thing else, for which all must be sacrificed with joy. France is
a name to conjure with; it is an ideal as well as a country, for it
embodies all that Frenchmen have fought and died for in all the
centuries.

Paris had never before seemed half so clean, but this is the
impression that you always get when you return to it. Perhaps it was
the contrast with the filthy, muddy streets of the little northern
villages in the war zone,--streets traversed daily by hundreds of
motor lorries and thousands of men each of whom brings in, from the
surrounding country, a certain amount of dirt.

On Sunday morning towards eleven o'clock the great avenue--Le
Bois--leading towards St. Cloud, was crowded with the better class of
Parisians, all wending their way to the woods and parks for the day.
They were there in tens of thousands, on foot and in taxis, and very
frequently carrying lunch baskets.

Never does one see such a smartly dressed crowd of women as one sees
in Paris. No matter what the combination of colour, no matter what the
style, they look well, for they have the national gift of knowing how
to wear their clothes. Even the widows in mourning, and there were
many of them, looked most interesting. French women have a grace of
carriage and know how to walk, which is in striking contrast to the
majority of English, Canadian or American women. It is the ensemble
which gives the Parisienne that air of distinction which is so
characteristic.

The children were dressed in the styles which are usually seen only in
the fashion plates and as much pride and thought was evidently spent
upon them as on the dress of the mothers themselves. The French
children in Paris are particularly well behaved and obedient.

The trees in Le Bois were just bursting into leaf on that first Sunday
of mid March. The rented boats on the little lakes were filled with
young boys and their sweethearts, and they splashed up and down and
ran into each other, and made much noise after the manner of people of
that age under similar circumstances the world over.

Crossing the Seine we ascended the hill to the race course of St.
Cloud, from which a magnificent view of Paris is obtainable. It was a
splendid situation for the French Canadian hospital established there
under the command of Lt.-Col. Mignault of Montreal.

The French authorities did not want the wounded from Verdun to come to
the Paris hospitals, for it might depress the people too much. So,
tho