Edith Ballinger Price

“ Within the farm-house a colonel of artillery and two captains were bending over a litter of papers on a table. Two or three lieutenants sprawled and smoked in a corner. A candle stuck in a bottle burned gustily on the table, dribbling tallow on the documents below it. The officers straightened their tired backs and looked around quickly as the shaky door was banged open by the guard and a flood of moonlight streamed in. In the doorway stood Sister Eloise, her stained gray cloak drawn around her, and her rumpled white coif shimmering in the pale light. ”

“ At the end of the third mile Jean-Marie opened his eyes.
"Why are you carrying me, Sister Eloise?" he asked. "I am too heavy. I will walk."
"Mais non," she said gently; "you are not heavy." As she looked down at him he tried to cling to her.
"Something hurts," he whispered, and lost consciousness again.
As Nichy became visible on the hill-top, Sister Eloise wondered a little at the brightness of the sunset behind it. Then almost immediately she thought:
"But no, how can it be? Nichy is in the north; it is the north we are facing. The sun sets behind the wood of Saint Monique." ”

“ Sister Eloise was the only reality. He heard the swirl of her gown and saw a glint of light on her spectacles as she bent over him, and her arms, as she lifted him, were warm and real and very comforting. He did not understand why she washed and bound his legs every day, or connect it with his increased suffering at the time; but he understood her words: "Mon brave! Mon chéri! Ah, Jean-Marie!"
Michel followed Sister Eloise always.
"If my papa were not killed, he would take us out He would come and take us out," he said over and over. "Why do not the other papas who are not killed come for us?" ”

“ Jean-Marie's hand clung very close, and the dawn was long in coming.
One day was much like another in the broken farm-house. At first Sister Eloise dared to let the children run about in the sunshine outside the door, but there came a time when that could not be. Enemy aircraft drifted overhead too constantly, and the guns were battering their way ever nearer. Nichy was taken and re-taken, though of that Sister Eloise knew nothing. ”

“ To the north the constant booming was now sometimes broken by a sharper sound, a crackling crash. Sister Eloise laughed a little.
"It is so still to-day, so hot," she said, "the sound comes very clearly to us. It is many, many miles away. Run, mes petits; run and play, and make yourselves hungry for the luncheon."
They ran, laughing, but Michel sat under the cedar-tree with his chin in his hands, and he was trembling a little. His father had been killed the week before.
Sister Eloise was about to gather her little band together to march them two and two into the convent. ”

“ Somewhere their fathers fought for France, and there in Nichy their mothers clung fiercely to the cottages that might at any moment be taken from them. Some of those good fathers were already huddled into forgotten graves or stretched under the sky in no-man's-land, but the children still laughed in the garden of Sainte Scholastique, confident that papa would very soon return en permission, with presents bulging from his pockets, and a Boche helmet to clap on a proud little head. ”

“ I saw Sister Eloise not long ago in a big hospital near Paris. She put down the tray she was carrying and came forward, smiling, when she heard of the jeune Americaine who was eager to meet her. She took my hand and held it in hers, while her eyes shone with pleasure behind her large spectacles.
"How brave you are, chère miss!" she said, "to come across the sea when the submarines of the enemy are so dangerous. I admire greatly the grande courage of all the American young ladies, vous autres, who so bravely come to help our dear France. Me, I am timid ”

“ One night, as she peered from behind the angle of the wall which made her last shelter before creeping fifty feet in the open, she saw the glint of helmets at the well, where three German soldiers were drinking, and she lay motionless for an hour, while the men talked and smoked, before they walked slowly back into the wood. ”

“ They were sitting silently, with their faces turned toward the chapel door.
"Where is Antoine?" asked Michel.
"Antoine has gone away. He is not hurt," said Sister Eloise. "Come, mes chéris; we will go away from here."
She gathered Jean-Marie in one arm,and took Georges by the hand. He was the littlest one.
"I am hungry," said a little girl.
Sister Eloise led the way through the garden-door into the road, and turned toward Nichy.
"We will eat presently," she said. "Here there is nothing to eat." ”

“ Sister Eloise helped the children over.
"It is not much farther to walk," she said. "Soon you will see your dear mothers, and we will eat. Is this not amusing, climbing over the trees? Let us pretend that it is a great river that we are crossing by means of logs and rafts.Hurry, Virginie! ”