Page 14 - 1930

12
"I just-hate-this-everlasting- drill!" she said, puffing, aching, and well-nigh weeping.
"R-r-right! about turn! Quic·k March!" came the command snap- pily.
She had good blue eyes, white, even teeth, hair, gold in the sun, but she was-ghastly confession !-fat, undeniably fat. She waddled when she walked, and puffed-almost snor- ted-when she ran; and the boys- well her dates were seldom-Poor Bess! She hated the thing she most needed-and wouldn't take-Discip- line-the first Big D. Pity too! They needed her in the basketball team- for she really could run for a few minutes~but quitting was easier for Bess and so she never made the team and as for dates-well the boy.s were just horrid about it! In spite of her good blue eyes, white teeth, and gol-
den hair-Poor Bess!! she went on sloppily through life wishing her skirts were a little longer-she couldn't take what she most need- ed-the first Big D.
***
"Oh confound these maths! 1 just
loathe them,! Despise them !" The book crashed against the wall. Six problems still to work out! "If A can do a piece of work in three days and B-etc., etc.," Silly stuff! Who car- es how long B takes? Besides, there was a dandy show on at the Gayety-- thrilling! But he had given his word of honor to his Dad that he would go his limit on Mathematics this term-with a groan he recovers his arithmetic, hard into his problem, and hangs on. Six months later he comes within ten of the top of his form ; a year later he is third ; six years later he is chosen out of nine clerks in an Accounting office to be head in the Bonding Department in
a big Trust Company. Lucky chap! Lucky? N'o. He could take his Big D -nay, more than that. He himself made himself take his Big D. "Dis- cipline!" The thing that refines slop-
py girls into slim women and trans- forms loose-jointed lads into leaders of men.
***
"Why not? It will be a perfectly
adorable party! Heavenly orchestra, and the eats!"
Can't do it! Sim'ply can't, Bunty, awfu.lly sorry"
"Aw, Slim, come on! Red's going to be there, and Tom, and Pat, and Ken and all the gang! Come on! We'll have a whang-bang-doodle-ood- le of a time."
Slim, "Shoot, Why not?" Ah, that was it; why not? Bunty knew Red was to be there. She had hated to refuse when he had asked her to go -she had wanted to go, with a fierce longing. But she could not-why? The second Big D challenged her- - Dared her. Her p~ople expected h~r to make good. rhey had Rent her ir~ to school at som~ pains. It me:.:lnt extra work for her mother in the home, and a little harder scra1;ing for Dad on the farm. Promised them? No, she had made no promis- es. They had not asked her to prom- ise. But she owed it to them to be and to do her finest and best. Owed it -"Dabeo, I owe," her Latin book said. The supine "debitam" gave her the second Big D-Duty-the thing "owed". The thing she must pay if she would keep her honor, 'Duty' the soldier's word. The word that like a trumpet blast called men from their homes ; called them to the front Line -sent them "over the top." The
Christ word-"The CU\P 1which My Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" "Duty", a noble word. lts roots thrust down deen into the very soul of a man, into his Conscience. The thing that blooms, into Honor, Truth and Right.
DISCIPLINE that stern master that makes and shapes and fines and fits for life's supreme call-the call of DUTY. The two Big D's.
RALPH CONNOR.
The Two Big D's