Page 33 - 1918 VES Meteor

THE NET£0R 69
and slay~ I have had no part in the making of this wasteful war and I won't ha\'e. It is wrong. The world is mad. 1 h:n·e no grudge against the Germans-no, no, it is wrong. This is a war of madmen, profiteers-it is not for me!
Mother. Stop ! This war is for every man with an ounce of fighting blood.
Tom (burying face in hands). I can't go.
illother. My son a coward ! For shame ! My son the one to flinch! Could it be? Tom, Tom (pathetically), my boy, you do want to go, don't you1
T om . Xo, Mother, I don't.
Mother. For your own sake, if not for ours, then! If yon do not go you will be shot-a coward's death.
To111 (in a tense, determined voice). Far better to die here a so-called coward than abroad a. murderer!
.11other. X e>er did I expect to hear such words from one of our family. You must go. Our name shall not be disgraced and your manhood ruined. Tom, I Joye you, as when you were a baby, but now is the time to protect us all.
It is hard for me to see you go, but it is harder to see you stn_y here dishonored-a cowa.rd!
Tom (huskily) . I can't-oh, I can't !
Mother (bitterly and sadly). I am sorry to see you be- fore me now. Better to have lost you in infancy than to see yon a shirker. Your sister bas that which you lack. She has the family pluck. She has a little body but a mighty spirit. For your soldier father's sake, Tom, rise in his place IIOW.
Yirginia (entering carrying kit bag, packed). Here is brother's pack. Our soldier!
Jlother (scomfully). Soldier, indeed!
(Pause; from without the sound of a bell_ running feet,
voices. )
l'irginia. The bells ! The call! Tom, quick ! Y our uniform!