and cheerfulness, as the other commanders had,
as if this were his only boast. These French officers have little "side";
none of that toe-the-mark, strutting militarism which the Germans
think necessary to efficiency. They live very simply on campaign,
though if they do get to town for a few hours they enjoy a good meal.
If they did not, madame at the restaurant would feel that she was not
doing her duty to France.

XII
Smiles Among Ruins

Scorched piles of brick and mortar where a home has been ought to
make about the same impression anywhere. When you have gone
from Belgium to French Lorraine, however, you will know quite the
contrary. In Belgium I suffered all the depression which a nightmare
of war's misery can bring; in French Lorraine I found myself sharing
something of the elation of a man who looks at a bruised knuckle with
the consciousness that it broke a burglar's jaw.

A Belgian repairing the wreck of his house was a grim, heartbreaking
picture; a Frenchman of Lorraine repairing the wreck of his house had
the light of hard-won victory, of confidence, of sacrifice made to a
great purpose, of freedom secure for future generations, in his eyes.
The difference was this: The Germans were still in Belgium; they were
out of French Lorraine for good.

"What matters a shell-hole through my walls and my torn roof!" said a
Lorraine farmer. "Work will make my house whole. But nothing could
ever have made my heart and soul whole while the Germans
remained. I saw them go, monsieur; they left us ruins, but France is
ours!"

I had thought it a pretty good thing to see something of the Eastern
French front; but a better thing was the happiness I found there.

Mon capitaine had come out from the Ministry of War in Paris; but
when we set out from Nancy southward, we had a different local
guide, a major belonging to the command in charge of the region
which we were to visit. He was another example which upsets certain
popular notions of Frenchmen as gesticulating, excitable little men.
Some six feet two in height, he had an eye that looked straight into
yours, a very square chin, and a fine forehead. You had only to look
at him and size him up on points to conclude that he was all there;
that he knew his work.

"Well, we've got good weather for it to-day, monsieur," said a voice
out of a goatskin coat, and I found we had the same chauffeur as
before.

The sun was shining--a warm winter sun like that