Gay, as the skater who blithely whirls
To the place of the dangerous ice!
Content, as the lamb who nibbles the grass
While the butcher sets the price!
So content and gay were the boys at play
In the nations near and far,
When munition kings and diplomats
Cried, "War! War!! War!!!"




CHAPTER II

WORKING IN!


The day after we went to the city I got my first real glimpse of war!
It was the white face of our French neighbor. His wife and two little
girls had gone to France a month before the war broke out, and were
visiting his family in a village on the Marne. Since the outbreak of
war he had had no word from them, and his face worked pitifully when
he told me this. "Not one word, though I cabled and got friends in
London to wire _aussi_," he said. "But I will go myself and see."

"What about your house and motor?" he was asked.

He raised his shoulders and flung out his hands. "What difference?" he
said; "I will not need them."