The Next of Kin: Those who Wait and WonderMcClung, Nellie L.
History
The Next of Kin: Those who Wait and Wonder
McClung, Nellie L.
World War, 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Canada
Mrs. Brunton was quite opposed to women voting, and often spoke with
sorrow of the movement, which to her meant the breaking-up of the home
and all its sacred traditions. She did not specify how this would be
done, but her attitude toward all new movements was one of keen
distrust. She often said that of course she would be able to vote
intelligently, for she had had many advantages and had listened to
discussions of public matters all her life, having been brought up in
an atmosphere of advanced thinking; but she realized that her case was
an exceptional one. It was not the good fortune of every woman to have
had a college course as she had, and she really could not see what
good could come from a movement which aimed at making all women equal!
Why, if women ever got the vote, an ignorant washwoman's vote might
kill hers! It was so much better to let women go on as they were
going, exerting their indirect influence; and then it was the woman of
wealth and social prestige who was able to exert this influence, just
as it should be! She certainly did not crave a vote, and would do all
she could to prevent other women from getting it.
Mrs. Brunton had come from the East, and although she had lived many
years in the West, she could never forget what a sacrifice she had
made by coming to a new country. Being a college graduate, too, seemed
to be something she could not outgrow!
When her only boy was old enough to go to school, she became the
teacher's bad dream, for she wrote many notes and paid many calls to
explain that Garth was not at all like other children and must not be
subjected to the same discipline as they, for he had a proud and
haughty spirit that would not submit to discipline unless it were
tactfully disguised. Garth was a quiet, mild little lad who would have
been much like other boys if left alone.
Garth was twenty years old when the war began, and he was then
attending the university. He first spoke of enlisting when the war had
gone on a year.
"Enlist!" his mother cried, when he mentioned it to her, "I should say
not--you are my only child, and I certainly did not raise you to be a
soldier. There are plenty of common people to do the fighting; there
are men who really like it; but I have other ambitions for you--you
are to be a university man."
When the Third University Company went, he spoke of it again, but his
mother held firm.
"Do you think I am going to have you sleeping in those awful trenches,
with every Tom, Dick, and Harry? I tell you soldiering is a rough
business, and I cannot let a boy of mine go--a boy who has had your
advantages must not think of it."
"But, mother, there are lots of boys going who have had just as good
advantages as I have."
Just then came in Emily Miller, the little girl from next door whose
brother was going away the next day. Emily was an outspoken young lady
of fourteen.
"When are you going, Garth?" she asked pointedly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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