As Mary had never doubted for a moment, the women of New Bethel proved themselves capable of doing anything that the women of Europe had done; and it wasn’t long before lines of feminine figures in Turkish overalls were bending over the repetition tools in the Spencer shops—­starting, stopping, reversing gears, oiling bearings—­and doing it all with that deftness and assurance which is the mark of the finished workman.

Indeed, if you had been near-sighted, and watching from a distance, you might have been pardoned for thinking that they were men—­but if you looked closer you would have seen that each woman had a stool to sit on, when her work permitted, and if you had been there at half past ten and again at half past three, you would have seen a hand-cart going up and down the aisles, serving tea, coffee, cake and sandwiches.

Again at noon you would have seen that the women had a rest room of their own where they could eat their lunch in comfort—­a rest room with couches, and easy chairs, and palms and flowers, and a piano, and a talking machine, and a floor that you could dance on, if you felt like dancing immediately before or after lunch.  And how the eight Josiahs would have stared at that happy, swaying throng in its Turkish overalls—­especially on Friday noon just after the pay envelopes had been handed around!

Meanwhile the school was adding new courses of study.  The cleverest operators were brought back to learn how to run more complicated machines.  Turret lathe hands, oscillating grinders, inspectors were graduated.  In short, by the end of March, Mary was able to report to another special meeting of the board of directors that where Spencer & Son had been 371 men short on the first of the year, every empty place was now taken and a waiting list was not only willing but eager to start upon work which was easier than washing, ironing, scrubbing or sewing, and was guaranteed to pay $21 a week—­and up!

This declaration might be said to mark an epoch in the Spencer factory.  Its exact date was March 31st, 1917.

On April 2nd of the same year, another declaration was made, never to be forgotten by mankind.

Upon that date, as you will recall, the Sixty-fifth Congress of the United States of America declared war upon the Imperial German Government.

CHAPTER XVIII

Wally was the first to go.

On a wonderful moonlight night in May he called to bid Mary good-bye.  He had received a commission in the aviation department and was already in uniform—­as charming and romantic a figure as the eyes of love could ever wish to see.

But Mary couldn’t see him that way—­not even when she tried—­making a bold little experiment with herself and feeling rather sorry, if anything, that her heart beat no quicker and not a thrill ran over her, when her hand rested for a moment on Wally’s shoulder.