd be a pretty poor American if
I didn't have faith in my country"
Brian replied.
'I hope you are mistaken, Brian, |
think you are. 1t would be frightful to
send our unseasoned, unprepared boys
against the Germans. They would butch
er them without mercy
ayes, if they got the chance. If they
got close enough. But it won't be only
our boys who are hutchered if we once
get chance at them; there will be two
Germans put out of business for every
American. Wen fight like the Can
adians-the finest in the world"
Ruth smiled at Brian IS earnestness-