War Veterans burea u;

m The place had been "taken up" by Jake Watson immediately
after he had returned frdn France. It was eight miles from

the Merritt farm, and to reach it mne was obliged to pass over

a winding trail that zigzagged through woods and fields and
skirted the far and treacherous edges of the marsh and beg lands.

Jake had no wounds to show for his four years service at
the front, no medals and no pensions. The farm, nevertheless,
represented the "gift" af a grateful government, and Jake's
six months pay gra tuity money went to pay the first installment
on a twenty year loan for implements and stock;

Jake was well satisfied with his farm. Its isolation ~
and quietness gave it an especial value to the soldier. Here
at least the German guns could never reach. Here the incessant
pounding of the four terrible years would not be heard save in
sleep or delusion.

He was said to be "queer", and some declared that Jake was
"cracked." Bud Morris, for instance, son of the wealthiest
farmer in the country. Bud had been exempted from military
service because of two missing toes from his left foort, and
he had spent a night in the veteran‘s shakk. Bud persisted in
the statement that the veteran was "crazy as a bed bug" —~
though he was careful to make such statement out of sight and
hearing of Jake Uatson. The latter, so Bud declared, slept
without covers upon his bed, even in winter, his gogs -~ six or
seven of them, lying acfoss him, and giving not only the

necessary warmth, but a protective armor against all possible