treated by their parents, that would never die, for being sent without
a word of counsel into these things.

It is not only actions--corrupt thoughts are the most evil of all--and
to help to give our boys the greatest possession, moral courage,
founded on knowledge, is our finest gift.

There were temptations to think less cleanly, to hear things said
without protest and to say them later. There were drinking temptations
and one used to wonder with a sick heart, what mothers would feel if
they could see these young boys of theirs sometimes, so pathetically
young and so foolish. There was also in these great camps of men--let
us realize that quite clearly--great good for the boys and the
men--good that far outweighs the evil. All the good of discipline,
all they gained by their coming together for a great cause, all they
gained in that great comradeship and service for each other, and in
their self-sacrifice for their country and the world. The wonder
and beauty of what it is, and means some of our own men have told
us--among them one who died, Donald Hankey, and has left us a rich
treasure in his works. And we all know it in our own men--that abiding
spirit that is the vision without which the people perish.

But there are and were evils to fight and men and women to help. The
huts and canteens and guesthouses are great agencies for good--as well
as for comfort. Loneliness, and nowhere to go, and no one to talk to,
are conditions that make for mischief.

Then there were the girls at the outbreak of the war, excited by all
that was happening, not yet busy as they nearly all are now, feeling
that the greatest thing was to know the soldiers and talk and walk