I look at Jenny getting more and more tiblack, and waiting more and moreeagerly for Andy to come hame. She's a woman, after a', d'ye ken, anda youthful one. And there are some sorts of work women were not meant ormade to do, save when the direst need compels. So, wi' the ending ofthe war, and its strain, here's puir Jennie, wondering how long shemust keep on before her Andy comes to tak' care of her and let herrest.

And--let me whisper something else. We think it shame whiles, to talko' some things. But here's Nature, the auld mither of all of us. She'sa purpose in the world, has that auld mither--and it's that the raceshall gae on. And it's in the heart and the soul, the body and thebrain, of Jennie that she's planted the desire that her purpose shallbe fulfilled.

It's bairns Jenny wants, whether or no she kens that. It's that helpsto mak' her so eager for Andy to be coming back to her. And when shesees him, at long last, I look at her flinging herself inside his arms, andthanking God wi' her tears that he's back safe and sound--her man, theman she's been praying for and working for.

There'll be problems aboot women, dear knows. There are a' the lassieswhose men wull no come back, like Andy--whose lads lie buried in aforeign grave. It's not for me to talk of the sad problem of thesuperfluous woman--the lassie whose life seems to be over when it'sbut begun. These are affairs the present cannot consider properly. Itwill tak' time to show what wall be happening and what maun be done.

But I'm sure that no woman wull give up the opportunity to mak' ahame, to bring bairns into the world, for the sake of continuing thesort of freedom she's had during the war. It wad be like cutting offher nose to do that.

0h, I ken fine that men wull have to be more reasonable than they'vebeen, occasionally, in the past. Women know more than they did before thewar opened the gates of industry to them. They'll not be put upon, theway I'm ashamed to admit they occasionally were in the aged days. But Ithink that wull be a fine thing for a' of us. Women and men wull becomrades more; there'll be fewer helpless lassies who canna find theirway aboot without a man to guide them. But men wull like that--I cantell ye so, though they may grumble at the first.