`` But the later suggestions went against Susan 's grain . Had it not been for father 's decree I think she would have snapped her fingers at Sir Robert Borden . '' ` Talk about trying to make bricks without straw , Mrs. Dr. dear ! How am I to make a cake without butter or sugar ? It can not be done -- not cake that is cake . Of course one can make a slab , Mrs. Dr. dear . And we can not even camooflash it with a little icing ! To think that I should have lived to see the day when a government at Ottawa should step into my kitchen and put me on rations ! ' `` Susan would give the last drop of her blood for her ` king and country , ' but to surrender her beloved recipes is a very different and much more serious matter . `` I had letters from Nan and Di too -- or rather notes . They are too busy to write letters , for exams are looming up . They will graduate in Arts this spring . I am evidently to be the dunce of the family . But somehow I never had any hankering for a college course , and even now it does n't appeal to me . I 'm afraid I 'm rather devoid of ambition . There is only one thing I really want to be -- and I do n't know if I 'll be it or not . If not -- I do n't want to be anything . But I sha n't write it down . It is all right to think it ; but , as Cousin Sophia would say , it might be brazen to write it down . `` I will write it down .
I wo n't be cowed by the conventions and Cousin XXXXX !
Borden Di Nan Ottawa Sophia Susan dunce exams hankering right