She shook her head, beating softly with one small fist into her other palm. "No, Hal," she said, her mouth tightening and drawing down. "Why--why, Bloss!" Suddenly she faced him, her hands both fists now, and coming down with a force that shivered the china. "You--you ain't a man, you ain't. You ain't a man, you--you're a slacker! You're a slacker, that's what you are, and Gawd, how I--how I hate a slacker!" "Bloss--why, girl--you--you're cra---" "Oh, I've known it. Deep down inside of me I've known it since the day we found ourselves in the mess of this war. I knew it, and all those months kept kidding myself that maybe--you--wasn't." "You--" "Thought maybe when you'd read the newspapers enough and heard the khaki-boys on the street corners enough, and listened to--to your country pleading enough that--that you'd rise up to show you was a man. I knew all these months down inside of me that you was a slacker, but I kept hopin'. Gawd how I kept hopin'." "You--you can't talk to me that way! You're---" "Can't I! Ha! Anybody can talk any old way to a slacker he wants to and then not say enough. You ain't got no guts you--you're yellow, that's what you are, you--" "Blossum!" "You, sneaking up to me with trumped up exemption stuff when your country's talking her great heart out for men to stand by 'er! Gawd! If I was a man--If was a man she wouldn't have to ask me twice, but before I went marching off I'd take time off to help the street cleaning department wipe up a few streets with the slackers I found loafing around under a government they were afraid to fight for. I'd show 'em. I'd show 'em if a government is good enough to live under it's good enough to fight under. I'd show 'em." "If you was a man, Blossum, you'd eat those words. By God, you'd eat 'em. I'm no coward--I--" "I know you're not, Hal--that's why I--I--" "I got the right to decide for myself if I want to fight when I don't know what I'm fighting for. This ain't my war, this ain't America's war. Before I fight in it I want a darn sight to know what I'm fighting for, and not all the street corner rah rah stuff has told me yet. I ain't a bull to go crazy with a lot of red waved in my face. I've got no blood to spill in the other fellow's battle. I'm---" "No, but you--" "I'm at a point in my life that I've worked like a dog to reach. Let the fellows that love the hero stuff give up their arms and their legs and the breath that's in them for something they don't know the meaning of. Because some big-gun of a Emperor out in Austria was assassinated, I ain't going to bleed to death for it. It's us poor devils that get the least out of the government that right away are called on to give the most, it's us---" "Hal, ain't--ain't you ashamed!"