When I made sure of that I turned and looked at Mary Vance . She was sitting on the lounge laying down the law to Susan on some subject about which Susan must have known forty times as much as she did . But I did n't mind how much law she laid down or how much she bragged . She had a right to brag -- she had dared to do what I would never have dared , and had saved Jims from a horrible death . It did n't matter any more that she had once chased me through the Glen with a codfish ; it did n't matter that she had smeared goose-grease all over my dream of romance the night of the lighthouse dance ; it did n't matter that she thought she knew more than anybody else and always rubbed it in -- I would never dislike Mary Vance again . I went over to her and kissed her . '' ` What 's up now ? ' she said . '' ` Nothing -- only I 'm so grateful to you , Mary . ' '' ` Well , I think you ought to be , that 's a fact . You two would have let that baby die on your hands if I had n't happened along , ' said Mary , just beaming with complacency . She got Susan and me a tip-top breakfast and made us eat it , and ` bossed the life out of us , ' as Susan says , for two days , until the roads were opened so that she could get home . Jims was almost well by that time , and father turned up . He heard our tale without saying much . Father is rather scornful generally about what he calls ` old wives ' remedies . ' He laughed a little and said , ` After this , Mary Vance will expect me to call her in for consultation in all my serious cases . ' `` So Christmas was not so hard as I expected it to be ; and now the New Year is coming -- and we are still hoping for the ` Big Push ' that will end the war -- and Little Dog Monday is getting stiff and rheumatic from his cold vigils , but still he ` carries on , ' and Shirley continues to read the exploits of the aces . Oh , nineteen-seventeen , what will you bring ? '' CHAPTER XXV SHIRLEY GOES `` No , Woodrow , there will be no peace without victory , '' said Susan , sticking her knitting needle viciously through President Wilson 's name in the newspaper column . `` We Canadians mean to have peace and victory , too .
You , if it pleases you , Woodrow , can have the XXXXX without the victory '' -- and Susan stalked off to bed with the comfortable consciousness of having got the better of the argument with the President .
Christmas baby complacency consultation hands home lounge peace remedies times