to go and stand up like those
targets out there and be hit on the skull or in the belly by the
shrapnel?"

"Not I."

"Perhaps you would, Findeisen?"

"I? God damn me--no!"

"Or you, Truchsess?"

The brewer thought a moment, and answered:

"No, certainly not. I wish for peace. But the French might want to
fight us, or the Russians."

"Ha, ha!" laughed Weise. "Well, now, think about it a moment. Over
there in France are sitting together just such poor simple fellows as
we are here. Ask them if they want to let themselves be shot dead in a
moment without rhyme or reason? Do you expect them to say yes?"

"No, of course not. But--but--then who is it who really does want war?"

Weise did not speak for a moment, but laughed softly. Then he answered,
shrugging his shoulders: "Ah, that I don't know. Probably nobody. So
much only is clear: _we_ don't want it."

During these conversations, Wolf, the lean gunner of the "old gang,"
was always careful to hold aloof. He listened to the talk, but never
joined in it. When his comrades had gone in to bed, he would stay on,
gazing out into the beautiful night of the woods. No one longed as
fervently as he did for the end of the term of service. He, who had
been wont to grudge every day on which he had done nothing to further
the cause of revolution and social-democracy, was forbidden for two
long years to allow a word to pass his lips about what lay nearest his
heart! Yet he was all the more cautious not to commit any indiscretions
that might perhaps entail a prolongation of the hateful restraint.

Hitherto he had had but a vague comprehension of the idea of freedom;
now he felt that he grasped it. Freedom! It meant the time after his
discharge--the time when he would no longer wear the soldier's uniform!
When, during these weeks, Wolf had been an auditor of Weise's covertly
inflammatory speeches, he had longed each time to step forward and
speak out too. He knew that his own words would have flowed far more
convincingly and more passionately than Weise's. But he knew also that
in such case he would only have the greater difficulty in restraining
himself afterwards; so he kept silence.

However, the end was attained without his help. It was quite remarkable
how after such conversations these peasant lads and the others, who up
to now had heard nothing of socialism and labour movements, rapidly
assimilated the new and palatable wisdom, although no word of direct
propaganda