Yes, mother. Once I made up my mind I couldn’t wait to be drafted. I wanted to offer myself. I didn’t want to be made to go. HILDA (_Hardly grasping it_) But you are too young. WALLACE I lied about my age. You and father can stop me if you tell the truth. That’s why I’ve come back. I want you to promise you won’t tell. HILDA _You_ ask me to aid you in what I don’t believe? WALLACE But you said you’d stick by me if _I_ thought it was right. HILDA But.... WALLACE (_With fervor_) And I tell you, mother, I do feel it was right for America to go in. I see now we ought to have declared war when they crushed Belgium. Yes; we ought to have gone in when the Lusitania was sunk. But we’ve been patient. The President tried to keep us out of it until we _had_ to go in to save our self-respect. We had to go in to show we were men of honor, not pussy cats. We had to go in to show the world the Stars and Stripes wasn’t a dishrag on which the Germans could dry their bloody hands! HILDA (_Gazing at him incredulously_) You hate them as much as that? WALLACE Hate? No, mother, no. (_As though questioning himself._) I really haven’t any hate for the German _people_. People are just people everywhere, I suppose, and they’re tricked and fooled by their rotten government, as the President says. HILDA Then why fight them? WALLACE Because they’re standing back of their government, doing what it says. And they’ve got to be licked to show them what kind of a government they have. HILDA At least you have no hate in your heart--that’s something. WALLACE Oh, yes, I have, mother. But it isn’t for the poor devils I’ve got to shoot. It’s for the stay-at-home fellow here in America who sits in a comfortable armchair, who applauds patriotic sentiment, cheers the flag and does nothing for his country but hate and hate--while we fight for him. That’s the fellow I’ll hate all right when I sit in the trenches. And that’s why I couldn’t look myself in the face if I stayed out a day longer; why, I’ve got to go in; why, I’m going to die if I must, because _everybody_ ought to be willing to die for what he believes. HILDA You are my son, _too_! For I would willingly have died if it could have kept us out of this war. WALLACE Yes. I am your son, too. And that’s why you wouldn’t respect me if I didn’t go through. HILDA No. I wouldn’t have respected you. But ... but.... (_She breaks a bit, then controls herself._) You are quite sure you’re doing what’s right? WALLACE (_Tenderly_) Would I have been willing to hurt you like this? HILDA (_Holding him close to her_) My boy; my boy! WALLACE It’ll be all right, mother. HILDA Ah, yes. It will be all right. Nothing matters in time: it’s only the moments that hurt. WALLACE (_After a pause_) Then you won’t tell my real age, or interfere? HILDA I respect your right to decide your own life. WALLACE (_Joyed_) Mother! HILDA