In _Lydia of the Pines_ it is a pine tree which murmurs: “The young pine knows the secrets of the ground. The old pine knows the stars.” “Nature is neither cruel nor sad. She is only purposeful, tending to an end we cannot see.” There should be mention of Mrs. Willsie’s most recent book, _Benefits Forgot: A Study of Lincoln and Mother Love_. This is a brief but true story of a young army surgeon for whose education his mother had made great sacrifices. Mrs. Willsie tells how President Lincoln learned of the young man’s neglect of his mother and brought him to realize his ingratitude. It is a very fine and very touching little story. Has the war changed Mrs. Willsie’s ideas and ideals? No, it has sustained and strengthened them; it has supplied her with evidence in their support and justification in their advancement. We quote an interview with the novelist by Maxwell Aley: “War time (Mrs. Willsie said) is woman’s time to show the stuff she is made of. This war is going to take the ‘fluff’ out of feminism in America just as it did in England. It’s”--hesitation and a twinkling eye--“it’s going to blow the foam off the feminist beer!” [A good figure, that, for feminism has certainly been something yeasty, something brewing, and with a little hop in it!] “I hope the war is going to make American women realize the importance of being women, and the chance that it gives them to mold the coming generation. “As I see it there are two things American women can do--one abstract and one concrete. They can teach children in this time of national stress what it means to be Americans, and in that way form the Americans of the future; and they can mobilize their resources and offer them to the government. Like all abstract things, the first is the more difficult. “Women have got to get down from pink teas to brass tacks! If the average woman would only stop to realize just how important it is to be a woman! Why, woman’s business is not only the bringing into the world of the coming generation, but the molding of that generation’s ideals. American men are too busy making a living to give much time to the children--it’s the women who teach them at home and at school. And they ought to be taught what it means to be Americans as well as being taught religion and morals, or grammar and geography. “But here’s the rub! To teach children that, a woman has got to realize what it means herself. How many do? “I hope more women realize it than men--that is, than the men I’ve asked. Several years ago I started out asking all sorts of men ‘What is an American?’ I asked ‘Bohunks’ and ‘Guineas’ at work on street construction, I asked American men in every walk in life--and what do you suppose I got as an average answer? That an American was a man who knew how to get rich quick!