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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Children of France, by Ruth Royce
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Children of France
+       A Book of Stories of the Heroism and Self-sacrifice of
+       Youthful Patriots of France During the Great War
+
+Author: Ruth Royce
+
+Release Date: August 4, 2005 [EBook #16437]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILDREN OF FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Croyle, Sankar Viswanathan and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "I OUGHT TO DUMP YOU OUT."]
+
+
+
+                        THE CHILDREN OF FRANCE
+
+          A Book of Stories of the Heroism and Self-sacrifice
+                 of Youthful Patriots of France During
+                             the Great War
+
+
+
+                                  By
+
+                              RUTH ROYCE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             PHILADELPHIA
+                         HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
+
+                                 1918
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+I.    THEIR FIRST HERO
+
+II.   REMI THE BRAVE
+
+III.  THE HEROINE OF FORT MONTERE
+
+IV.   FRANCOIS OUTWITS THE PRUSSIANS
+
+V.    THE SACRIFICE OF LITTLE PIERRE
+
+VI.   A LITTLE SOLDIER OF FRANCE
+
+VII.  SAVED BY A CHILD'S WIT
+
+VIII. THE CHILD DESPATCH BEARER
+
+IX.   GENE AND THE BAVARIAN DRAGOONS
+
+X.    A LITTLE SOLDIER OF MERCY
+
+XI.   A BRAVE LITTLE COWARD
+
+XII.  THE HERO OF THE GUNS
+
+XIII. MARIE THE COURAGEOUS
+
+XIV.  CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE
+
+
+While the Author cannot personally vouch for the stories related in
+this volume, she has full confidence in the sources of her
+information--men who have seen and heard on the battlefields of
+France, and who have related to her these and many other like
+incidents illustrating the heroism of the Children of France. Some of
+the stories the relators have learned through personal observation,
+while others have come to them indirectly. The author, therefore,
+believes each story set down here to be authentic, and so offers them
+to the liberty-loving boys and girls of America.
+
+THE AUTHOR
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The story of the heroism of the Children of France never will be fully
+told. Many of these little patriots have suffered the supreme penalty
+for their devotion to their country, leaving neither track nor trace
+of themselves. That they have disappeared is all that is known of
+them, and thus the stories of their deeds of valor have died with
+them.
+
+In no other period of the world's history have there been so many
+instances of self-sacrificing patriotism on the part of children as
+have come from France during the great war. Through all such stories
+as have come to light, there runs a spirit of heroism that is sublime.
+Such stories should and will prove an inspiration to every boy and
+girl of America and surely will lead them up to a more perfect manhood
+and womanhood.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In this little volume are set down the stories of many devoted little
+French boys and girls, some of whom have offered their lives for their
+country, others of whom have passed through perils that would try the
+strongest and bravest of men, and yet lived to be honored by a
+grateful government for their deeds of heroism. How Remi the Brave, a
+lad of ten, won the Cross of War; the story of Little Mathilde who
+saved the French garrison from the Uhlan raiders; Marie the
+Courageous, who remained at home when the Germans captured the town in
+which she lived, and kept the French informed, knowing that if caught
+she would surely be shot as a spy; how the Hero of the Guns saved the
+day by working the machine guns when nearly all their crews were dead
+or wounded; the story of the Little Soldier of Mercy who, though a
+timid lad, forgot his fears, and working under fire saved the life of
+many a wounded man; how Little Gene locked the Bavarian Dragoons in
+the cellar of her home and captured the lot of them, are a few of the
+thrilling tales of the patriotism and heroism of the Children of
+France that form one of the most fascinating chapters in the history
+of the great world war. They will make the heart of every boy and girl
+beat faster, they will grip the heartstrings of all who read and bring
+them to a better realization of their duty to their Flag and to their
+Country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THEIR FIRST HERO
+
+
+Before the "Squire's" son went away to war, the neighborhood children
+knew him only by sight and by hearing their parents speak of him as
+the son of "the richest man in Titusville," who never had done a day's
+work in his life.
+
+Perhaps the parents were not quite right in this, for, even if Robert
+Favor had not gone out in the fields to labor, he had graduated from
+high school and college with high honors. He never spoke to the
+village children nor noticed them, and was not, as a result, very
+popular with the young people of his home town. The neighbors said
+this was all on account of his bringing up.
+
+It was therefore a surprise to them when, at the beginning of the
+great war, after Germany swept over Belgium, Robert Favor hurried to
+Europe. It was later learned that he had joined what is known as the
+"Foreign Legion" of the French Army. Titusville next heard that he had
+been made a lieutenant for heroic conduct under fire. But Titusville
+did not believe it; it said no Favor ever did anything but run away in
+such circumstances. But they believed it when, later on, they read in
+the newspapers how Lieutenant Favor had sprung out of the trenches and
+ran to the rescue of a wounded private soldier who had lain in a shell
+hole in No Man's Land since the night before.
+
+The village swelled with pride and the eyes of the children grew wide
+with wonder as they listened to the story of the heroism of the
+Squire's son. But this was as nothing to what occurred later. "Bob"
+Favor was brought home one day to the house on the hill, pale and
+weak from wounds received in battle.
+
+Spring was at hand, and as soon as he was able, Captain Favor--you see
+he had again been promoted--was taken out on the lawn where, in his
+wheel chair he rested in the warm sunshine. The bright red top of his
+gray-blue cap, and the flash of the medal on his breast excited the
+wonder of the children, who pressed their faces against the high iron
+fence and gazed in awe. It was the first real hero any of them ever
+had seen.
+
+Finally, chancing to look their way, the Captain smiled and waved a
+friendly hand. A little girl clapped her hands, others started to
+cheer and a little man of ten dragged an American flag from his pocket
+and waved it. The Captain beckoned to the children.
+
+"Come in, folks," he called. "I wish some one to talk to me and make
+me laugh. Are you coming?"
+
+They were. The children started, at first hesitatingly, then with more
+confidence, led by the boy with the American flag, which he was waving
+bravely now.
+
+"What's your name?" demanded the Captain.
+
+"Joe Funk, sir."
+
+The Captain laughed. "No boy so patriotic as you are should have a
+name like that," he said. "We all are going to be great friends, I am
+sure, and when I get this leg, that a German shell nearly blew off, in
+working order again, we shall have some real sport and I'll teach you
+all how to be soldiers. Just now I cannot do much of anything."
+
+"Yes, you can," interrupted Joe. "You can tell us how you rescued the
+soldier when the Germans were shooting at you and--"
+
+"Master Joseph," answered the Captain gravely, "a real soldier never
+brags about himself; but what you say does give me an idea. How would
+you like to have me tell you about the brave little children of
+France?"
+
+"Well, I'd rather hear about how you killed the Germans, lots of 'em;
+I want to hear about battles and dead men and--"
+
+"We shall speak of the children first, and I will begin right now. Let
+me see. Ah! I have it. Sit down on the grass, all of you, and be
+comfortable. Be quiet until I finish the story, then ask what
+questions you wish. Now listen!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+REMI THE BRAVE
+
+
+"He was a little French peasant lad, this boy Remi that I shall tell
+you about, and had just passed his tenth birthday when the Germans
+invaded his beloved country," began the Captain.
+
+"Remi continued on at school in spite of the excitement about him, for
+everyone was talking about the war, but his heart was with the
+soldiers whom he knew were marching forth in thousands to meet the
+enemy. One day his father was called to the colors and the child was
+left in the care of an uncle.
+
+"Now, this uncle belonged to a military organization called the
+Territorials, something like our National Guard, and a few weeks later
+they also were called to march forth and join the French Army. Remi
+was to be left in the care of the neighbors. That was the plan made by
+the uncle. The little French lad, however, had his own ideas about
+that, but kept his plans to himself. He now forgot all about going to
+school, and spent his time watching his uncle's comrades
+drill--watched until he knew every command, every evolution so well
+that he himself could have drilled the company of his uncle.
+
+"As you children perhaps already have surmised, it was Remi's plan to
+go to war and fight for his country. The order for the Territorials to
+move came suddenly, as such orders most always do. They came while the
+lad was having a supper of black bread and cheese with a friendly
+housewife of the neighborhood. The Territorials were to march within
+an hour.
+
+"Remi's eyes grew bright. He stowed what was left of his meager supper
+into his blouse and strolled out. Once clear of the house, he ran
+swiftly to the edge of the village, and from the end of a hollow log
+drew forth a canvas bag. He inspected the contents, which included a
+knife, some string, a clean pair of stockings and one change of
+underwear. He had picked up an old pack discarded by a soldier, and
+made it his own, secreting it for just such a moment as this. The
+child stowed his belongings back in the pack, added the cheese and
+bread, and, swinging the pack over his shoulder, started at a brisk
+trot for the gathering place of the Territorials. The men of his
+uncle's company already had reached the scene, loaded down with
+equipment, rifles brightly polished, looking very warlike with their
+outfits and tin derbies--"
+
+"What's a tin derby?" interjected Joe Funk.
+
+"There, you have interrupted me," rebuked the Captain. "Remember, a
+soldier's first duty is to obey orders. A tin derby is a steel helmet
+or hat which is used as a protection against the splinters thrown off
+from an exploding shell. Where was I?"
+
+"In a tin derby, sir," reminded Joe Funk.
+
+"Little Remi," continued the Captain, "kept in the background and, in
+the excitement of the moment attracted no attention. Shortly after his
+arrival the Territorials fell into line and started away. Remi melted
+away in the darkness, and might have been observed legging it across a
+field in a short cut to a point where he knew the soldiers would pass.
+And, after they had marched by he fell in at a safe distance behind
+and trudged along on his way to war.
+
+"Daylight came; the men halted for breakfast, and the boy, secreting
+himself by the roadside, munched his bread and cheese and waited for
+the soldiers to resume the march. All day long he followed them as
+closely as he dared, but early in the second evening he made bold to
+draw up to the rear rank and plodded along behind it until they halted
+for rest. Suddenly the lad felt a firm hand on his shoulder. He found
+his uncle frowning down upon him.
+
+"'What are you doing here?' demanded the uncle severely. 'Home with
+you as fast as you can go!'
+
+"'But, uncle, I wish to be a soldier. I am little but I am strong.
+See, I have marched a day and a night and you, my uncle, are weary,
+while Remi is still fresh as the morning flowers.'
+
+"'Yes, but what can you do in the Army, my Remi?'
+
+"'I can fight,' answered the child simply, whereat the uncle shrugged
+his shoulders in token of surrender.
+
+"At first the officers were for sending the lad home, but he was
+making himself so useful in many little ways, and his patriotism was
+so deep and true that he finally was permitted to remain.
+
+"What most disturbed Remi was that he had no rifle. The soldiers
+laughed at him when he demanded one, so he determined to get one for
+himself at the first opportunity.
+
+"By this time they were well within sound of the big guns. The sound
+reminded him of a distant thunderstorm. It grew louder as the hours
+passed and the men neared the front. All understood what the sound
+meant. To Remi that distant roar was the sweetest music he ever had
+heard.
+
+"The Territorials finally were halted in a shell-torn village for a
+brief rest. Men were urgently needed at the front, and Remi's
+companions soon entered a communicating trench that began under a
+house in the village, and started for the firing line, a short
+distance from the German trenches. Remi was sternly ordered to remain
+behind. This order nearly broke his heart and, when he more fully
+realized that he had been left behind, he sat down and gave way to,
+bitter tears.
+
+"A peculiar whistling sound in the air suddenly attracted his
+attention. The strange sound grew louder. He stood up. Then, with a
+mighty crash and roar, the earth about him rose up and darkness
+overwhelmed him. A German shell had landed fairly in the village
+street hard by and half buried the child in the wreckage. Remi,
+bruised and with clothing torn, dug himself out practically unharmed.
+He shook his fist in the direction of the German lines.
+
+"'The Boches!' he breathed, clenching both fists. 'I _must_ have a
+rifle. Having none, I am good for nothing.'
+
+"For a few moments he stood observing the stretcher men gathering up
+those who had been wounded in the explosion. He did not quail at sight
+of the maimed forms before him--he was unafraid, but his childish face
+drew down into hard lines that made him look years older. He knew now
+that he must join his company and fight for France. After what he had
+seen nothing should hold him back. Perhaps once at the front he might
+find a gun. Remi tried to enter the communicating trench, but was
+stopped by a sentry. He was still undaunted. It was the odor of
+cooking that finally led to the solution of his problem. He followed
+his nose, as the saying goes, because he was hungry. He found the
+cooks at work, as he learned, preparing food to be carried to the men
+in the front-line trench. The boy promptly offered his services to
+help carry in the food. You see, Remi used his head.
+
+"'What nursery do you belong to?' jeered the mess sergeant.
+
+"'Thirty-first Territorials, Company C,' answered the lad promptly,
+his quick reply bringing a laugh in which the mess sergeant joined
+heartily.
+
+"'All right, take a load of coffee and follow the leader, but if you
+spill so much as a drop of it you'll face a firing squad at daybreak.'
+
+"Two heavy containers filled with hot coffee, suspended from a yoke
+that fitted over the shoulders, were placed on the lad. The soldiers
+expected to see him collapse under the heavy load, but Remi stood up
+very straight and awaited the command to go forward. He was stronger
+than they thought he was. The journey through the dark trenches was a
+long one, made thrilling by the Germans, who were trying to drop
+shells into them as the food was coming up to the front line. The
+'chow' carriers, however, arrived safely at Company C's station and
+Remi had every drop of coffee that he had started out with.
+
+"'Well, here I am,' he announced loudly. 'Remi wants a gun, he wants
+it right away, and then he wants to see a Boche.'
+
+"'You'll see him sooner than you expect if you don't lower your
+voice,' rebuked a soldier.
+
+"At that moment a star-shell shot high up into the air and, bursting,
+flooded the space between the French and German lines with a brilliant
+light. Remi peered over the top of the parapet and across the 'No
+Man's Land' of which he had so often heard, over its barbed-wire
+entanglements and on to the parapets of the German trenches.
+
+"'Why do they do that?' he questioned.
+
+"'To see if any of our patrols are out there nosing about. You see, we
+send out night patrols to find out what the enemy is doing,' he was
+told.
+
+"'I, too, shall be a night patrol,' declared the lad confidently.
+
+"Unmindful of the desperate chance he was taking, Remi, watching his
+opportunity, slipped over the top of the French trench and began
+crawling toward the enemy lines. He did not know where the openings in
+the wire entanglements were located, but, being small, he was able to
+crawl under. Now and then he saw other figures slinking about out
+there, but he took good care that they should not see him, and, when
+another star shell was fired, he flattened himself on the ground, face
+downward, and thus avoided detection. So intent was he, however, in
+watching for enemy patrols that he actually bumped into the parapet of
+the German trench before he knew it. The boy flattened himself on the
+ground and listened. He heard low-toned conversation mingled with
+German snores in the trench, and sniffed contemptuously. Raising a
+hand to pull himself up to the top of the sandbags, he struck
+something sharp. It was the point of a bayonet. Remi's hand crept
+cautiously along and the lad barely escaped an exclamation, for here,
+right in his hand, was a German rifle aimed toward his own lines,
+ready to be fired at his beloved French comrades.
+
+"Cautiously drawing the weapon over the parapet, he caressed it
+affectionately, then started to crawl back toward his own lines with
+his precious find.
+
+"'At last Remi has a rifle, and none shall take it from him,' he
+muttered triumphantly. 'See what I have!' he cried after having been
+challenged and hauled into his own trench. 'I took it from the
+thickheads over there. I--' He said no more, for his comrades were
+hugging him delightedly. They hurried the child off to the captain of
+his company, who, after listening to the story, embraced Remi.
+
+"'Ah, you are a true Frenchman,' cried the officer. 'Keep
+the gun and use it for our beloved France.'
+
+"'I will,' promised Remi solemnly.
+
+"Two nights later he stole out and fetched back five more German
+rifles. By this time the officers began to realize that the boy must
+be taken seriously. From that night on almost every night found the
+intrepid lad skulking about over 'No Man's Land,' many times with the
+enemy's machine gun fire snapping about his ears, but to which he gave
+not the slightest heed. Remi truly seemed to bear a charmed life.
+
+"One night after his company had returned to the front-line trench,
+after a night's rest in 'billets,' he went out with the patrol, as
+usual, but with a new plan in mind. By now he knew the arrangement of
+the German trenches almost as well as did the men who occupied them.
+There were ten in the patrol, and so great was the confidence of the
+men in him that they virtually permitted Remi to act as their leader.
+The patrol carried no rifles, only revolvers and stout clubs, like
+policemen's night sticks. When the lad ordered the men to secret
+themselves in a shell crater, they obeyed willingly.
+
+"Remi reached the German trenches, along which he crept with ears and
+eyes on the alert.
+
+"'Who goes!' came a sharp, low-spoken command in German. At that
+instant a German rose from the ground, where he had been crouching,
+apparently watching the crawling figure of the little Frenchman. Remi
+rose at the same time, a Boche bayonet pressing against his stomach.
+
+"When the German sentinel discovered that the 'man' confronting him
+was only a child, he threw back his head and laughed silently, his
+bulky form shaking with merriment. That laugh cost the Boche his
+liberty. Like a flash little Remi swept the bayonet aside and jerked
+the rifle from the sentry's hands. He sprang back and pointed the
+rifle at his amazed adversary.
+
+"'Now march!' he commanded in a low, sharp tone. Straight to the shell
+crater the little Frenchman drove his prisoner, thence sent the
+captive to the French trenches with an escort. He then returned to the
+German trench. As he thought it over the situation became clear to
+him. The Germans had placed the sentry outside the trench to keep
+watch while they slept, the night being a quiet one, neither side
+having fired a shot since sundown. Knowing exactly what he wished to
+do, the boy began cautiously removing the rifles from the parapet,
+placing them on the ground in front of the trench. He accomplished his
+purpose without disturbing the snores of the Boches.
+
+"Having secured the enemy's rifles, Remi crept back to the shell hole,
+where his comrades were anxiously awaiting his return.
+
+"'Come,' he urged. 'We shall now capture the stupid fellows. They
+sleep, the thickheads. Their rifles I have taken, their heads our
+clubs shall find. All shall have the big headache when we have
+finished with them.'
+
+"The men of the patrol were amazed. They scrambled from the shell
+hole, Remi already having explained what he proposed to do, ready and
+eager for action. With the child in the lead they crept up to the
+German trench. The Boches slept on, not a man was awake there. The
+patrol spread out a little and gripped their clubs, for to use
+revolvers would be to arouse the whole German line and start their
+rifles, machine guns and artillery all going.
+
+"'Now!' cried the little leader.
+
+"The patrol sprang into the trench, Remi leading, encouraging his men
+as they fought their way along with their stout clubs, the boy having
+lost his when he slipped into the trench. He could plainly hear the
+whacks of the clubs as the patrol brought them down on the heads of
+the enemy, mingled with German growls and pleas for mercy, all of
+which brought joy to the soul of little Remi.
+
+"'Kamerad! Kamerad!' came cries along the length of the trench. This,
+you children understand, is what the Boches say when they have had
+enough.
+
+"'Stop their noise! They'll have their whole army down on us. Over the
+top and home with them as fast as you can. Gather up the rifles and
+take them in,'" commanded the boy.
+
+Prodded by the handy clubs, such of the Germans as had survived the
+terrible beating willingly clambered over the top and were quietly
+driven across 'No Man's Land' to the French trenches. Seventy-five
+prisoners were taken in that raid, planned and executed by the
+fearless little French boy.
+
+[Illustration: "NOW MARCH!" HE COMMANDED.]
+
+"The amazement of his comrades in Company C was beyond the power of
+words to express. What was better still, the raid was productive of
+much more than prisoners and rifles. It proved to be the most
+important raid so far made on that sector, for information was
+obtained from the prisoners that proved of great value to the French
+army.
+
+"A few days later the Territorials went back to their billets for
+rest. On the morning following their arrival there, Company C was
+called out with many other troops for review. Remi thought this was a
+queer thing to do. He was puzzled and startled when his name was
+called out as he stood in a rear rank. He was ordered to report to the
+colonel of the regiment, who stood with his aides facing the lines of
+soldiers, the latter at attention now. The heart of the little
+soldier, for once, was filled with fear. He felt certain that the
+colonel was going to send him home.
+
+"Approaching the stern-looking officer, Remi halted, came stiffly to
+attention and saluted with precision. The colonel gravely answered the
+little fellow's salute. Remi looked very small and childish beside the
+commanding figure of his colonel, and he was very much embarrassed at
+being so singled out.
+
+"'Remi, soldier of France, the Army and your country salute you,'
+began the colonel. 'The hearts of both are filled with pride at your
+brave deeds. You are an honor to the tri-color of our beloved France,
+under the folds of which you now are standing. Were it possible for me
+to do so I should make you no less than a captain. Your lack of years
+puts such a reward beyond my power to give. I can, however, and I am
+authorized so to do, to confer upon you the cross of war, given only
+to men of proved heroism. Remi, I decorate you with this cross,' said
+the colonel, stepping forward and pinning the medal to the little
+soldier's breast, his aides standing at attention during the
+impressive ceremony. 'Wear it with honor, my son, for our beloved
+country.'
+
+"The colonel then kissed the child on both cheeks.
+
+"And Remi the bold, very pale and trembling, stammered his thanks, sat
+down heavily, and, burying his face in his hands, burst into tears."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE HEROINE OF FORT MONTERE
+
+
+"I've been thinking about that boy Remi," said Joe Funk next day when
+the children had gathered on the lawn to listen to another story. "Of
+course, I know he was a hero, but wasn't he something of a baby to sit
+down and cry like that?"
+
+"Are you a baby, Joe?"
+
+"'Course I'm not."
+
+"Very good. You were wiping a tear out of the corner of one eye when I
+finished the story," returned Captain Favor dryly.
+
+"I--I guess you are right, sir. Please tell us another one like it."
+
+"Surely; but this one will be about a little French heroine named
+Mathilde. Mathilde was of nearly the same age as Remi, very diffident,
+like yourself." Joe blushed and hung his head. "She was as timid as
+she was diffident, but at heart she was a heroic little French girl.
+They are all like Remi and Mathilde over there.
+
+"This little woman lived in a French garrison town. Not more than two
+hundred soldiers were stationed there, all the others being at the
+front fighting the Germans. Quite near the village was an important
+fort, situated on the River Meuse. It was called Fort Montere and was
+very carefully guarded by these soldiers.
+
+"The fort was situated about a mile from the village on a rise of
+ground. It was the custom of the soldiers there to spend a good part
+of their days in the village, never dreaming that they were in the
+slightest danger, but the Germans were nearer than they thought.
+
+"One night--it was not far from morning, then--two companies of
+mounted Germans rode up to the sleeping village, which they
+surrounded. The commanding officer sent an aide to the mayor, ordering
+him to see to it that not a person left his home on pain of instant
+death. The mayor refused to betray his people or the soldiers on the
+hill. The aide shot him then and there. That was nothing new for a
+German officer to do. Many worse acts than that have they committed. I
+know, for I have fought them, and I have seen many things. The people
+were then notified that disobedience meant further that the village
+would be burned.
+
+"Not one of the villagers was bold enough to try to warn the French
+garrison of the peril that awaited them, for it was plain that the
+Germans were planning to lay in wait for the Frenchmen when they came
+to the village on the following morning.
+
+"Soon German soldiers began entering the houses, one soldier to each
+house, in which he took his station, cowering the occupants by
+terrible threats.
+
+"Little Mathilde, when she heard the soldier assigned to their home
+bang on the door with the butt of his rifle, fled to the kitchen,
+where she stood listening and watching. She nearly cried out when the
+soldier thrust the bayonet of his rifle at her father, and all the
+resentment of her race at such injustice rose up within her.
+
+"'I shall save them,' she breathed.
+
+"Mathilde slipped out through the kitchen door into the walled garden,
+and, climbing the wall, peered over. She could see German horsemen and
+German infantrymen everywhere, the moonlight flashing on their helmets
+and rifles as they moved rapidly about. How she should be able to get
+over the wall without discovery she did not know. A heavy black cloud
+at this moment drifted across the sky, hiding the face of the moon for
+a few moments, and when the cloud had passed Mathilde was no longer on
+the garden wall. She lay prone on the ground in a field on the
+opposite side of the wall. Horsemen were all about her. Now and then a
+horse narrowly missed stepping on her, and those Uhlans must have
+wondered that night why their horses were so skittish.
+
+"Every time she saw an opening the little heroine would dart ahead;
+each time a cloud passed between earth and moon she gained a little
+distance. Once a Uhlan's horse jumped clear over her and kicked
+viciously at her after it had landed on its feet. You see, the grass
+in the fields was high, there being no men to cut it. Had it not been
+for the grass, Mathilde never could have accomplished what she did.
+
+"At last she was clear of them, and then how she did run; she fairly
+flew up the hill, stopping only when a French sentry halted her to
+demand what she wanted.
+
+"'I would speak with your captain,' panted Mathilde.
+
+"The sentry laughed.
+
+"'Think you my captain sits awake all night that he may receive calls
+from the villagers?' he demanded.
+
+"'But,' begged the girl, 'the Uhlans have come. They are even now in
+the houses that they may come out and shoot you down when you go to
+the village tomorrow.'
+
+"'You are dreaming, my pretty miss. Go back to your sleep. It is a
+nightmare you are telling me. Return and dream no more.'
+
+"Mathilde begged and pleaded, to the great amusement of the sentry.
+The child grew angry. She stamped and raged. Then she adopted a new
+plan. Throwing herself on the ground the little girl rolled and
+screamed and screamed.
+
+"'Stop it! You'll wake the garrison,' he commanded.
+
+"'That is what Mathilde is trying to do,' answered the girl, then
+screamed louder than ever, and the sentry turned out the corporal's
+guard. The corporal sent a messenger to the village to see if the
+child was right.
+
+"'If you believe me not, look yonder in the valley,' exclaimed the
+girl, impatiently. 'What see you?'
+
+"'Nothing. Wait! I see the moonlight glistening on something, I should
+say on a tin sign on a tree.'
+
+"Mathilde laughed ironically. 'It is indeed a sign, a bad sign,
+monsieur Corporal. What you see is the moonlight reflected on the
+helmet of a German Uhlan. Ha! Now believe you the little Mathilde?'
+
+"'Call the captain,' commanded the corporal.
+
+"The commanding officer came hurrying out. He questioned the child and
+ere he had finished the messenger came running back.
+
+"'The Germans are in force in the village,' cried the messenger. 'They
+hide in the houses and their sentries guard the approaches to the
+village.
+
+"'Summon the garrison to arms!' commanded the captain. 'You are a
+noble child, Mathilde.'
+
+"While a small force was left to guard the fort the others of the
+garrison went down and surrounded the village. They surprised and
+captured the sentries without firing a shot. These prisoners were
+taken to the fort and locked up, after which the French in the village
+fired a volley into the air. As they expected, the Prussians guarding
+the houses rushed out and began shooting, but coming from the lighted
+houses into the darkness of the early morning, their eyes were not
+keen and only one volley from the French was necessary to fill the
+Germans with fear. The Germans very soon laid down their arms and
+surrendered. While some of the invaders were wounded, no one was
+killed. The entire German force was captured and marched, humiliated,
+to the fort on the hill.
+
+"Next day, when the villagers came to a realization of what Mathilde
+had done, a purse was made up, everyone giving of his little savings.
+This purse was presented to the child by the captain, in the presence
+of all his officers and many of his soldiers.
+
+"Mathilde's eyes were bright. She held the bag of money in her arms
+for a moment, then, kissing it, placed it in the hands of the captain.
+
+"'And I, monsieur le Capitaine, give it to our beloved France. She
+needs it more than does the Little Mathilde, and with it Mathilde
+sends her love to the brave poilus of her beautiful France.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FRANCOIS OUTWITS THE PRUSSIANS
+
+
+"This morning I shall tell you what little Francois did to the
+Germans, as well as what the Germans did to Francois," began Captain
+Favor at a following sitting on the lawn. "Joe, you will be thrilled
+when you hear the story of the desperate chances this little French
+boy of twelve took for his country.
+
+"He, like all of his youthful friends, was a noble fellow and a hero,
+quick-witted and very bright. You would soon learn, were you in
+France, how keen and clever these French children are. Their wits have
+been greatly sharpened since the war began. But to our story--.
+
+"The Prussians had reached a point on the west bank of the River
+R----, a narrow stream some distance back and to the left of the
+battle front. On the right side of the river, a few miles from it, was
+the little village in which Francois lived. A detachment of French
+infantry had arrived at the town, having come there on word that the
+Germans were threatening the village.
+
+"'Where are the Prussians?' demanded the captain of the mayor. He was
+eager to get at them.
+
+"'On the other side of the river. Other French detachments have driven
+them away twice, but each time the Boches return. We have not seen
+them here in several days now,' the mayor informed him.
+
+"'I must know their exact location and the size of their force. I
+cannot send one of my own soldiers. Have you a man in the village who
+can pass the lines and obtain the information I seek?'
+
+"'I fear there are none, sir,' replied the mayor.
+
+"Francis, who had been an eager listener to this conversation,
+stepped forward at this juncture.
+
+"'I will go, monsieur le Capitaine,' he said.
+
+"'Ah! You know where they are?'
+
+"'No, sir, but I know the country for many miles.'
+
+"'But the Germans will catch you, and if they do you will be shot. I
+cannot permit one so young as you are to sacrifice himself.'
+
+"Francois smiled. 'I have a grandmother living in the other village
+and she is sick. Should a lad not be permitted to visit his
+grandmother who is ill?' he asked.
+
+"The French captain saw the point and smiled. 'Go, then, if you will,
+but be careful. If you succeed you truly will be a hero, my lad.'
+
+"'Francois will find the Boches,' was the boy's confident reply.
+
+"Without waiting for the captain to change his mind the lad set out
+and was soon out of sight of the village. Reaching the river, he
+crept along the bank until he found the bridge he was looking for.
+Over this he crawled on hands and knees, and, reaching the other side
+of the river, he dodged along until he came to the village where the
+Prussians were supposed to be. Francois halted at a farmhouse where he
+was known. The farmer's wife was feeding the pigs, and she did not see
+him until he said:
+
+"'Where are the Boches?'
+
+"'Francois! What do you here?' she exclaimed.
+
+"'I come to see my grandmother. But I see none of the enemy.'
+
+"'Unhappy child, there are thousands of them over yonder. Do not go
+on, I beg of you. You surely will be shot.'
+
+"'I go to see my grandmother. Good day, madame.' Francois plodded on
+across the fields in the direction indicated by the farmer's wife.
+Suddenly he saw a troop of Prussian cavalry approaching him at a
+gallop.
+
+"'Halt!' commanded the captain of the troop when they drew up near the
+boy. 'What do you here?'
+
+"'Walking, sir. I go to see my grandmother who is ill.'
+
+"The Prussian laughed. 'Do you not know that the villagers have been
+ordered to remain at home and that he who disobeys this order will be
+shot?' questioned the commander, sternly.
+
+"'Ah, sir, that is well for the grown men and women, but for children
+who go to see their sick grandmothers--'
+
+"'The order is for all. About face! March! You will be shot for your
+disobedience.'
+
+"'But I must see my grandmother,' insisted the lad. 'She is ill, I
+tell you.'
+
+"Two soldiers swung him about and marched him to their camp. As he
+neared the camp he saw many cannon and machine guns, large numbers of
+cavalrymen and infantry. He estimated as best he could how many of
+them there were. He saw, too, that the cannon were being placed so
+their muzzles pointed toward the river. Francois nodded wisely.
+
+"'It is to shoot over to our side of the river,' he said to himself.
+'One would not think they could shoot so far as our village. But they
+shall find our fine French cannon can shoot farther.'
+
+"His reflections were broken in upon rudely when he was thrust into
+what proved to be the guardhouse. In reality he was _thrown_ in by the
+two soldiers who had picked him up and sent him sprawling on the
+floor. 'What less could one expect from a Boche?' he muttered. For
+aught he knew, he soon would get worse. A sentry was posted at the
+door and Francois was informed that if he tried to escape he would be
+shot then and there.
+
+"The guard house also was used to store equipment in. There were, as
+he observed, many rifles stacked in rows and heaps of knapsacks,
+helmets and blankets. The only light in the cell-like room into which
+he had been thrust came in through a narrow window high up and far
+out of his reach, a window small like those in a prison cell.
+
+"It was not a pleasant situation in which little Francois found
+himself, but what fears he had were for the people of his village and
+the French troops there. He already had used his eyes to good
+advantage, and now had a very clear idea of the size of the German
+force and its equipment. 'I shall make my escape and hasten back to
+tell our brave captain what I have seen,' he promised himself.
+
+"Escape, however, was not so easy. The window was too high by several
+feet for him to reach and to go out through the door meant that he
+surely would be shot or bayoneted. His bright little eyes swept the
+room and instantly he saw a way of escape.
+
+"'The bags!' he exclaimed, and straight-way began piling the knapsacks
+and blankets underneath the window. The pile grew slowly. At last it
+was high enough to permit the boy to reach the window sill with his
+finger tips by standing on tip-toe on the pile he had built up.
+
+"He drew himself up easily, for Francois was strong, and peered out.
+
+"'It is well that Francois is little, for the window is small even for
+a dog to squeeze through,' he muttered.
+
+"Peering out to see what lay before him, he saw a garden in the rear
+of the building and beyond that fields with hedges and bushes, but
+there was not a soldier in sight on that side. The Prussians were busy
+on the other side of the building preparing for action.
+
+"'All is well,' said Francois. A new idea came to him. He would take a
+German rifle and helmet with him as souvenirs and to prove to the
+French captain that Francois really had been in the camp of the
+Prussians. He helped himself to a rifle and a helmet, both of which he
+threw out into the garden. After a keen, sweeping glance about, the
+boy crawled out head first and let himself go. Francois nearly broke
+his neck in the fall to the ground, landing as he did on his head and
+shoulders. For a moment he lay where he had fallen, then staggered to
+his feet, dizzy and a little weak from the jolt. He started away
+without, as yet, having a clear idea as to which was the right
+direction for him to take. The boy dodged from bush to bush and,
+reaching a hedge, bored his way through it and skulked along the other
+side of it, dragging the rifle behind him, the German helmet tightly
+clutched under one arm.
+
+"'Where am I? Ah! The village is to the left. I must turn back and
+start again,' he decided. This was risky, but there seemed no other
+course for him to follow. Retracing his steps for some distance he
+finally struck off in the right direction. When he came in sight of
+the stream he discovered that the bridge was so far away that he could
+not hope to reach it without being discovered.
+
+"'But Francois can swim,' he told himself. 'He shall yet fool the
+Prussians. Look out! There they go!' German soldiers already were
+running toward the bridge, and he knew that his escape had been
+discovered. He believed, however, that he was far enough away so they
+would not see him.
+
+"Francois swung the rifle over his shoulder and secured it there by
+its carrying strap, jammed the helmet tightly over his head and rolled
+down the bank into the river. The water was warm and the child was
+full of joy that he had outwitted his captors.
+
+"Fortunately the river was not wide at this point, and on the opposite
+side was plenty of cover in the way of trees and bushes. But discovery
+came at about the time he reached the middle of the river. The sun,
+reflected from his bright metal helmet, had attracted the attention of
+the soldiers. A bullet splashed in the water to the right of him.
+
+"'Huh!' he grunted. 'The Boches cannot shoot. Francois could shoot as
+good as that with his eyes shut. Bah! Shoot again.' O-u-c-h! A bullet
+had gone through the helmet, so low that it raked the top of his head.
+It felt like a red-hot iron being drawn across the top of his head,
+and made his head swim dizzily.
+
+"'It was a chance shot,' observed the boy. 'No Boche could shoot so
+true on purpose. I shall yet fool them.'
+
+"Reaching the opposite shore he ran up the bank, not trying to conceal
+himself there. A bullet struck him in the shoulder, spun him around
+and laid him flat on the ground. He was on his feet almost instantly,
+shaking a fist at the Germans.
+
+"'Shoot! I fear not your bullets,' he shouted. The boy then ran
+skulking from shrub to shrub until he reached the forest, into which
+he dashed. Both wounds were by now bleeding freely and his face was
+covered with blood from the scalp wound. He dashed on, not wholly
+certain of his direction, but, reaching the other side of the forest,
+found himself not far out of his way. From then on he trotted, keeping
+himself up by sheer pluck, for he was getting weak.
+
+"Francois saw nothing more of the enemy, and finally he staggered into
+his village. A sentry, recognizing the German helmet, halted him some
+distance away, and after questioning him sent the lad to the captain.
+
+"'Here, monsieur le Capitaine, see what I have taken from the Boches,'
+he cried, upon espying the commander. 'Thick-heads, all of them! It is
+easy to fool the Boches.'
+
+"'But, my boy, you are wounded. What has happened?' demanded the
+captain.
+
+"'It is nothing; it was an accident. The Prussians hit me by mistake.'
+
+"The officer called a surgeon and while the lad's wounds were being
+dressed Francois related to the captain all that he had seen in the
+Prussian camp.
+
+"'And they plan to come here soon,' he added.
+
+"'What makes you think that?' asked the commander.
+
+"'Because they have made the villagers stay in their homes. For what
+reason other than that do they wish to keep the villagers in? Again,
+they are fast making preparations to go into battle!'
+
+"'You are a clever boy and a brave one,' cried the captain,
+enthusiastically. 'You may keep the rifle. You will be proud some day
+that you own it.'
+
+"'I am proud now, monsieur le Capitaine, but I shall be more proud
+after you have whipped the Boches.'
+
+"'That is good, but what can we do to reward you?'
+
+"'Whip them quickly, that I may go to see my sick grandmother. I am
+much put out, sir, that I did not see her.'
+
+"There was loud laughter at this, and at the earnest way in which it
+was said, but Francois never changed the sober expression of his face.
+
+"'It shall be done. Reinforcements are coming and early this evening
+we shall go out to meet the Prussians. I promise you that you shall
+soon see your grandmother, Francois.' And he did, for, acting upon his
+information, the French forces were enabled to inflict heavy losses
+upon the Germans and drive them from that part of the country. A few
+days later Francois made the trip again, and this time did see his
+dear grandmother, but she was not so ill but that she could work in
+her garden.
+
+"And that, my dear little friends, is the story of another little hero
+of France," concluded Captain Favor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SACRIFICE OF LITTLE PIERRE
+
+
+"There are many like Francois among those youthful patriots," began
+Captain Favor when his little friends had gathered about him on
+another occasion to listen to stories about the Children of France.
+"They value neither their own safety nor their lives; they are willing
+and eager to make any sacrifice if by so doing they can serve their
+beloved France ever so little.
+
+"One finds this spirit everywhere. It is one of the few bright and
+beautiful things to be found in the great world war, though many of
+the deeds of heroism of the French children will never be known. The
+little heroes have made the supreme sacrifice and their lips, sealed
+in death, can never tell of their deeds.
+
+"That you may the better understand the spirit of patriotism that
+fills the hearts of all these little French children, I will tell you
+the story of little Pierre," said the captain. "This is not a long
+story, but a more heroic one never has been told.
+
+"While Pierre was twelve he was small for his age, but sturdy, and he
+loved his country with a fervor that you children of America also
+should have in your hearts."
+
+"We have," spoke up Joe Funk.
+
+"Yes, I think that all of you have. I wish you to keep it, to keep the
+fires of patriotism burning and never let them grow dim. As for
+Pierre, I will now tell you of the noble sacrifices he made for
+France.
+
+"Pierre lived with his mother in a small French village at the time
+the Germans entered the town. Being hungry, as usual, they intruded
+into the homes of the villagers and helped themselves to whatever they
+could find, in some instances after first demanding that food and
+money be turned over to them. The villagers dared not disobey nor
+even raise a voice in protest.
+
+"A captain and several men entered the home of little Pierre, where
+there was a wounded French sergeant that the lad's mother had been
+nursing and whom the little boy loved very dearly. The sergeant's
+wounds were just beginning to heal, but so weak was he that he could
+scarcely stand without someone to lean upon. When the Germans burst in
+the wounded man was filled with rage, but he knew better than to
+attempt to thwart them.
+
+"'Give us food, all that you have. Hold back anything and you die,"
+bellowed the Prussian captain, smiting the table with the flat of his
+saber.
+
+"Pierre's mother was stout hearted. 'We have only bread and cheese,'
+she said. 'You may take it if you will, but I give not to a Prussian,
+not even so much as a crumb. Take it if you will, for you are strong
+while I am but a weak woman.'
+
+"'Woman, you speak truly; we are strong, and we shall take, but for
+this resistance you shall suffer. See what a Prussian does to such
+dogs of French as oppose him!'
+
+"With that the captain struck Pierre's mother with the flat of his
+hand, hurling her clear across the room. She staggered against the
+wall and sank moaning to the floor.
+
+"The captain evidently had overlooked the wounded French sergeant, who
+lay on a cot in the shadows, and his men were too fully occupied with
+helping themselves to food to take heed of anything else. As for
+little Pierre, the lad stood trembling with rage. He was not afraid,
+but he was filled with righteous indignation.
+
+"The sergeant's eyes were blazing as he fixed his gaze on the face of
+the German captain.
+
+"'You Prussian fiend!' shouted the sergeant.
+
+"'What!' The captain wheeled like a flash.
+
+"'For that you die! And ere the German could utter another word, the
+soldier leveled his revolver at the officer and fired. There followed
+a loud report, and Pierre's mother was avenged, for the Prussian
+captain lay dead on the floor.
+
+"For a few seconds following the shot the Prussian soldiers stood
+mute, then, with one accord, they threw themselves upon the helpless
+sergeant who already had twice fired his revolver at them, but without
+effect. They beat him cruelly and dragged him out and before another
+captain, to whom they told the story of what had occurred in Pierre's
+home.
+
+"The unfortunate sergeant was ordered to be taken to the village
+square, where a dozen old men of the village were being held by the
+Germans under sentence of death on the flimsy charge of having
+resisted the Prussians. One by one these unhappy Frenchmen were being
+lined up before a firing squad and shot down. The sergeant, who, of
+course, was to share a like fate, was reserved for the last that he
+might have more time for fear to sink into his heart while watching
+the execution of the others. The sergeant neither asked for nor
+expected mercy. Well did he know what the penalty was for such an act
+as his, and he was willing to die for his country as well as for the
+sake of the woman who had nursed him through so many dark days of
+suffering.
+
+"They tied him to a tree while engaged in their cruel work of shooting
+the accused old men, where the sergeant hung weak from loss of blood,
+for, under their rough handling his wounds had reopened.
+
+"Little Pierre, his eyes large and troubled, had followed his friend
+to the square and stood sympathetically beside him.
+
+"'What, can I do? Tell me quickly,' urged the boy.
+
+"'Fetch me a cup of water. I am burning with the fever again. One
+drink of water and I shall have the strength to die bravely. Those
+Prussian dogs shall not see so much as the quiver of an eyelid,' said
+the sergeant.
+
+"Pierre slipped into a house and brought a cup of water which he
+placed at the lips of his friend. The sergeant had taken one swallow
+when a captain dashed the cup to the ground. He swung and struck
+Pierre a cruel blow across the cheek with the flat of his saber,
+laying the lad prostrate. Pierre staggered to his feet, eyes blazing,
+an angry red welt showing where he had been struck.
+
+"'To give aid or comfort to the friends of France is to die!' hissed
+the German captain. 'For this you too shall die! But first you shall
+see how it goes with the others.'
+
+"'I fear you not,' retorted the child, pluckily. 'I too can die for
+France with a brave heart, and so you shall die one day at the hands
+of my dear countrymen, but with a coward's heart.'
+
+"'Ah! You are brave,' jeered the captain.
+
+"'I am a Frenchman,' answered Pierre, stoutly. 'A Frenchman does not
+fear to die.'
+
+"'Good! For that I shall give you a chance to live and you shall come
+with us and fight for the Fatherland," declared the captain.
+
+"'Bah! That for the Fatherland!' The lad snapped his fingers in the
+Prussian's face. Pierre's courage, instead of further angering the
+German, appeared to amuse him.
+
+"'We shall see. It is for you to shoot your friend the sergeant. Shoot
+him and you shall have your freedom and your life. It is well that a
+Frenchman should be put to death by his own. Can you shoot?'
+
+"'I can.'
+
+"'Then here is a rifle. It is loaded. Shoot and shoot true and freedom
+is yours, for yourself and the old woman yonder who insulted the
+officer of my Emperor.' The captain extended the rifle, butt first,
+toward the boy. Pierre was outwardly calm, but within his heart a
+storm was raging. Rather to the surprise of the spectators, he took
+the weapon, turned it over curiously in his hands, for it was the
+first German rifle he had handled, examined the mechanism of the lock,
+then raised his eyes to the motionless figure of the French sergeant.
+
+"Pierre smiled and a new light sprang into his eyes.
+
+"'Well?' demanded the captain impatiently. 'Do you shoot or do you
+die?'
+
+"'I shoot!' cried the little French boy, his voice high pitched and
+shrill.
+
+"Pierre turned like a flash and, raising the weapon, pointed it
+straight at the German captain and pulled the trigger.
+
+"No report followed. The rifle had missed fire. And ere Pierre could
+make another try the weapon was snatched from his hands and a blow
+from the captain's fist again laid him low.
+
+"'Dog!' raged the Prussian officer. 'Now you _shall_ die, and yonder
+French sergeant shall be a witness to your punishment. Strip the
+blinder from that man's eyes! Bind this boy!'
+
+"'There is no need to bind me. I shall not run away. I am not afraid
+to die for France. I am sorry only that I did not kill you,' answered
+the lad stoutly. 'I am young--I can better be spared than others.'
+
+"There was no reply to this, but the soldiers were ordered to lead the
+child out into the center of the square.
+
+"'If you run you will be shot just the same,' warned the captain.
+
+"'A Frenchman never runs away,' was the spirited retort.
+
+"The firing squad took its place, eight men comprising the squad.
+
+"'Make ready! Take aim!'
+
+"Pierre faced them fearlessly, a smile on his face, his shoulders set
+well back, presenting a pathetic but brave little figure as he stood
+out there alone, facing death, but unafraid.
+
+"'Fire!'
+
+"'Vive la France!' shouted the lad, waving his cap over his head.
+
+"Eight rifles crashed in volley. And the little figure of brave Pierre
+crumpled down to the ground. He had died gloriously. He had died a
+man, despite his tender years.
+
+"Wheeling, the squad dispatched the sergeant in the same way and their
+desperate work was finished."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A LITTLE SOLDIER OF FRANCE
+
+
+The children were eagerly waiting to give the Captain a welcome when
+he limped out to meet his young friends on the lawn next morning.
+There were no tardy ones at these sittings, in fact so interested were
+they in the wonderful stories they were hearing, that they nearly
+always were ahead of time.
+
+"We shall begin at once with a story that I know will thrill you all,"
+said the Captain, as Joe Funk assisted him into his chair.
+
+"The little hero that I shall tell you about today is one of the most
+remarkable of the child patriots of France. I think you will agree
+with me in that after you have heard the story.
+
+"His name was Rene. Rene had been with the army for some time, though
+he was only fourteen years old, making himself useful in many ways and
+fighting when he had the opportunity, which was more than seldom. For
+valiant service he had been made a corporal, so you may know he
+was brave and courageous, for the French do not encourage children
+to join their army, much less do they give them men's work and
+responsibilities.
+
+"At the time to which I refer, the colonel of Rene's regiment had need
+of a man of courage and resource to carry certain important orders to
+the commanders in front-line trenches. This was early in the war when
+communication had not been worked out as scientifically as it has been
+since. For this duty the child offered his services.
+
+"'This mission, I need not tell you, will prove a most perilous one,'
+warned the colonel.
+
+"'I know it, my colonel. I am ready. I have but one life and that
+belongs to France.'
+
+"'Bravely spoken. Now take careful heed to what I have to say to you
+so that you forget not the slightest detail of it.' Rene was then
+given final and detailed orders added to which was an urgent request
+to be careful of himself, for his own sake as well as for that of his
+country.
+
+"After repeating his orders, showing that he had them well in mind,
+the lad left headquarters, his face radiant with joy at being
+entrusted with a mission such as this, a mission that would take him
+where he knew death would face him at every step. He had not far to go
+before reaching the zone of fire. Shells soon were bursting about him
+and machine-gun fire was sweeping the field with a perfect rain of
+steel.
+
+"'Bang away all you like,' jeered the little fellow. 'Your voices I
+have heard before, but the French have stronger and more deadly voices
+than have you.'
+
+"He finally arrived safely at the first trench. You understand he had
+been above ground all the time, while the fighters were in the
+trenches, where they had more protection. It was the over-fire that he
+was obliged to plod through, and you who have never seen a battle do
+not realize what a fierce thing this over-fire is. His orders having
+been safely delivered, Rene proceeded on his troubled way to the
+trench where he was to deliver the second orders.
+
+"The first part of this leg of the journey was more or less screened
+from the view of the enemy, but now a wide barren space, swept by
+shell fire, lay before him. It was almost certain death to venture
+into that open field. Rene knew it, but did not hesitate. It was not
+that he feared for his own life, but that he did not wish to lose it
+before he had fulfilled his mission.
+
+"For better protection the lad dropped on hands and toes and ran along
+like a dog, thus far untouched by bullets, though they were thick as a
+nest of liberated bumble bees about his head.
+
+"'The worst is about over now and I shall soon be in the trenches,'
+he told himself encouragingly. He already could see the tops of the
+helmets of the soldiers in the trenches.
+
+"A shell exploded close by at this juncture and a shell splinter
+struck him in the leg, leaving a wound. Rene rolled over on his back
+and grabbed the leg with both hands, then, with his first-aid bandage,
+bound the leg tightly above the wound so that he might not bleed to
+death. He was already much weakened from loss of blood.
+
+"Having done all he could for himself, Rene started off again,
+dragging himself along with great effort, determined to reach the
+trench and deliver his orders, which he finally succeeded in doing.
+
+"'You have been wounded. You shall not go on,' declared the commander
+after reading the orders and understanding fully what was still before
+the brave lad. 'You should go back to the hospital. I will send a man
+on to deliver the other orders.'
+
+"'Monsieur le Capitaine, I have been ordered to this duty. I must go
+on until I have fully obeyed my orders. Time enough for others to
+carry them after I am killed. But I shall not be--not until the orders
+are in the hands of the commanders in the trenches on this sector.'
+
+"'You cannot walk; you have lost much blood,' protested the captain.
+
+"'It matters not, sir; I can creep. That once was the only way I knew
+how to walk.'
+
+"'Then go, my brave lad, and God be with you.'
+
+"Rene saluted formally, though the effort of raising his hand sent
+shooting pains all through his body. He climbed laboriously from the
+trench and emerged into the bullet-swept plain once more. It was with
+a great effort that he even dragged himself along. He felt himself
+growing weaker with the moments. Every few yards he was compelled to
+lie over on his back for rest and to gain fresh strength for the next
+spurt. It required the most heroic courage for one in Rene's condition
+to go on. But he grimly stuck to it, creeping wearily along.
+
+"The end of the journey was now in sight, though the way still seemed
+long. No longer able to creep, the little messenger began to roll. It
+was slow progress and he suffered agonies, but every roll brought him
+that much nearer to his destination and the fulfillment of his
+mission. At last an officer in a front-line trench discovered him.
+Rene made a signal to the officer.
+
+"Just then another huge shell struck the ground near the boy and burst
+with a terrific crash and roar that shook the earth for a long
+distance all about. The brave child was again hit by a splinter and
+this time mortally wounded. He knew that the end was near and his
+thoughts went back to his parents, to his home in the little village
+which he had left to go to war only a short time before.
+
+"Rene roused himself with a supreme effort and again began to roll
+toward the trench.
+
+"Stretcher bearers, observing his plight, ran to his rescue,
+themselves unmindful of the storm of steel that was sweeping the plain
+back of the trenches. They tenderly picked the child up and bore him
+safely to the trench, where he was placed in a first-aid station in a
+bomb-proof dugout.
+
+"'Tell monsieur le Capitaine that I have orders for him--important
+orders,' gasped the little soldier. 'Tell him to come quickly, for I
+shall not long be able to tell him what I have to say.'
+
+"The captain, having been hurriedly summoned, hastened to the dugout.
+He gathered the dying lad tenderly in his arms, and, placing an ear
+close to the boy's lips, received from Rene the orders of the colonel,
+down to the last detail.
+
+"The final word of these orders was Rene's last. He died in the arms
+of the captain, who tenderly laid him down.
+
+"'Thus dies another hero of France,' murmured the officer, striding
+from the dugout, making no effort to hide the tears that were
+trickling down both cheeks.
+
+"This little hero, my friends, offers a lesson in courage and devotion
+that each of you will do well always to remember," said Captain Favor
+in conclusion. "Tomorrow I shall tell you another story, if the
+weather permits of my coming out here. Au revoir, little friends."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SAVED BY A CHILD'S WIT
+
+
+"This time I will tell you about a quick-witted little French girl,"
+said Captain Favor. "She was a stout-hearted little woman, full of
+spirit and as fearless as she was keen, as you shall see.
+
+"It is not only the French lads who are quick-witted and brave. The
+girls are fully as much so, and all are filled with the same wonderful
+spirit of patriotism and love of country, as you already have
+learned from the stories I have told you.
+
+"This little woman's name was Jeanne; she had just turned eleven years
+when the incidents I am about to relate occurred. For some time the
+news had been coming to the village in which she lived of the wicked
+deeds of a company of German lancers. These lancers were roving from
+village to village, stealing whatever they could lay their hands on,
+and mistreating the women and children. It was a terrible thing to do,
+but nothing new for the Prussians. As in other towns of which I have
+told you, all the able-bodied men of this village had gone to the war.
+
+"To guard against surprise the inhabitants of Jeanne's home town had
+placed watchers on the outskirts of the village that the people might
+be notified in advance of the approach of the enemy's detachments.
+
+"One afternoon the warning came, and, while expected, it was a shock
+to the people and their hearts were filled with fear. They closed and
+locked their doors, pulled down the shades and took refuge in their
+cellars. Not a person was to be seen in the streets; the village
+appeared to be deserted.
+
+"'The Prussians are coming!' was the startling cry that had sent the
+inhabitants flying to the cellars, after which a great silence reigned
+in the little place.
+
+"Soon after that a troop of Prussian lancers rode quietly into the
+village, alert for surprises, for they had confidently expected to see
+French soldiers ere this. Not a French soldier was in sight, so the
+invaders concluded there was nothing to fear. However, they decided to
+question some of the villagers.
+
+"The house that Jeanne lived in was the first one the lancers came to.
+Jeanne, like others, had taken to the cellar with her parents, where
+they remained for a long time, tremblingly awaiting the arrival of
+their enemies. Not a sound thus far having been heard, the family
+wondered if the Prussians had come and gone. They fervently hoped this
+were true.
+
+"'I will go and find out,' volunteered the little girl.
+
+"'It is not safe,' objected the mother. 'If they are still here and
+should discover you, all would not be well with you, my daughter. You
+might be killed. I cannot permit it.'
+
+"'Have no fears, mother; I will listen for every sound in the street
+and will go no further than the door. They shall neither see nor hear
+me.'
+
+"The mother gave a reluctant consent and Jeanne crept upstairs,
+stepped quietly to the door and unbolted it, intending to open the
+door a few inches and peer out.
+
+"At that instant the door was rudely forced open from the outside. A
+German officer and several men pushed their way in. The officer caught
+Jeanne in a listening attitude.
+
+"'Halt!' he commanded, the lances of his men thrust out so close to
+the little girl that it seemed as if they already had pierced her.
+'Listening, are you?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur,' she answered truthfully.
+
+"'Why?'
+
+"'That I might know if you had gone so I might once more go out to the
+street.'
+
+"The officer laughed.
+
+"'You have nothing to fear if you tell us the truth. We would have
+certain information from you, child.'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur.'
+
+"'If you do not truthfully answer all my questions, you and all the
+rest will be shot.'
+
+"'I do not fear you, sir. I will answer you well.'
+
+"'Good. Then tell me, are there any French soldiers here?'
+
+"'There are none here, sir.'
+
+"'Neither here nor elsewhere in the village?'
+
+"'There are none here, as I have said. I know not whether there are
+any in the village or not, for I have not seen any since a detachment
+passed through here two days ago.'
+
+"'Is this the truth?'
+
+"She looked at the officer with an expression of amazement that he
+should doubt her word.
+
+"'Come, I will show you; I will prove to you that what I say is the
+truth.'
+
+"'It is well,' answered the Prussian officer, now reassured. 'We will
+pass on. It is good that you have not lied to us, child,' he said.
+'It were better if all the French were so truthful, but, alas, they
+are not. Forward!'
+
+"The Prussians departed, Jeanne watching them from the door. 'No,
+there are no French soldiers here,' she chuckled. 'Perhaps there may be
+just outside the village. And if so, alas for the Prussians!'
+
+"A short distance beyond the village stood a large farmhouse in a vast
+yard, the latter being surrounded by a high stone wall. Within were
+trees and shade, so the place looking very attractive to the tired
+Prussians. Their commander ordered a halt and, opening the gate that
+led to the grounds, he ordered his men in for a rest. They tied their
+horses to trees and threw themselves down on the grass in great
+content.
+
+"The place seemed deserted, but that some one was about was evidenced
+when the gate through which they had entered was quietly closed and
+locked by no less a person than the little Jeanne herself. She had
+followed the Prussians at a distance, hoping to be able to give a
+signal to her friends if they might still be in the farmhouse, but,
+finding a better opportunity for serving them, had locked the lancers
+within the enclosure. Having done this, she ran as fast as her nimble
+feet would carry her for her own home.
+
+"The tired lancers lay down to sleep while their commander strolled up
+to the house and beat on the door with the hilt of his saber. To his
+amazement the door was suddenly jerked open and a French dragoon
+dragged him in by the collar. The commander was a prisoner.
+
+"A detachment of French soldiers were secreted in the house, where
+they had been waiting for some days for this very opportunity, knowing
+that the Prussians were headed that way. Yet, though the German
+commander had been deceived, little Jeanne had not told him an
+untruth. She knew the French soldiers had been at the farmhouse three
+days before, for she had taken food to them, but she did not know of
+her own knowledge that they still were there. If she did not tell the
+officer the whole truth it was because he had not asked her, and for
+the sake of her beloved France she would not volunteer information
+that would aid the Germans.
+
+"'Betrayed!' raged the Prussian when he saw how neatly he had been
+tricked. He groaned when a volley rang out from the house and several
+of his lancers fell.
+
+"His men made a frantic rush for their horses; then, when they
+discovered that the gate was locked and that they were caught, they
+threw up their hands and surrendered to the foe that they had not yet
+seen.
+
+"The French made everyone of the lancers a prisoner. Several had been
+wounded, but none was killed.
+
+"Credit was given to little Jeanne for placing the lancers in the
+hands of the French soldiers, for had she not done this the French
+would have attacked the Prussians in the open and might have lost many
+men in the fight that would have followed.
+
+"For her part in this fine capture little Jeanne in time received a
+letter from the President of the French Republic, thanking her in the
+name of France for her quick wit and for her heroism."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE CHILD DESPATCH BEARER
+
+
+"You already have heard of some of the heroic little despatch bearers
+of France," said Captain Favor. "I shall now tell you of little Henri,
+one of the bravest and most resourceful of them all.
+
+"Despatch carrying is a desperate business, all of it exposing the
+bearers to enemy fire at least part of the time, for most of the work
+of these brave men is in the open where the enemy can see them. Some
+go on foot, others on fast motorcycles. Ordinarily they travel in
+pairs, so that in case one be killed the other may take the message
+and hasten on with it to its destination. Henri, however, traveled
+alone.
+
+"The Germans, at some distance from the principal battle line and at
+one end of it, had advanced several miles into French territory, and,
+spreading out, had covered considerable ground. They were making
+themselves a nuisance, as they usually did, and a French force was
+sent in to drive them back. The French, too, had spread out and the
+officer in command, after becoming a little more familiar with
+conditions, had made his plans.
+
+"'Now,' said the French colonel, 'what I wish is a man of undoubted
+courage, familiar with all this surrounding country, to carry letters
+to the commanders of our various units.'
+
+"'I fear you will not find such a man,' answered one of his
+lieutenants. 'All the men of this section, of course, are fighting.'
+
+"'Young Henri can do it,' suggested another officer.
+
+"'A civilian who has been attached to the army unofficially for some
+few weeks.' Henri had made himself so useful that his presence with
+the army was not only permitted, but welcomed. While he was but
+thirteen years of age, he was very strong, alert and active. The
+colonel told his aide to summon the boy so the commander might look
+him over.
+
+"'Why do you follow the army?' demanded the colonel, after observing
+the boy critically.
+
+"'Our home has been destroyed by the Germans, my father has been taken
+prisoner by them and my sisters have fled to other provinces,' he
+answered simply. 'That is why I am trying to serve my country in every
+way I can.'
+
+"The colonel nodded approvingly.
+
+"'It is a most important mission and a very dangerous one on which I
+must send a man. Do you think you can go through with it?'
+
+"'Yes, sir.'
+
+"'You may fall into the hands of the Prussians. In that event what
+would you do with the letters I shall entrust to your care?'
+
+"'Swallow them, sir,' was the reply.
+
+"'Good! You will do. You are a real Frenchman and while you are a mere
+child, I have full confidence that you will somehow manage to carry
+out my orders.'
+
+"'I shall do my best, sir.'
+
+"'That is all that any man can do. Give careful heed to what I tell
+you.' The colonel gave Henri careful instructions, after which he
+handed the letters to the lad and bade him God-speed.
+
+"Henri set out quietly, slouching along with a carelessness not in
+keeping with his all-important mission. He was soon lost sight of in
+the undergrowth that covered many miles of territory in that section
+of the country, and that finally merged with a dense forest. The lad
+reasoned that the Germans would be found in this forest, as well as in
+the more open country, but somehow he must manage to get through their
+lines and reach the French on the other side. It was not an easy task,
+as he well knew, yet he was undaunted.
+
+"He was following a course close to the edge of the forest when all at
+once he saw a Prussian soldier just outside the forest line. The boy
+plunged deeper into the woods and was unseen and unheard by the
+soldier, who evidently was a sentry.
+
+"Later in the day Henri heard voices--German voices. By the sound he
+judged there must be a great many of them. He imagined he could hear
+commands.
+
+"'I must be close to a nest of them,' he muttered. 'I must find out
+about those fellows, for the commanders will wish to know about them.'
+Creeping cautiously ahead he came to the edge of a clearing, a vast
+open space where the timber had, he judged, been cut off some time
+since, and the brush growth that followed the cutting of the trees had
+by now been well trampled down by the Germans, who appeared to be
+making this out-of-the-way place a sort of headquarters for their
+operations. He was amazed at what he saw.
+
+"There, before Henri's eyes, was a small German army, all branches of
+the service being represented. His association with the French Army
+enabled him to observe very closely and understand what he saw. And in
+this instance his observation told him that the Prussians were
+preparing for battle; he knew, too, that the orders he was carrying
+had to do with the very preparations he was witnessing. After fully
+satisfying his curiosity Henri plunged again into the forest, using
+great caution and watching keenly for stray Prussians. Finally he
+reached the brush again, being now free of the forest itself.
+
+"'Halt!'
+
+"The command brought him up standing. He rarely had been caught
+napping, but drew a breath of relief when he saw that the sentry who
+had halted him was in the uniform of his own army.
+
+"'France!' was the boy's answer to the challenge. 'I have a letter for
+your commander.'
+
+"'Pass!'
+
+"Henri easily found his way to the commander's headquarters and
+delivered the letter intended for him.
+
+"'You are going further?' questioned the officer.
+
+"'Yes, sir. I have other orders to deliver.'
+
+"'You had better watch closely that you are not captured,' warned the
+commander. 'The country through which you go is full of Prussians, and
+they are ugly. Be cautious.'
+
+"Assuring the officer that he would use due caution, Henri went on his
+way, apparently without a care in the world. He was a most innocent
+appearing boy and it would be keen eyes indeed that would suspect him
+of being other than what he appeared, an irresponsible child.
+
+"Henri now began to see German uniforms on all sides. They were
+increasing in numbers.
+
+"'Henri never will get through, this with his letter,' grumbled the
+lad. 'I must act while there is yet time.' Crouching down and
+watching the Prussians a few moments, he finally drew the remaining
+letter from his blouse; he read it carefully several times, read it
+until he had memorized every word of it. Having done this, the child
+tore the letter in bits and, munching them thoroughly, calmly
+swallowed them with a great gulp.
+
+"'Ugh!' he grunted, making a wry face. 'That is not pleasant food, but
+if the Boches can read the letter now their eyes are sharp indeed.
+Henri carries his knowledge in his stomach. A queer place for
+knowledge, but a good place when there are Boches about. Now I shall
+be going.'
+
+"He did not get far. The lad was halted shortly after leaving his
+cover. Germans sprang up on all sides of him. He saw that he had
+stumbled into a nest of them and that there was no escape.
+
+"'What would you of me? I have done nothing,' cried the boy when he
+was roughly dragged before an officer. 'I go to my parents in yonder
+village.'
+
+"'Is it for that that you crawl along and hide yourself as a spy?'
+demanded the officer sternly.
+
+"'I saw the soldiers and I was afraid,' he whimpered.
+
+"'Take him away!' ordered the officer.
+
+"'Take me where? You can see I have nothing. I am but a poor peasant
+boy who could do no harm even if he would.'
+
+"'You are shamming. You are a spy and you should be shot. Search him!'
+commanded the officer.
+
+"They stripped the child, Henri, during the operation, weeping
+bitterly, but such tears as he shed were forced, yet they appeared
+real to the onlookers. His clothing was very thoroughly searched, the
+soldiers even tearing out the lining of his blouse and ripping his
+necktie apart to make certain that no despatches were concealed in
+them. Of course, they found nothing.
+
+"'You see, I have told the truth,' he whimpered, now addressing the
+officer. 'Please let me go to my parents.'
+
+"The officer laughed harshly.
+
+"'Lock him up. He is a fraud, and we shall yet find him to be such.
+The French resort to many tricks.'
+
+"Henri was placed in charge of a soldier, by whose side he trudged
+along, wiping his eyes frequently, apparently in great distress of
+mind, as a boy naturally would be in his situation. Henri's eyes were
+red, but they were red from rubbing rather than from the tears they
+had shed, and were keenly on the alert; they missed nothing of what
+was going on about them. He did not know where they proposed to take
+him, but wherever it was he determined not to go, for the letter in
+his stomach was a constant reminder of what was expected of him.
+
+"There was much activity about them; it was a busy scene, and Henri's
+guard was plainly interested in it--he was becoming more interested in
+the activity than he was in his prisoner, which fact did not escape
+the lad, who appeared to be so filled with despair.
+
+"Soldier and prisoner finally came to the bank of a canal, along which
+they walked, the soldier still watching the movements of the troops.
+Now Henri saw his opportunity.
+
+"All at once he sprang away from his guard, and, taking a long leap,
+plunged head first into the canal. He dove deep and shot himself half
+way across before coming to the surface.
+
+"The soldier guard stood stupefied for a moment. Recovering his wits,
+he began to shoot at the bobbing head of Henri that was now out of the
+water then under it.
+
+"Henri, by this time, was rapidly nearing the opposite bank of the
+canal, taking little heed of the bullets that were splashing all about
+him.
+
+"'It is good luck to be little,' he chuckled as he scrambled up the
+bank and dashed into the bushes. Bullets were singing all about him
+now, showing that several soldiers had joined in the shooting, but the
+plucky boy was not hit, though there were bullet holes in his jacket
+and two through his cap.
+
+"'Good bye, Mr. Boche,' he called back. 'Henri thanks you that you did
+not hit him in the place where he carries his orders.' He then ran
+swiftly over the remaining few miles that lay between him and his
+destination. Reaching the French lines safely, he was led to the
+commander of the detachment in his home village.
+
+"'I have orders for you, sir,' he said, saluting the commander.
+
+"'Very good. Where are they?'
+
+"'In my stomach, sir.'
+
+"The officer was puzzled for the moment, then he began to laugh. Henri
+related the circumstances that had made necessary the destruction of
+the letter, and at his dictation the commander wrote down the orders,
+which the lad repeated to him exactly as they had been written in the
+letter. Henri's mission had been faithfully carried out.
+
+"'France has need of such as you,' said the commander approvingly.
+'What shall you do now?'
+
+"'I must return to my troops and make my report to my commanding
+officer,' was the simple reply. 'I shall wait for the night before
+starting, for the Boches this time cannot be so easily fooled.
+Remember, I still have the orders in my stomach. Would it not be sad
+if the Boches discovered them and took them from me?' Henri grinned
+and the commander laughed heartily.
+
+"Henri's return journey was made without disaster, though several
+times he narrowly missed being captured. Late on the following morning
+the plucky boy reached his regiment and made his report to his
+colonel, who warmly commended the child for his patriotism and
+courage."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+GENE AND THE BAVARIAN DRAGOONS
+
+
+"The story of Gene and the Bavarian dragoons, is one of the best, to
+my mind, that has developed in this war," said Captain Favor,
+beginning a new story. "Such quick thinking as hers in the face of an
+emergency, is very rare in a child, which makes Gene's achievement
+stand out so prominently.
+
+"Gene's mother had been ill for months. She had been bedridden all
+that time, leaving to the little girl the heavy work of the home, for
+the father, too, was in poor health. Gene, though only ten years of
+age, was a resolute and capable child, as you will see when I tell you
+the story of how she won two little battles of her own.
+
+"After the battle of the Marne the Prussians were pressing northward,
+venting their rage on the defenseless inhabitants, killing many such
+and carrying others away with them. It was desperate business that
+these brutal Prussians were engaged in. Finding themselves unable to
+whip the Allied soldiers, they sought to terrorize old men, women and
+children.
+
+"Gene's home was situated at the edge of a village, and though they
+knew the Germans were headed in their direction, they thought the
+soldiers would take pity on their sad condition and leave them alone.
+
+"One day, however, a company of Bavarian dragoons entered the
+outskirts of the village and halted before the child's home. Tying
+their horses, they entered the house and began a systematic search of
+it. They ripped up carpets and tore beds to pieces, helped themselves
+to all the food in the house, then turned their attention to the
+husband, who had stood helplessly by. Not Gene. She stood trembling
+with anger, scarcely able to restrain herself.
+
+"'We want your money!' demanded the captain of the dragoons, turning
+to Gene's father. 'Quick, or you shall suffer.'
+
+"'I have none. I have spent it all on my poor wife,' replied the
+father.
+
+"'Bah! The French always have money. We shall find it. Throw the old
+woman out of the bed. She is but pretending to be sick. She is in bed
+to hide the money of the household,' raged the captain.
+
+"Obeying his orders, his men dragged the sick woman from the bed and
+dropped her on the floor, where Gene, with tears of anger in her eyes,
+bent over and clasped her parent's hand. The husband protested against
+their treatment of the wife and Gene pleaded with them to go away and
+leave her family in peace.
+
+"'You would resist us, would you!' demanded the captain, drawing back
+a fist to strike the child's father. 'Ah! He shall be taken away for
+that. You shall see that it is not for cowardly French to thwart the
+will of the Bavarian dragoons. He directed his men to remove the
+father. Several soldiers grabbed Gene's father and dragged him from
+the house.
+
+"'Now to the cellar!' cried the commander. 'There we shall at least
+find wine, for the French always have wine in their cellars. Perhaps
+you will tell us there is no wine there!' he said sneeringly, fixing
+his eyes on the child.
+
+"'There is wine in plenty there,' she answered sweetly, favoring the
+captain with a smile. 'You will find the jugs in the front part of the
+cellar.' Gene lowered her eyes, that the officer might not read the
+thought that she felt certain was reflected there.
+
+"'Come,' he said, leading the way to the cellar, which they gained by
+raising the trapdoor in the kitchen floor and descending a ladder,
+this being the customary way of getting to the cellar in a peasant's
+home.
+
+"For several moments all was silent in the room where Gene and her
+mother sat on the floor, the child supporting her parent with one arm.
+Down cellar the voices of the Germans could be faintly heard. At last
+Gene laid her mother down and tripped lightly to the kitchen.
+Listening a moment she cautiously lowered the trapdoor in the floor
+and closed the opening, fastening it with its bolt. Not satisfied with
+this, the child moved a table to the trapdoor, on which she piled
+everything of weight in the kitchen.
+
+"'All is well, mother,' she said, returning to the sick woman. Gene,
+for fear of exciting her mother, did not tell her what had been done.
+The soldiers with the father having gone, the villagers soon appeared
+in the streets, and to them Gene explained that she had captured the
+captain of dragoons and several of his men. By this time there was a
+great uproar in the cellar. The dragoons were shifting and beating on
+the kitchen floor, raging and threatening. They had discovered that
+they were in a trap. It would fare hard with Gene and her mother if
+the soldiers succeeded in getting out, but of that the child had
+little fear. The villagers now offered to guard the imprisoned
+soldiers, but the child knew her people could do little in this
+direction.
+
+"Early in the afternoon a battalion of French chasseurs came galloping
+into town. The villagers set up a great shout, and, running out, the
+child recognized the soldiers of her own country. To the commander of
+the chasseurs she quickly made known her situation.
+
+"'Monsieur le Capitaine,' she said. 'There are in our house German
+soldiers. They are in the cellar. Some of their party have taken my
+father away, but the commander and some of his men I have locked in
+the cellar.'
+
+"'Bravo!' cried the commander. 'Come, we shall see.'
+
+"'There,' said Gene, pointing to the barricaded trapdoor. 'Hear them
+rage. They are furious, as they should be.'"
+
+The officer quickly summoned some of his men to the kitchen, and,
+after the trap had been uncovered and thrown open, he bade them
+thrust their bayonets into the opening.
+
+"'Come out of that cellar, you Bavarian hounds!' he shouted. 'You are
+prisoners!'
+
+"The uproar in the cellar died out instantly. After a brief hesitation
+they came out one by one, being disarmed and herded in a corner as
+they emerged into the kitchen.
+
+"'Take them away,' commanded the officer.
+
+"'Monsieur le Capitaine,' said Gene, tugging at his sleeve. 'These
+soldiers not only have helped themselves to everything in the house,
+but they have, as you saw, abused my sick mother and have taken away
+my poor father. They have misused us. Please do not let them go until
+they have returned my father to our home. If you do not it will kill
+my mother, I fear.'
+
+"'We shall do our best, my brave child.'
+
+"'Ah, monsieur le Capitaine, I have an idea. Can you not exchange one
+of your prisoners for my father?' questioned the little girl.
+
+"The commander reflected. 'How long have they been gone with him?'
+
+"'Only a short time, sir.'
+
+"'Good. Step forward!' he said sharply to the German officer. The
+latter obeyed silently. 'Captain,' said the Frenchman, 'you and your
+men have ransacked this house, abused a sick woman and carried away
+her husband. A fine business for those who call themselves men. You
+deserve to be shot, you and all your hounds. However, I will spare
+your life on one condition. It is that the father of this household
+shall be set at liberty and returned to his home before nightfall.
+Your troops will not be far from here. Who in command?'
+
+"'A captain.'
+
+"'Then one of you will ride and rejoin your detachment--'
+
+"'I will go,' interjected the commander of the dragoons."
+
+[Illustration: A FRENCH DRAGOON DRAGGED HIM IN.]
+
+"'Oh, no, captain; your presence is required here. Come here!' he
+ordered, beckoning to one of the Bavarians, 'and listen well to what I
+shall say to you. You will immediately mount your horse and as quickly
+as possible rejoin your detachment.'
+
+"'Oui, monsieur le Capitaine.'
+
+"'You will tell the commander that we have here seven dragoons and an
+officer as prisoners of the French chasseurs. You also will say that
+the French commander sends warning to him that unless the father of
+this child, taken as a hostage, is returned to this village before
+eight o'clock this evening, your captain and seven Bavarian dragoons
+in the hands of the French will be shot immediately. Can you remember
+this?'
+
+"'Oui, monsieur le Capitaine.'
+
+"'Then go speedily.'
+
+"The dragoon departed in haste. He was eager to get away from this
+stern-faced Frenchman, at whose hands he knew he could expect small
+mercy after what the Bavarians had done in that little peasant home.
+
+"Gene had rejoined her mother, who had been tenderly placed in her bed
+by the tender-hearted French captain. The child sat clasping her
+mother's hand and comforting her.
+
+"'Have no fears, my mother. The brave commander of the chasseurs will
+see to it that father comes safely home,' said Gene. Yet the brave
+little French girl herself was full of anxiety; she could scarcely
+keep the tears back when she realized that already her father may have
+been shot.
+
+"It was late in the afternoon, darkness was just falling, when Gene
+heard some one approaching. By the clanking sound she knew it was one
+of the chasseurs, and her heart sank within her.
+
+"The captain of the French detachment entered and halted at the door.
+She searched his face and what she saw there caused Gene to utter a
+little cry of joy.
+
+"'Here,' said the officer, 'is what you have been waiting for. Here is
+the father whose life you have saved. What I have done for you was
+only my duty; what you have done for France is immeasurable. I salute
+you, daughter of France!'
+
+"With that the captain thrust Gene's father into the room, saluted and
+strode out to join his company, who were guarding the captured
+Bavarians."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A LITTLE SOLDIER OF MERCY
+
+
+"Jean is the name of the hero of whom I shall tell you today. He was
+only twelve, and he joined the army, unofficially, something after the
+fashion that little Remi did. Remi, of course, ran away to follow the
+army, which, perhaps, was not wrong in view of the fact that he had no
+relatives at home. With Jean it was different, for he had a mother,"
+said Captain Favor, resuming his story telling.
+
+"A detachment of French soldiers had been stationed in this boy's home
+town, and the lad, by many little acts, had endeared himself to them
+very much.
+
+"One day the detachment received orders to leave. Jean begged that
+they might take him along, but the soldiers advised him to remain at
+home because he was too young to go to war. 'Go ask your mother,' said
+a young lieutenant, 'and if she says "yes" I shall not see you if you
+should follow us.'
+
+"Jean, most grateful for the suggestion, ran home and burst, in upon
+his mother excitedly.
+
+"'The lieutenant says I may go if you say "yes." Say "yes," mother. I
+want to be a soldier.'
+
+"'I do not understand what you mean, my son,' answered the child's
+mother.
+
+"'I mean I wish to go to war; I wish to help my beloved France.
+Believe me, mother, though I am but a lad I can do much, oh, so much.
+And Jean shall be so very careful that he may come back to his home,
+and who knows but that he may some day come back a big, big general or
+something like that.'
+
+"'Please my child, do not think of such a thing,' begged the mother.
+'You know you might be killed.'
+
+"'Should not a Frenchman be happy to die for his country, my mother?'
+
+"The argument was a good one, and Jean saw at once that his mother was
+weakening in her opposition.
+
+"'The monsieur lieutenant says I may go if you will let me. Please, my
+mother.'
+
+"'Yes, go, my son, if you will, and God be with you,' agreed the
+mother finally, clasping the little fellow in her arms and kissing him
+again and again. 'Go before I forget my duty to France.'
+
+"Jean ran. He did not stop running until he had reached the camp of
+the detachment, where preparations for marching were in active
+progress. But Jean hung about at a distance. When the detachment
+started away, he, like Remi, fell in behind and followed. Perhaps the
+lieutenant--Lieutenant Andre--saw him, but if so the officer thought
+best not to let this be known, either to the boy or to the men.
+
+"That night Jean joined the company of Lieutenant Andre. A soldier
+shared his blanket with the child. The next morning Jean made himself
+useful by carrying water, by helping the cooks and by performing other
+acts that relieved the soldiers.
+
+"The march was resumed soon after daylight. The lad had a further idea
+and this he worked out all during the day. Providing himself with
+canteens, which he took from the soldiers of his company, he stopped
+every little while at farmhouses and filled the canteens. These he
+restored to their owners, and then, taking other canteens, filled
+these as well, running to catch up with his company to give his
+comrades water. That day and following days found the child the
+hardest worked person in the company.
+
+"Now and then a soldier would stagger from weariness. Jean was at his
+side in a moment relieving the soldier of some of his burden which the
+boy would carry until someone took it away from him.
+
+"One day the colonel of the regiment discovered him and ordered him
+sent home. Jean begged, all to no purpose, then ran to his friend,
+the lieutenant, for help. The lieutenant took Jean back to the colonel
+and explained the situation.
+
+"'This boy,' said the lieutenant, 'is one of the most useful civilians
+with this outfit. We shall miss him if he is sent back. And further,
+it would not be safe for him to return home alone. In all probability
+he would not reach there alive.'
+
+"'Do I understand that you are willing to charge yourself with the
+care of this child?' demanded the colonel.
+
+"'I do, most certainly, my Colonel.'
+
+"'Very good, then; the boy may remain. Watch over him. He is a
+patriot, indeed.'
+
+"Jean's joy showed in his face only. He made no fuss, but kissed the
+hand of his faithful friend the lieutenant and went about his duties.
+
+"There came a day when the regiment met the Prussians--when the
+Frenchmen went over the top and the Germans came out to meet them.
+Jean was with his beloved companions, but, strange to say, he carried
+no rifle. One had been offered to him, but he shook his head. Instead,
+he carried several canteens of water and his blouse was stuffed with
+first-aid bandages. He knew what he wished to do and what he believed
+he could do best.
+
+"Soon men began to fall. The stretcher bearers were too few to give
+quick attention to all, but Jean was there. With his bandages he bound
+as best he could the wounds of his comrades, and quenched their thirst
+from his canteens. Many were the suffering poilus who blessed the
+little soldier of mercy that day.
+
+"Jean's face was bleeding where a bullet had left a gash across it,
+but to this he gave not the slightest heed. Time and time again he ran
+back for more water; time and time again did he rush for the stretcher
+bearers to get aid for a particularly badly wounded comrade. The child
+seemed to be utterly fearless, or perhaps he did not even realize that
+the air about him was thick with bullets and exploding shells. If he
+knew he did not care.
+
+"With nightfall the troops of both sides backed away to their own
+trenches. Jean's work, however, was not yet done. He remained out on
+the field where lay men who would never rise again, and many more who
+were suffering and dying. All night long he worked with them, until
+nearly daybreak, by which time the stretcher bearers had finished
+their work.
+
+"When day dawned his comrades found little Jean asleep on top of the
+parapet of his own trench, with a storm of machine gun fire sweeping
+over him. He was sleeping in a rain of steel. They hauled him in and
+tucked him away in a dugout.
+
+"Jean might have slept the day through had not a shell blown up the
+dugout and literally blown the boy over the lip with it. He was
+considerably bruised and shocked, but otherwise was unhurt.
+
+"By the time he had collected his wits and got the dizziness out of
+his head, his comrades were once more going over the top.
+
+"'I must go,' was Jean's reply when an officer sought to hold him
+back.
+
+"Gathering up all the canteens he could carry, Jean filled them with
+water and was over the top and out on the storm-swept field. His eyes
+glowed with admiration when he saw his lieutenant leading and
+encouraging the men of his company. Jean tried to keep close to him,
+but this was not wholly possible, for the lad was still performing his
+work of mercy.
+
+"Suddenly he saw the lieutenant stagger and fall.
+
+"With a little cry Jean sprang up from the wounded man he was working
+over and ran to the side of his friend.
+
+"'Where--where is it, my dear Lieutenant?' he begged anxiously.
+
+"'Two times they hit me, child--in the shoulder and in the side. It is
+bad. But never mind, lad, go to the others; they need you more than do
+I.'
+
+"'No, you shall come with me. Let me get my back to yours.'
+
+"'You cannot carry me.'
+
+"'Jean is stronger than he looks.' With that the lad got the officer
+to a sitting position and, placing his back against the lieutenant's,
+his arms under those of the officer, he straightened up. Of course, he
+was not strong enough to carry the man, but he was able to drag him,
+and with almost as much comfort to the wounded one as if he were on a
+stretcher.
+
+"In this manner Jean managed to get his friend to the trench, whence
+the officer was taken to a first-aid station, then later in the day
+placed in an ambulance and started for a hospital in the rear.
+
+"The road over which they were carried, for Jean had remained with
+lieutenant Andre, was shell swept, the Germans knowing very well that
+ambulances with wounded men were there.
+
+"To the hospital went the two, and there, side by side, they lay in
+cots, for at last Jean had been struck and wounded by a shell that
+wrecked the ambulance just before they had reached their destination.
+The driver was killed but the Little Soldier of Mercy and his friend
+escaped, with only a shaking up for the lieutenant and a slight wound
+in the leg of Jean.
+
+"Lieutenant Andre, on account of his wounds, was disabled for life,
+but through his efforts Jean was appointed to the French military
+training school, and the last I heard of him he was still fighting
+heroically for France."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A BRAVE LITTLE COWARD
+
+
+"He was a fine fellow, that Jean," observed Joe Funk, "but for myself
+I think I should have shouldered a gun and sailed in to get some of
+the Boches."
+
+"That was for the soldiers to do," replied Captain Favor. "Jean's
+heroism was as great as that of any man who ever went into battle with
+rifle or sword. Now I will tell you about another hero who was both
+coward and hero, but, in the last analysis, was all hero. Lucien, he
+was named, and, though he did not know it, he was a very funny fellow.
+Listen to the tale of little Lucien."
+
+"Lucien's home was in a village not far from Verdun, where such
+terrible fighting had been indulged in for so many, many weeks.
+Battles, in fact, had been fought not far from the boy's home, and
+even now angry Prussian parties were raiding these towns and robbing
+the inhabitants of whatever appealed to their appetites or their
+greed. Parties of them had already visited the village and Lucien was
+in the habit of observing their movements from high up in a tree,
+which was his favorite hiding place when danger approached. Nor was he
+partial to any particular tree. Any tree that was handy would answer
+his purpose.
+
+"On the afternoon that I have in mind, a farmhouse just outside the
+village bore mute evidence that raiders had been there. All the
+windows had been broken out, doors smashed in and blackened spots
+about the windows and doors on the outside wall indicated that the
+house had been set on fire on the inside, but for some reason had not
+burned down. The scene was a cheerless one. Not a person was in sight.
+
+"Along the road came a detachment of French soldiers. The officer in
+command, a captain, halted his men for rest and, observing the
+condition of the house, entered the yard to see if he could not obtain
+some information from the occupants. But there were no occupants
+there.
+
+"'They must have been here recently,' he said out loud, meaning that
+the Germans had visited the place. 'Perhaps I shall find that which I
+seek in the village.'
+
+"Strolling along, the captain halted under a large apple tree, from
+which apples had fallen to the ground, though the tree had been pretty
+well stripped already. He stooped over to pick up an apple and as he
+did so a hard apple hit him squarely on the top of the head.
+
+"The captain said 'Ouch!' and rubbed the spot where the apple had hit
+him. But he forgot all about it in his enjoyment of the apple he was
+now eating while stepping out from under the tree. He was munching
+away at the fruit when another apple hit him, this time squarely on
+the neck.
+
+"This was a keen as well as a cautious captain, and this time he did
+not pretend to have noticed the incident, but kept on munching his
+fruit. While doing so he squinted up at the tree out of the corner of
+one eye. He knew he was too far from the tree for the last apple to
+have fallen on him. While he was taking a cautious look another apple
+came out from the foliage of the tree and fell toward him, but the
+officer, stepping slightly to one side, avoided being hit by it.
+
+"He deliberately drew his revolver from its holster and, turning,
+aimed at the tree.
+
+"'I think I can shoot the apples off easier than I can shake them
+down,' he announced in a loud tone.
+
+"'Don't shoot, monsieur l'Officer,' cried a voice from the tree.
+
+"'What! Some one up there?'
+
+"'Yes, yes. It is I, Lucien,' was the reply from the tree.
+
+"'Come down, Lucien. I would like to have a look at you,' ordered the
+captain.
+
+"A very young boy, red of face and very much frightened, came sliding
+down the trunk of the tree and landed on all fours at its foot. The
+officer eyed him sternly.
+
+"'What do you mean, boy, by bombarding me with apples?' he demanded.
+
+"Lucien hung his head. The officer jerked him to his feet.
+
+"'Answer me! What were you doing up in that tree? Spying on us, eh?'
+
+"'No, monsieur l'Officer, I am a Frenchman. Frenchmen do not spy on
+their own people.'
+
+"'That is true. But how do I know you are not spying on us just the
+same, for the Germans have been here?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur le Capitaine, they have been here. See, they have
+spoiled my beautiful home. I lived there with the farmer for whom I
+worked--sometimes.'
+
+"'Where were you when the Germans came?'
+
+"'Up in the top of the apple tree. I always climb a tree when I am
+scared. I saw them coming and I hid myself, and I saw them when they
+beat in the windows and the door and carried away the food and tried
+to burn down the house. I shall fight them some day for that.'
+
+"'Hm-m-m-m,' mused the officer. It was his idea that Lucien was not so
+stupid as he appeared.
+
+"'Yes, monsieur, I saw them and I wish to see them again. Shall you go
+and fight the Boches?'
+
+"'Of course, when we catch them. How long since they were here?'
+
+"'Maybe an hour or an hour and a half.'
+
+"'How many of them?'
+
+"'About as many as you have here, maybe another company more.'
+
+"'Which way did they go?'
+
+"'That way.' Lucien indicated the direction taken by the Germans by a
+jerk of his thumb to the right. 'And Lucien knows pretty well where
+they have gone.'
+
+"'Oh, you do? Kindly tell me where you think the Boches went?'
+demanded the captain, now amused at the boy's queerness.
+
+"'They have gone to cut off the road from Etain. I saw them going that
+way.'
+
+"'How do you know this?'
+
+"'Did I not hear them talking just before I dropped an apple on the
+head of the Herr Major, the apple that stuck on his helmet and made
+him very angry? It was well for Lucien that the Herr Major did not
+know he threw the apple. Wait while I laugh, Captain. No, Lucien did
+not throw another at the Herr Major. He saved the next one for
+monsieur le Capitaine.'
+
+"'See here, child, do you know this country well?' demanded the French
+Captain.
+
+"'Yes, monsieur, I know it well, as well as I know my own pocket, and
+I wait only for an opportunity to serve you and my country.'
+
+"'Well spoken. My son, the opportunity is at hand. From what you tell
+me I take it that the Germans went toward the forest yonder where the
+road from Etain passes. Is that right?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur, the big road from Verdun. But there is still another
+road to Etain. It follows along the woods to the left near the river.'
+
+"'So?' The officer consulted a map. 'You speak truly. I thank you, my
+son. Now, would you like to lead us, to show us the way?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur.'
+
+"'What if we are surprised by the Germans--what will you do in that
+event?'
+
+"'I shall climb a tree,' replied the lad promptly. 'I do not fear the
+Boches so long as there are trees to climb.'
+
+"This caused a great laugh, but the officer was satisfied that Lucien
+could do all and more than he had promised.
+
+"'You shall show us the way,' he decided, and ordered his men to fall
+in and proceed. They passed through the village, which they now
+observed had been much abused by the Prussians, and on out into the
+country, with the lad marching beside the captain with a swagger that
+amused all who saw him.
+
+"'See, the road is there to the left,' finally said the little guide.
+It leads to the bridge which we shall cross and take a short cut in
+that way. Thus, my officer, we may reach Etain before the Boches do.'
+
+"'That will be fine,' said the captain.
+
+"'Yes, monsieur. But what if the Boches should change their mind and
+wait for us? Surely you will not blame the little Lucien? He cannot
+read the mind of a Boche when the Boche is out of sight.'
+
+"'No, we shall not blame you. You have told us well and we are
+grateful, but what you say gives me a thought. We shall halt and send
+out scouts.'
+
+"This was done immediately. A short distance ahead of them were a
+number of farm buildings. Trees were scattered all about, giving
+plenty of shade, which the troops were quick to take advantage of.
+
+"A scout came running back toward the resting detachment.
+
+"'The Prussians are coming!' he shouted.
+
+"Lucien made a mad dash for a tree nearby, up which he shinned and hid
+far up in the foliage. There were brief smiles, but the soldiers had
+other things to think of at that moment. The French moved forward
+about five hundred yards and began digging themselves in; in other
+words, digging temporary trenches.
+
+"The Germans already had begun shooting, the French quickly
+retaliating. The former were in larger numbers than the French captain
+had believed them to be. Lucien was still up the tree, peering out,
+his eyes large and frightened. Bullets were clipping the foliage all
+about him. He did not realize this at first, but finally, when he did,
+he slid down the tree in a hurry and hid behind it.
+
+"Scouts were hastening back to the rear with messages from the
+captain, who had sent for assistance, seeing that the German force was
+too large for him to hold off indefinitely.
+
+"Night came on and the firing died down. There had been very few
+losses. During the night a large detachment of French troops joined
+the captain's force and early on the following morning the battle was
+resumed with great fury. Lucien had slept in a tree all night. His
+captain told him to go back home, but this the boy, for some reason of
+his own, did not care to do.
+
+"Early in the day the Germans, who also had entrenched themselves,
+came over the top and drove the French back, taking some prisoners and
+killing many. Lucien, who was hiding up in a tree, found himself
+between the lines, high and dry, as it were. He made himself as small
+as possible up there and gazed wonderingly at the furious battle that
+was being fought beneath him. Late in the forenoon the French drove
+the Prussians back. The boy took advantage of the opportunity to get
+down from the tree and get behind his own lines. It was observed,
+however, that he kept always within reach of a tree.
+
+"Men were falling out there on the field. Plucking up courage, Lucien
+went out with some stretcher bearers and helped gather up the wounded,
+but there were not enough of the stretcher bearers to properly care
+for the wounded; even stretchers were scarce. In the excitement of the
+work Lucien forgot his fears. The lad was resourceful and, recognizing
+the necessity for getting the wounded from the field, began to cast
+about for some means of solving this problem.
+
+"'Ah! A wheelbarrow. The very thing,' he cried. The wheelbarrow
+belonged to the farmhouse near the field, from which the occupants had
+run away when the troops came. Lucien quickly possessed himself of the
+barrow and proudly marched out on the field pushing the barrow ahead
+of him. By tipping it up on one side he was able to roll a wounded man
+in, not very gently, but he loaded his man in just the same and, red
+of face, pushed the vehicle ahead of him and back to the first-aid
+dressing station, where he slid his passenger to the ground, leaving
+him for the surgeons to attend to and then trotted back to the field.
+
+"Artillery had been brought up by both sides and shells were bursting
+overhead, though none had fallen near the little Frenchman.
+
+"Lucien picked up a wounded man near the edge of the battlefield and
+began wheeling the victim down the road. The going was better there
+and he was enabled to make more rapid progress. Pausing for a rest he
+eyed his passenger suspiciously.
+
+"'Who are you?' he demanded.
+
+"'I am a Prussian officer.' The officer was so wounded in both legs
+that he could not stand.
+
+"Lucien's face flushed.
+
+"'A Prussian officer!' he cried. 'I ought to dump you out and leave
+you. A Prussian--bah!'
+
+"'I am losing strength. Please give me help,' urged the officer.
+
+"'Yes, Herr Officer, I'll help you. You are a human being even if you
+are a Prussian. Here we go again.' Grasping the handles of the
+barrow, the lad started on a run with the wounded man.
+
+"A shell burst in the road just ahead of him. Quickly dropping his
+homely vehicle, little Lucien ran for a tree and shinned up it without
+loss of time. His passenger had slid out into the road when the barrow
+tipped over on its side.
+
+"'Herr Officer, who did that?'
+
+"'It was a Prussian shell. Take me away before they hit me,' begged
+the officer.
+
+"'Why don't you tell them to stop? It's your people who are shooting
+at you. They must want to be rid of you. I--'
+
+"A shell struck the tree, well down toward its base. The jolt nearly
+shook the boy from his perch in a crotch of the tree. Very slowly at
+first, then with increasing speed the tree began to fall. It came down
+with a mighty crash, hurling little Lucien some distance ahead of it.
+He was bruised and shaken and for a few minutes he lay where he had
+fallen, groaning.
+
+"Suddenly he sprang to his feet and started to run toward the rear.
+The faint voice of the German officer called to him to come back,
+which brought Lucien to a standstill.
+
+"'Maybe he is afraid, too,' reflected the lad. 'I must get him.' And
+get him he did. Running back, he loaded the wounded man on the barrow
+and ran with him all the way to the rear.
+
+"'See! I have taken a Boche,' he cried, staggering up to the dressing
+station. 'I shall now go get another one.' This he did. He was taking
+a new interest in his work, and thereafter made no distinction between
+Germans and Frenchmen in his work of mercy.
+
+"All during that desperate fighting little Lucien was a familiar
+figure on the battlefield. He really performed many heroic deeds. Now
+and then, overcome by fright, he would dash for a tree, but these
+flights were becoming fewer. He began to feel a pride in the work he
+was doing and this pride of achievement and the new spirit of
+patriotism that had been aroused within him served to keep him up and
+gave him new courage. Before that day of suffering came to an end
+there was none on the battlefield more heroic and courageous than
+little Lucien.
+
+"How many wounded men the lad had rescued from the field of battle no
+one knew, but there were many of them, among them two majors and three
+captains.
+
+"Just before nightfall the French made a great charge. Lucien was well
+out between the lines when the charge started. The Germans put down a
+'curtain of fire,' hoping in this way to stop the charge. And little
+Lucien and his wheelbarrow were fairly caught in it. A shell hit the
+barrow and blew it, with a wounded soldier, into bits. Lucien was
+hurled into the air and fell several yards away. His own comrades
+charged right over him as they passed. Those near enough to hear
+caught a faint cry from the lad.
+
+"'Vive la France!' were the words they heard him utter.
+
+"Stretcher bearers, following the charging men, picked the lad up and
+tenderly bore him back. They saw that he was mortally wounded. While
+they were dressing his wounds, Lucien tugged feebly at the surgeon's
+blouse. The surgeon leaned over, for the little fellow's voice was
+very weak.
+
+"'Lucien will climb no more trees,' murmured the lad.
+
+"'No, my brave boy,' answered the surgeon.
+
+"'Is Lucien brave, monsieur?'
+
+"'There are no braver. The deeds of valor you have this day performed
+will live long after you, little soldier.'
+
+"A smile that was radiant with happiness appeared on the face of the
+dying boy.
+
+"'Lucien is no longer a coward,' he repeated several times. 'No longer
+a coward. Vive la France!' he cried, half raising himself.
+
+"The surgeon gently laid him back and kissed the lad on both cheeks,
+but Lucien did not know. He was beyond the touch of human sympathy."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE HERO OF THE GUNS
+
+
+"The patriotism of nearly all these children of France is something
+that you boys and girls cannot fully understand. No one can unless he
+has seen it displayed, as I have, in many instances," said Captain
+Favor.
+
+"For instance, there is a little story of 'The Hero of the Guns,' as
+he was called. His name was Mattia, and though only twelve years old,
+he was determined to go to war and fight for France. This boy had only
+his mother left, his two brothers being already in the war and his
+father having fallen a victim to the Prussians when they raided the
+village in which Mattia's parents then lived.
+
+"For a long time the lad had been studying a map of France until he
+possessed a very clear idea of the territory held by the Germans, as
+well as that where his countrymen were fighting. He talked over these
+things with the old men of the village and learned much from them.
+
+"One day when he thought he knew the country well enough, this little
+patriot ran away from home and was well on his way to join his
+brothers when his absence was discovered.
+
+"Mattia's mother appealed to the police but it was not until the
+following day that he was found and returned to his home. He had gone
+more than twenty miles on his journey when the police got him.
+
+"'Unhappy child!' cried the boy's mother when he had been restored to
+her. 'Why did you do this? Did you not know the danger into which you
+were running? You might have been killed by German raiders or taken
+captive and carried to their own country and made to work, with barely
+enough food to keep you alive.'
+
+"'My mother,' answered the boy bravely, 'when France is in danger,
+everyone, boy or man, should go to her aid just as my brothers have
+done, and as my father did, and gave up his life for his country. I,
+too, must go.'
+
+"'Yes, but they were men while you are but a child, Mattia.'
+
+"'Other mothers' sons have gone to war, mother; other mothers' sons
+will never come back. They have been shot in the war.'
+
+"Mattia's mother, however, refused to give her consent, and the little
+patriot was obliged to remain at home, yet with his purpose of
+fighting for France still firmly fixed in his mind. One day he would
+go, he told himself, and one day he would show them that even a child
+could do a man's part.
+
+"Early in the following spring Mattia's mother grew ill and died. The
+little fellow grieved for her until his face grew wan and pale. He was
+now left in the care of an uncle who was not very kind to him. After
+a month had passed in which Mattia had continued his study of the war
+map, he determined to leave the home of his uncle and once more try to
+reach his brothers.
+
+"One evening a troop train halted at the little village. This was the
+boy's opportunity. Watching his chance, he slipped into one of the
+coaches and crawled up to the luggage rack and lay down, making
+himself as inconspicuous as possible. But, alas, he was discovered and
+dragged out by a station employe who had seen him enter the car.
+
+"This ended Mattia's going to war for some time to come. He found no
+opportunity to do so until nearly a month later, when he decided to
+leave his uncle's home again and take his chances. This time he
+planned well and carefully. Providing himself with food he set out one
+evening after he was supposed to be in bed and asleep, and, proceeding
+to the railroad, started walking along it. This, he had found, was the
+most direct route to the front.
+
+"Mattia's uncle did not take enough interest in his nephew's
+disappearance to have a search made for him. For days after that the
+lad continued his journey on foot, stopping at farmhouses and doing
+little odd jobs that were the means of providing meals for him. One
+day, to his great happiness, he came up with the rear of one of the
+armies of his beloved country.
+
+"The boy plodded in among the troops, for this was a rest camp that he
+had stumbled upon, some miles distant from the front. An officer,
+observing that he was a civilian, halted him in the street of the
+village where the rest camp was situated.
+
+"'Where are you going, boy?' the officer demanded.
+
+"'To the war with you,' answered Mattia promptly.
+
+"'What! To war, at your age? It is impossible. Where is your home?'
+
+"Mattia told him.
+
+"'My mother is dead, as is my father, and my brothers are fighting at
+Verdun. Mattia has only his country left to love now. Where is
+Verdun?'
+
+"'You poor little patriot,' answered the officer sympathetically.
+'Verdun is yonder where you see the smoke and where the big guns are
+in action. You can hear them now.'
+
+"The boy nodded.
+
+"'But you are too young to fight. It is not permissible. Wait! You
+have no family left at home?'
+
+"'None, sir, save my uncle, who does not want me,'
+
+"'And you wish to stay here?'
+
+"'No, sir, I wish to fight.'
+
+"'That cannot be, but if you wish you may remain here. If you can work
+there is much that you can do in the rear and thus serve your country
+well. All men who serve their country are not in the trenches. Many
+are serving heroically who have not yet heard the roar of the big
+guns.'
+
+"'What shall I do here?'
+
+"'Help the cooks, do little services for the officers--whatever you
+may find to do. But, my son, remember you are not to try to go near
+the firing line. It is not for children to be there. You do not know
+what the soldiers suffer there. They must be strong and they must be
+old enough to stand the terrible strain.'
+
+"'I care not for that. I want to fight,' replied Mattia with
+determination. 'I am strong and I can endure as long as can the men. I
+know, for I have worked with men. Where shall I eat and sleep?'
+
+"The officer told him he would speak to the mess sergeant and that the
+latter would provide him with food, and would arrange for the lad to
+lodge in one of the buildings where soldiers slept when off duty.
+
+"That was satisfactory to little Mattia. He was happy, for he was with
+the army, and that night the roar of the distant artillery lulled him
+to sleep. It was sweet music to him. 'Tomorrow I shall fight like the
+Frenchman I am,' he murmured as he dropped off to sleep.
+
+"It was many days later, however, before he got the chance to take
+part in actual fighting. Even that came about by chance. He had been
+sent back to carry a message to the lieutenant in a high-angle gun
+squad--"
+
+"What is that?" interjected Joe Funk.
+
+"I should have explained. That is what the outfit that handles the
+anti-aircraft guns, the men who stay on the ground and shoot at
+airplanes, is called. He was permitted to stand by and watch the
+operations of the squad. Pretty soon he was assisting them by running
+back and bringing up the long, slender projectiles that the gun,
+pointed toward the skies, fired. He enjoyed watching the kick of the
+piece and the way it ejected the case of the shell after the
+projectile had soared on its way to the clouds.
+
+"Mattia proved himself very useful that day and earned the thanks of
+the ammunition carriers for his help. He was quick and never stumbled
+or dropped a shell.
+
+"That night he slept on the ground near the gun, which was silent all
+through the night. Early in the morning he was awakened by the sharp
+report of the weapon. Quickly springing up, he saw, high in the air, a
+black speck which he knew to be an enemy airplane, because the gun
+squad was firing at it.
+
+"Once more Mattia took up his work of carrying ammunition. Something
+tremendous exploded not far from the squad.
+
+"'The Boches are bombing us,' cried a soldier. The lad knew from that
+that the airplane, so far above them, was dropping bombs to destroy
+the gun and its squad. The only effect of the bombing, however, was to
+knock down several men, Mattia among the number, by the shock of an
+exploding bomb.
+
+"'They're coming down!' yelled the lad as the airplane grew larger.
+
+"'It's a hit!' cried the lieutenant in command.
+
+"Mattia saw the airplane turning over and over, falling, soaring like
+a leaf from a tree in the fall.
+
+"'Di--did we hi--hit him?' questioned the lad.
+
+"'Of course we hit him,' answered a soldier. 'Don't you see him
+coming?'
+
+"For the first time the little French lad realized what war was. He
+knew there was one man, and perhaps two, in that falling machine, and
+that he was watching them falling to what would probably be death.
+
+"'It is for France,' he said to himself. 'If they are Boches they must
+die.' However, Mattia did not get the picture of that scene out of his
+mind for a long time. Later on he became used to it and did not even
+marvel.
+
+"One day the gun squad was sent to another point a long distance away
+and the lad returned to the rest camp. He now felt himself to be a
+well-seasoned soldier and talked of high-angle guns as volubly as
+could an experienced gunner. Still, he had not yet reached the
+realization of his ambitions. He tried often to steal away to the
+trenches, but in each instance was stopped and turned back.
+
+"While in billets he fell in with a machine-gun company and became
+much interested in what they told him of the perilous work of that
+branch of the service. He concluded that this work would suit him
+better than the anti-aircraft service. While the latter squads
+ordinarily were located behind the lines, the machine gunners were up
+where there was trouble all the time. To join a machine-gun company
+was not so easy.
+
+"Mattia's chance came one night. A company of machine gunners was
+ordered to a remote point on the line, a journey of some fifteen
+miles, where they were to establish a new emplacement, temporarily, to
+clean out a nest of Prussians. The lad listened to what the men had to
+say about their proposed journey and the work they expected to have to
+do with the keenest interest.
+
+"'I too shall go,' he decided, but he told no one of his intention.
+Instead, he waited until the men were well started, then followed
+them. There was no difficulty about this, as they did not have to pass
+any sentries on the way.
+
+"Shells frequently fell near them, many soared over their heads with
+weird moanings. He was getting so familiar with the sound of shells
+that he could tell the kind of shell that was passing by the noise
+made by it.
+
+"Along toward the middle of the night the machine gunners reached
+their destination. Mattia did not show himself until the soldiers
+began preparing an emplacement for their gun. This emplacement was
+located in a clump of bushes, in which they dug a short trench,
+carrying the dirt far to the rear, so the enemy airplanes might not
+discover that the earth had been turned over there.
+
+"The lieutenant in command discovered him and Mattia spent a few most
+uncomfortable minutes in trying to explain why he was there.
+
+"'I know this boy, sir,' volunteered a sergeant. 'He is with the army
+and he is always very useful. Why not, sir, let him remain in case we
+need to send a messenger back?'
+
+"'Very good,' answered the lieutenant, after brief reflection. 'But
+understand, boy, you must keep out of sight. In the daytime I want you
+to go over yonder in those bushes and lie down and don't dare to show
+yourself unless I give you permission.'
+
+"To these orders Mattia made no response. None was expected. All the
+rest of the night he assisted in carrying back dirt in bags and
+dumping it in a gully where it could not be seen from up in the air.
+In addition to the parallel trench one was dug back through the soft
+ground as a sort of communicating trench. The lad wondered how that
+trench could be dug there without the enemy's seeing it, but when the
+men began to plant bushes along its sides, permitting the branches to
+droop over the trench, he saw the idea of the plan. This was
+camouflage.
+
+"It was nearly daybreak when he and some of his comrades made their
+way to the rear and went to sleep. When he awakened the sun was
+shining brightly. Forgetful of his orders, he entered the
+communicating trench and walked forward. He was amazed to find another
+trench leading into the communicating trench. He asked a soldier about
+it.
+
+"'Say, Mattia, do you think this squad is the only one in France?'
+asked the soldier. 'There are other machine-gun units out here. Of
+course, we know where they are and the officers know what we are going
+to do. Peek through these bushes.'
+
+"'Boches!' gasped the lad.
+
+"'That is right, Mattia. They do not know we are here.'
+
+"'Why don't you shoot at them?'
+
+"'We are not ready, or rather, they are not.'
+
+"The Germans were digging a trench on a rise of ground, where they
+always try to place them, instead of on low ground, about half a mile
+away. Mattia peered at them, looking through the bushes, until he was
+ordered by an officer to go back and bring up the breakfast for the
+men. Thus the little Frenchman was given to understand that he was one
+of them. The officer in command either had forgotten his orders to the
+boy of the previous night, or else had decided to use him so long as
+no fighting was going on.
+
+"There was much about the work that Mattia did not understand. He now
+knew that there were other French detachments close at hand, but he
+neither saw nor heard them. The others, undoubtedly, were camouflaged
+just as his detachment was.
+
+"So secretly, however, had the French worked that the Germans did not
+appear even to suspect the presence of the enemy. This secrecy was
+maintained for two more days, Mattia in the meantime having been
+initiated into the mystery of the machine gun. He was allowed by a
+friendly sergeant to handle the gun and go through the motions of
+firing it and putting in a fresh string of shells. It was a delight to
+him.
+
+"On the morning of the third day he was ordered to remain behind in a
+dugout that had been built. He knew by this that an action was at
+hand.
+
+"It came about nine o'clock in the morning, when a company of French
+soldiers came marching down the field in plain view of the Germans,
+though no Germans were in sight. He did not know that these
+infantrymen were a decoy, a part of the plan of the French to draw the
+enemy down within easy range of their machine guns.
+
+"Rifles began to crackle from the Prussian trenches, and to his
+amazement, after firing a few rounds in reply, the French infantrymen
+ran for the cover of the brush. He saw the reason for this a moment
+later when a big troop of German cavalry topped the rise of ground and
+swept on toward the French, followed by the charging infantry of
+the Germans."
+
+[Illustration: HIS FIRE SAVED THE DAY.]
+
+"Some time since, Mattia had slipped from his dugout. He was
+determined to miss nothing of what was going on. He saw his own
+infantrymen take to the communicating trenches and disappear, plainly
+as a part of the plan.
+
+"Then the machine guns began to play. The mounted German detachment
+was close upon them before the hidden French machine guns opened up.
+All down the line to the right he could hear French machine guns
+pouring their fire into the approaching horsemen. Those who were not
+killed or who had not fallen wounded from their horses were turned
+back.
+
+"Mattia, in his excitement, crawled along one side of the
+communicating trench toward the machine-gun emplacement. He was
+shocked to see that more than half of his machine-gun crew already
+were dead or wounded. Now the German artillery, which he could not
+see, began shelling the French positions. A shell exploded in the
+trench occupied by his comrades, and Mattia was hurled violently into
+the communicating trench.
+
+"When the smoke had cleared away Mattia ran forward. The machine gun
+was silent, though others down the line were very busy. It was a
+strange sight for a boy to gaze upon. All his comrades were now lying
+in the trench, either killed or badly wounded.
+
+"The German infantry, in close formation--meaning close together--was
+coming on steadily. Down the line the French were holding them back,
+but in Mattia's trench there was no opposition.
+
+"The boy collected his wits, uttered a gasp, then sprang to the silent
+machine gun. A half-used strip of shells was in the gun and other
+strips were close at hand.
+
+"Little Mattia began to work the machine gun. He swept the field with
+it as far as it would reach to the right and the left, sending a rain
+of bullets into the enemy. Even after the strip was exhausted he kept
+on working the gun, not realizing that it was out of cartridges.
+Discovering this finally, he reloaded and began firing again.
+
+"His fire saved the day for the French, because, had Mattia failed to
+serve the gun, the Germans soon would have broken through the line and
+that would have lost the battle for the French.
+
+"At last the German line began to waver; it stopped, then began a
+retreat on the run, followed by the bullets of the machine gunners.
+Mattia was yelling and whooping as he pumped away with his weapon,
+elevating its muzzle a little from time to time that he might be sure
+to reach the fleeing men.
+
+"Shells had been bursting about him all the time and were still
+bursting.
+
+"The French machine-gun fire from other trenches stopped almost as
+suddenly as it had begun. Then something happened to little Mattia.
+Another shell landed in his trench and burst with a deafening
+explosion. The lad fell forward on his gun and lay still.
+
+"They found him there later, unconscious, badly wounded, his hand
+still on the trigger of the gun he had worked with such success. He
+was carried back to the rest billet and thence to a hospital.
+Everywhere the story of the boy's heroism had preceded him.
+
+"One day as he lay in his cot, now well on the road to recovery, some
+officers, guided by an orderly, entered the ward where he lay and
+halted at his cot. The officer in charge of the party, who proved to
+be a general, made a little speech to the wounded boy, then pinned the
+Cross of War on his breast and finished by kissing him on both cheeks.
+
+"Mattia had won his reward, and though he would never fight again, he
+was a happy boy. He had served his country well and had bled for her
+and had won an honor that comes to few."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MARIE THE COURAGEOUS
+
+
+"The Padre and his little niece, an orphan of twelve, lived on the
+outskirts of a French village that had been taken by the Germans,"
+began Captain Favor, resuming his story telling for the children.
+
+"Marie, for that was her name, was a patriot if there ever was one.
+Every fibre of her being was for France, and one could see the fires
+of patriotism flaming in her eyes. That is the sort of patriotism,
+Joe, that no fear of death can dim."
+
+Joe Funk nodded approvingly. His own patriotism had been stirred by
+these tales of the heroism of the children of France.
+
+"While the French were in possession of the village in the early days
+of the war, an officer of that army made his headquarters with the
+Padre and his niece," continued Captain Favor. "He became very fond of
+the child. Captain Grivelet was his name and, recognizing in Marie a
+true patriot, he had explained many things to her about the war, so
+that, for a child so young, Marie was able to form a very clear idea
+of the situation of the two armies.
+
+"There were, of course, many army secrets of which Captain Grivelet
+never spoke. He, too, was a patriot, you see, as he should be. Having
+asked permission to store some of his personal equipment in the
+Padre's cellar, they thought nothing of his going down there
+frequently. Now and then Marie was certain she heard him talking to
+some one down there.
+
+"One day, after the Prussians had pushed the French back close to the
+village--this was before the Germans took the village, you
+understand--Captain Grivelet had a talk with Marie.
+
+"'Marie, knowing that you are French in your heart and soul, I shall
+confide certain secrets to you. Are you willing to serve your
+country?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur le Capitaine. Always, and with my life, if necessary.'
+
+"'Bravely spoken. You may do as your judgment dictates about repeating
+what I shall tell you to the Padre, your uncle. But for the sake of
+his safety I should advise that you keep your own secrets. Such
+secrecy will not bring dishonor upon you, for it is in behalf of your
+country.'
+
+"'I understand, monsieur. You may trust Marie. She is a loyal French
+girl and will continue to be so no matter what comes.'
+
+"The captain nodded approvingly.
+
+"'Whether or not we shall be able to hold our lines here seems
+doubtful. At least we fear the Prussians, in large force as they are,
+may temporarily drive us back. But it will not be for long. We shall
+recover our ground. Even now we are entrenching ourselves to the rear.
+When that time comes, Marie, you and the Padre will be in peril, for
+the French probably will have to shell the village. We hope it may
+not come to that. What I would ask you is, do you and your uncle wish
+to go to the rear while there is yet time, so you may be safe?'
+
+"'There is reason for believing, monsieur le Capitaine, that Marie may
+be of use to her beloved France here?' she questioned.
+
+"'Yes; that is what I would say.'
+
+"'It is not necessary to ask, monsieur.'
+
+"'You will understand that it is better that I do not speak to the
+Padre, your uncle. You may do so, and you will the better be able to
+judge how to speak to him, though as I already have advised, for the
+sake of his safety he should not be involved. You will not be afraid,
+Marie?'
+
+"'No, monsieur.'
+
+"'It is well. You have seen me go to the cellar, many times, where I
+store my equipment. This equipment I shall remove today, but in the
+cellar you will find--'
+
+"At this instant a shell landed in the street and exploded with a
+roar. It was followed by other shells that swept on to the rear and
+fell beyond the village. A bugle somewhere down the street blew
+insistently. The captain sprang to his feet.
+
+"'Marie, I shall see you later. I am called. You will be prudent and
+be careful of your life?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur.'
+
+"The captain hurried out and that was the last the brave little French
+girl heard of him for some time afterward. All day the battle raged
+and shells fell in the village, many times the Padre's house being
+showered with bursting shrapnel and shell splinters. It was a stout
+little stone house and withstood this storm of steel, save as now and
+then a splinter from a shell tore through the blinds and imbedded
+itself in the wall.
+
+"In the meantime Marie had gone out, unmindful of the danger, to fetch
+her uncle home. The Padre was in his church, but Marie made him come
+home. Reaching there, she said:
+
+"'My uncle, the Germans may come and we shall be in their power. Is it
+your wish to remain here or to go to the rear where you will be safe?'
+
+"'I shall remain here, my child. Perhaps it would be well for you to
+go to the rear and be under the protection of the French, for the
+Prussians are beasts!'
+
+"'With your permission, my uncle, I shall stay here with you. I shall
+not leave you.'
+
+"It is well. If the Prussians come I shall speak with them, and
+perhaps they will leave the Padre and his niece to themselves. But
+they shall not make us Prussians; we shall still be loyal to our
+beloved France.'
+
+"'Yes, uncle, but it will be well that you have a care as to what you
+say and do. Please heed what Marie says, for she knows whereof she
+speaks.'
+
+"All that day the battle raged and the Padre and Marie remained in
+their home, except now and then when the child went out to watch the
+progress of the battle, for their house was on high ground commanding
+an excellent view of the battlefield. The field, however, was so
+covered with smoke that few of the details of what was going on out
+there were observable.
+
+"With darkness the battle still continued. Later on there was rifle
+fire in the street, and, acting upon the Padre's suggestion, uncle and
+niece took refuge in their cellar, for the bullets were beginning to
+spatter on the walls within the house.
+
+"It was near daylight when the firing died down, whereupon the Padre
+and Marie came upstairs and went to bed for a few hours' sleep.
+
+"They were rudely awakened by a violent pounding on the door. It was
+Marie who sprang up at the sound and who opened the door. Confronting
+her was a German soldier, armed with a rifle. The girl did not quail.
+
+"'Is this the Padre's home?' he demanded gruffly.
+
+"'It is.'
+
+"'The Prussians are now in control of this village and the inhabitants
+will govern themselves accordingly. We shall search your house. Then,
+if you behave yourselves, you will be permitted to remain here and to
+go out in the daytime, as usual. All food that is asked for by the
+soldiers shall be given to them without question, but any attempt to
+communicate with the enemy, the slightest disobedience of the orders
+of the commander, will be punished by death.'
+
+"The soldier beckoned to several other soldiers who were in the
+background and ordered them to search the house. This they did with
+thoroughness. Marie had forgotten about the equipment of Captain
+Grivelet in the cellar, but it was brought home to her with a shock
+when the searchers came up bearing the stuff the French officer had
+left. The soldier in charge eyed the Padre and his niece sternly. He
+demanded to know to whom this equipment belonged.
+
+"Marie very frankly told him that an officer had requested permission
+to leave the equipment there, and had slept in the house. Beyond that
+she knew nothing, nor did she know what his luggage contained.
+
+"'I shall report this to my commander. I know not what he will do, but
+giving aid to the enemy is a serious matter,' he warned. Then the
+soldiers went away. That day neither the Padre nor Marie left the
+house. Late in the afternoon an officer entered and questioned them
+sharply, finally leaving, apparently satisfied with their answers. The
+two were not disturbed again.
+
+"Next day the Padre went to his church and Marie went out to do her
+marketing. She was unmolested, though soldiers frequently spoke to her
+jokingly, to all of which she smiled and made some bright reply.
+
+"That night as she sat thinking in her room in the dark, her
+conversation with Captain Grivelet suddenly came back to her. He had
+been about to tell her something of importance, something that he
+wished her to do for her people.
+
+"'The cellar!' exclaimed the child.
+
+"Snatching up a candle, she hurried below and holding the light above
+her head, surveyed the low-ceilinged cellar keenly.
+
+"'I see nothing,' murmured the girl. 'But surely there is something
+here. It could not have been in the equipment that the Germans carried
+away with them, for they searched the Captain's belongings and found
+nothing. That I plainly saw with my own eyes.'
+
+"Marie gave up her quest and, returning to her room, went to bed. The
+greater part of the night she lay awake, disturbed now and then by
+vollies of rifle shots, which she interpreted with a shudder. Some of
+her neighbors were meeting a terrible fate, a fate that yet might be
+hers or her uncle's, or both.
+
+"On the following morning, after a soldier had visited their home and
+again searched it, Marie, still troubled by her failure to find that
+which the French captain had started to confide in her, locked the
+door after the Padre's departure for his church, and once more went to
+the cellar.
+
+"This time her search was thorough, but she discovered nothing.
+Sitting down in the middle of the cellar, with her candle placed on
+the floor at one side, she gazed about her. A shadow cast by the
+candlelight on the cellar wall seemed to make it appear that one of
+the stones projected outward further than the others.
+
+"Marie got up to examine the stone. Closer examination verified this
+surmise. She uttered a little exclamation when, upon taking hold of
+the stone, it moved. Marie pulled and the stone came out easily.
+
+"'Oh!' cried the child.
+
+"There, before her eyes, tucked into the opening, was a telephone. The
+child stared at it with wide open eyes. This, plainly, was what the
+French captain wished to tell her about when he was interrupted by the
+bugle summons and called away to a service from which he did not
+return. But what was it that he wished her to do with the telephone?
+
+"'I have it!' she cried exultingly. 'It was that he wished the little
+Marie to tell him what the Prussians were doing. At last the way is
+opened for her to serve her country. But--' The child, with a wisdom
+beyond her years, knew what the penalty would be if she were
+discovered. 'I care not. If I shall have served my France I can die
+with a brave heart!'
+
+"Taking the telephone in her hands--hands that did not even tremble,
+Marie called a soft 'hello!' There was no response. Again and again
+she tried, but without result. Finally the child gave it up and went
+back upstairs.
+
+"The thought of the telephone drew her again to the cellar. Again she
+called her soft 'hello.'
+
+"The answer came back in French with a suddenness that nearly caused
+her to drop the telephone.
+
+"'Who is speaking?' she asked in as firm a voice as she could summon.
+
+"'Whom do you wish?'
+
+"'I would speak with Captain Grivelet'
+
+"'He is not here. I cannot reach him.'
+
+"'It is important. Find him and tell him that the little Marie would
+speak with him. Tell him to come at ten o'clock this evening and Marie
+will be here at the telephone. He will understand.'
+
+"Marie put back the telephone and carefully closed the opening. Now
+she had a distinct mission to perform, and, throwing a scarf over her
+head, she went out to the street. Marie was very bright of face and
+very friendly with the German soldiers. No obstacle was placed in the
+way of her going where she liked. That day she used her eyes and ears
+to good advantage and they saw and heard many things. What especially
+interested her was the massing of German troops in the forest to the
+west of the village. She heard of this through a conversation between
+two officers. There also was great activity behind the lines. There
+the Germans were building entrenchments, which she could plainly see
+from the windows of her home.
+
+"The child knew that what she had observed was important, but just how
+important, of course, she could not know.
+
+"Promptly at ten o'clock that night, after the Padre had gone fast
+asleep, Marie hastened to the cellar and again called over the
+telephone. Captain Grivelet was quickly summoned.
+
+"'It is the little Marie speaking,' she called excitedly.
+
+"'My brave child,' answered the captain. 'I knew you would find the
+way. We are defeated, but not for long, for the French are being
+reinforced and are angry. Can you safely go out into the street
+tomorrow and then let me know what they are doing?'
+
+"'I already have been out, monsieur le Capitaine, and I have seen.'
+
+"'I beg of you to be careful. You are in great peril. If the Boches
+discover that you are in communication with us they will shoot you.'
+
+"'I fear them not. But I must hasten. Listen!' Marie then told the
+captain all that she had learned, interrupted frequently by
+exclamations of approval from the officer at the other end.
+
+"'Wait!' she called. 'Hold, for I hear movement above.'
+
+"A few minutes later Marie returned to the telephone. 'Down in the
+middle of the village are many soldiers. I know not why they are
+gathering there, but I think perhaps they may be going to shoot some
+of our noble Frenchmen.'
+
+"'Down by the square?' questioned the captain.
+
+"'Yes.'
+
+"'Put away your telephone and go to the floor above. Watch the square
+and you shall see what the French gunners can do. The people are in
+their houses?'
+
+"'Yes, monsieur, they dare not go out at night. It is forbidden.'
+
+"'Good! Do as I have directed, and go no more to the telephone until
+tomorrow night at this time, unless something of importance develops,
+then call for me. I shall leave orders to be summoned immediately.'
+
+"Not fully understanding what the captain was about to do, the child
+hastened upstairs and, opening the door slightly, peered down the
+street.
+
+"It was at this moment that a giant shell from a French battery
+exploded fairly in the middle of the square, with a terrific shock and
+roar. It was followed by several other heavy explosions. Then silence
+settled over the night.
+
+"This silence, however, did not last for long. The forest in which so
+many German troops were being massed was bombarded all through the
+night, as were the entrenchments to the rear of the village where the
+enemy was busily engaged in fortifying themselves.
+
+"The child shuddered. She was troubled.
+
+"'It is for France that I have done this,' she said to comfort
+herself. 'Already the Prussians have killed many here, and for what?
+For nothing save that they are French. It is terrible.'
+
+"On the following day Marie picked up further information. She also
+learned that the Germans had suffered heavily from the previous
+night's bombardment, and that they were amazed at the exact
+information possessed by the French.
+
+"Each night the child spoke with the French captain over the
+telephone, and each night the French obtained information of great
+value to them. Though Marie did not know it, the Germans had by this
+time satisfied themselves that some one in the village was
+communicating with the French forces, and a careful watch was being
+kept on every inhabitant of the place. Marie, all ignorant of this,
+continued to keep the French informed of the movements of the enemy.
+
+"One night, after a day of heavy fighting on both sides, during which
+the Germans had been slowly pushed back, Marie was giving Captain
+Grivelet her report of the operations on the German side for that day.
+She had communicated everything down to the smallest detail and was
+just replacing the telephone in its niche when she thought she heard a
+sound behind her. Marie turned quickly.
+
+"The child's head grew dizzy; she nearly fainted with fright, for
+there, gazing sternly at her, stood a Prussian officer.
+
+"'So! This is it?'
+
+"Marie did not answer. She could not.
+
+"'For this you shall be shot. Stand back. Give me that telephone!'
+
+"Snatching it from her hands he got the French headquarters, though he
+did not know to whom he was speaking.
+
+"'Speaking to you is a Prussian major,' he said in French. 'He has
+just discovered why the French have been so fully informed. The spy
+who has thus informed you is the Padre's niece. She dies tonight!'
+
+"With that the major wrenched the telephone from its wires and ripped
+the wires out, leaving the outside wires, that were underground, for
+his engineers to destroy. Marie, eyes now flashing, was led from her
+home and taken to the office of the general commanding the operations
+there. Soon after her arrival her uncle came, in charge of two
+soldiers. Then the examination began. Not one bit of information would
+the girl give. At last the commanding officer turned to the Padre.
+
+"'It is my belief that you are responsible for this spying. It is not
+my wish to shoot a Padre, but you shall be taken out and shot
+immediately!'
+
+"'No, no, no!' cried Marie, now thoroughly aroused. 'He knows nothing
+of what has been done. I swear it, monsieur! It is Marie who has
+informed the French of what the hated Prussians were doing. I--'
+
+"'Ah! You admit it! It is well. Take her away. Take the Padre away
+also, but keep them separated.'
+
+"Marie left the commander with head erect and eyes flashing. Her only
+concern was for her uncle, whom she feared would be shot. She had no
+doubts about herself Of course, they would shoot her and she gloried
+in the thought that she was to die for France.
+
+"After her departure the Prussian general devoted several minutes to
+deep thought.
+
+"'Of course, Herr General, she will be shot,' said the major who had
+made the capture.
+
+"'No!' answered the commander, with emphasis.
+
+"'Not shot?' questioned the officer in amazement.
+
+"'No. She shall be sent to the camp at Metz and imprisoned for the
+duration of the war. The Padre also shall be sent to the rear and held
+during the rest of the war.'
+
+"'Herr General, may I ask why, when both should be executed without
+delay?'
+
+"'Because, major, I dislike to put a Padre to death, and further, I
+am satisfied that the girl told the truth when she said that he knew
+nothing of this affair. He is a simple-minded man. But the girl!' The
+general shrugged his shoulders like a Frenchman. 'She is keen as a new
+saber.'
+
+"'And knowing well what she was doing she should be shot,' insisted
+the major.
+
+"'I have a daughter of her age,' replied the general, slowly. 'This
+child is so like her that I should feel like murdering my own were I
+to order her shot. Major, I cannot do it. See that my orders are
+carried out. I shall explain my action in this matter to my superiors
+for their approval.'
+
+"That ended it. It was an unusual thing for a Prussian to do and
+perhaps the only instance in the war where so much human sympathy was
+shown to a spy. Marie was taken to the prison at Metz, where she was
+kept from that time on. She suffered great hardships. There was little
+food and her treatment was harsh, so that her days were a misery and
+her nights a nightmare.
+
+"A long time elapsed ere Captain Grivelet learned, through the Red
+Cross, what had become of the child. His sorrow had been keen, for he
+believed that she had been executed. The Padre was still in a prison
+camp the last I heard of the case. I hope the beautiful little patriot
+and her uncle may be reunited some day. But Marie has served her
+country nobly and if she ever comes back she will be splendidly
+rewarded by her government," said the captain, in conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+"My dear children," said Captain Favor, "there are not many more
+things to tell you. I knew of one brave little French lad who was
+mortally wounded, when the Germans took the town in which he lived and
+shot many of the inhabitants.
+
+"The little fellow I refer to refused the aid of the German surgeon,
+declaring that he preferred to die rather than to accept the aid of a
+hated Prussian.
+
+"Another child lost his life for his refusal to tell a German
+commander in which direction a detachment of French troops had gone.
+He did this with full knowledge of what would happen to him if he
+refused this information. Death were preferable to betraying his own
+people.
+
+"The full story of the deeds of heroism of the children of France
+never will be fully told. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of
+incidents such as I have described to you, that have occurred over
+there.
+
+"These deeds, this spirit of patriotism and self-sacrifice should be a
+great lesson to us in America, whether we be young or old. You
+children who are growing up have a grave responsibility to help your
+fellows make patriotism a part of their lives. I know you will do,
+with the lesson of the French children in mind, all you can. America
+has need of patriotism, and she will have need of more in the years to
+come. Start something, boys and girls, and keep the fires of
+patriotism burning."
+
+"We will!" cried the children, with Joe Funk's voice heard above all
+the rest.
+
+"Perhaps one of these days I shall have some other stories to tell
+you. I think I have told you enough stories to last for some time. I
+have told you only such little stories as I know to be true, and here
+we will stop. Come in to see me any time you feel like it. I shall go
+to New York in a few days to see a big, big surgeon who thinks perhaps
+he may put my leg in shape so that I shall walk as well as ever."
+
+"Then, then," said Joe, "I'll bet that you will be going back to the
+army."
+
+"I'll bet you win, Joe," answered the captain, laughingly. "For the
+present, au revoir."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Children of France, by Ruth Royce
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