CHAPTER V 



THE GREAT WAR PERIOD 



OPTIMISM is a most soothing balm to fold round 

 your daily life when all seems to be going well. 

 For good health and true happiness no one can 

 afford to disregard its appeal, but it can produce 

 a frame of mind which is very misleading at 

 times. 



The general public in the days preceding the War 

 — I must admit my mind subscribed to the same 

 school of thought — never could bring itself to believe 

 that a great war was imminent or even likely. 

 People quite erroneously were hoping that war like 

 duelling was going out of fashion and that the good 

 sense of mankind was gradually overcoming its bad 

 sense. How rudely was their optimism shaken in 

 the days of 1914 ! 



The impact of war brought changes in most 

 people's lives. The drastic changes came to those 

 whose accident of birth brought them into the grip 

 of military service. In my own case my occupation 

 and, to some extent, my age, gave colour to the 

 suggestion that I must carry on the farms and keep 

 business going until my two younger brothers, Harry 

 and Norman, returned from the war ; all that I 



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