English, Scotch, Irish and Scandinavian we have suffered more or less hopefully and ungladly in turn. Catherine is plain Canadian. She was born on a farm in Ontario, and has a disposition to regard milk, butter and eggs as staples of diet instead of luxurious accessories. She has a conservative mind toward new ideas. They seem to her superfluous and peace-disturbing. She loves the settled track, the well-worn ruts of dailiness. She resented the introduction of the fireless-cooker, and looked upon the electric-washer as an unnecessary and dangerous complication to life. She is inhospitable to any delicately-veiled allusions to the duty of Canadian kitchens in time of war. There are, of course, a few exceptions. Rice is one; she prefers its use as a vegetable instead of potatoes. She likes canned tomatoes for the same reason, better than fresh. It saves peeling. There are a few points such as these where Catherine's mentality works, but in the main it is impervious.
Besides being voluminous and square-rigged, so to speak, Catherine carries out in other details the illusion of uncompromising austerity. The firm line of her close-shut lips is like unto a visible bar of conscience at which
