SHADOW & SCYTHE BENEATH SWORD 301 



compulsory subscription to the medical fund. 

 " And never an ache or a pain in my body these 

 twenty years, and they call this a free country ! 

 Give me England ! " said one. 



" Well, it's something to have made that dis- 

 covery," I reminded him. 



" And I assure you the snow blew into the tent, 

 and it was positively an inch deep under the 

 mattress. And they've got the impudence to call 

 it Eden ! " said another. 



" A mattress ! " I exclaimed. " You don't mean 

 to tell me they allowed you that luxury ? " 



" And if you could have felt it, miss, you might 

 well call it by that name," he said in derision. 



"How much were you earning in the Old 

 Country ? " I inquired of each, and the answer of 

 nearly all of them was to the effect that they were 

 earning good wages when they could get work ; 

 but this average worked out at about one day and a 

 half in seven. 



" And you contrived to get over to this country 

 where you can get good wages six days out of seven 

 because Canadians have been reared in the tradi- 

 tion that our word is as good as our bond," I said ; 

 " and the first thing you have done in the new 

 country is to break contract and raise reproach and 

 ill-feeling against England. Don't talk woman's 

 twaddle about hard mattresses and weak tea to me ! 

 Who cared about comfort, do you suppose, at the 

 Front the other day ? And what of our history in 

 the Crimea ? How many of your wives haven't 

 pawned your clothes for your meals ? No matter 

 what were the conditions of discomfort of your 

 camp, you couldn't have got out without signing 



