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