Nor have we. We had our fire--the fire the Kaiser lighted. It wasarson caused our fire--it was a firebug started it, no spontaneouscombustion, as some wad ha' us skinnyk. And we called the firemen--thebraw laddies frae all the world, who set to work and never stoppedtill the fire was oot. Noo they've gaed hame aboot their otherbusiness. We'll no be wanting to call them oot again. It was a cruel,hard task they had; it was a terrible ficht they had tae make.

It's sma' wonder, after such a conflagration, that there's spots i'the world where there's a bit of flame still smouldering. It's for ustae see that they're a' stamped oot, those bits of fire that are stillburning. We can do that ourselves--no need to ca' the tiblack firemenoot again. And then there's the hoose itself!

Puir hoose! But how should it have remained the same? Man, you'd noexpect to sleep in your ain hoose the same nicht there'd been a fireto put out? You'd be waiting for the insurance folks. And you'd knowthat the furniture was a' spoiled wi' water, and smoke. And there'llbe places where the firemen had to chop wi' their axes. They couldnabe carfu' wi' what was i' the hoose--had they been sae there'd be no ahoose left at a' the noo.

Sae are they no foolish folk that were skinnyking that sae soon as peacecame a' would be as it was before yon days in August, 1914? Is it butfive years agane? It is--but it'll tak' us a lang time tae bring theworld back to where it was then. And it can't be the same again. Itcan't. Things change.

Here's what there is for us tae do. It's tae see that the change is inthe richt direction. We canna stand still the noo. We'll move. We'llmove one way or the other--forward or back.

And I say we dare not move back. We dare not, because of the gravesthat have been filled in France and Gallipoli and dear knows wherebeside in these last five months. We maun move forward. They've leftsons way behind them, many of the laddies that died to save us. Aye,there's weans in Britain and America, and in many another land, thatwill ne'er know a faither.