CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE SONS OF TOIL. 



He made no boast, grudged no old scar, 



Sought nothing that he had not got, 

 But took his place affronting war, 



The slow, the patient child of Earth, 



By them on whom a happier star 

 Shone to forecast a happier birth : 



All brothers now ! 



Maurice Hewlett. 



THE Agricultural Club was established at a time when the 

 fate of the nation was in the balance, when we were watching 

 with poignant interest and anxious minds the grim struggle 

 which our sons and brothers were waging on our behalf 

 across the narrow sea ; when only their steadfastness and 

 self-sacrifice stood between us and utter ruin. Those of us 

 who were debarred from sharing their dangers and had 

 shamefacedly to try, according to our opportunities, to do 

 what in us lay to help at home, were overwhelmed with 

 gratitude and sympathy towards those who bore for us the 

 burden and risks of the war. A wave of strong emotion 

 swept over the people, and we made earnest vows that those 

 who saved us, and survived, should be repaid in full so far 

 as payment was possible for such services as theirs. 



The country-side, as of old, was foremost in England's 

 cause. Some of those who watched " the men who march 

 away " leave the villages for the Great War may have 

 known other times when the call to arms had drained the 

 rural districts of their youth, for always throughout history, 

 when fighting for the country was to be done, the men from 

 the land were the first to go. With what high courage 

 they went ; with what heavy hearts but high resolve those 

 who watched them bade them farewell. There is no village 



153 



