Besides, she was just now facing a new anxiety. When her husband came in from the shop and hung up his hat and she had dished up the potatoes and the family sat down to the evening meal, there was just one subject of conversation. The State of New York was making its preparedness preparation with the military census that was to begin to-morrow, a detailed inventory of man power and possessions. Hitherto for America the war had been over in Europe. Now for the first time it was here for the Lewis family. And other similar supper tables all over the United States were facing it too. “But you couldn’t possibly go,” the tired woman said across the table. “I may have to,” the man answered. “Then what’ll happen to me and the children?” she returned desperately. And he didn’t know. And she didn’t know. Hardly anybody knew. We on this side of the Atlantic are now beginning to find out. Mr. Lewis was drafted last week. The rent is paid one month ahead. You can see the bottom of the coal bin. There’s only half a barrel of flour. And there are seven children to feed. No, there are none of her family nor his that want to adopt any of them as war work. Well, there you are. And there Mrs. Lewis is. In her nervous dread of the charity that she sees coming, she slaps the children twice as often as she used to and the baby cries all day. But, Mrs. Lewis, listen. Don’t even ask the Exemption Board to release your husband. It’s your chance to be a patriot and let him go. And this war may not be as bad for you as you think. There are women on the other side could tell you. Suppose, suppose you never had to do another week’s baking and you were rested enough to love the last baby as you did the first, and all the children could have shoes when they needed them, and there was money enough beside for a new spring hat and the right fixings to make you pretty once more. So that your man coming back from the front when the war is won, may fall in love with you all over again. No, it’s not heaven I’m talking about. It’s here in a war-ridden world. This is no fairy tale. It’s the truth in Britain and France, as it’s going to be in the United States.