ares. I was for punishing the guilty but
letting the innocent go free. It was our business to thank God and
keep our hands clean from the ugly blunders to which Germany's madness
had driven her. What good would it do Christian folk to burn poor
little huts like this and leave children's bodies by the wayside? To
be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man
better than the beasts.

The place, as I have said, was desperately poor. The woman's face had
the skin stretched tight over the bones and that transparency which
means under-feeding; I fancied she did not have the liberal allowance
that soldiers' wives get in England. The children looked better
nourished, but it was by their mother's sacrifice. I did my best to
cheer them up. I told them long yarns about Africa and lions and
tigers, and I got some pieces of wood and whittled them into toys. I
am fairly good with a knife, and I carved very presentable likenesses
of a monkey, a springbok, and a rhinoceros. The children went to bed
hugging the first toys, I expect, they ever possessed.

It was clear to me that I must leave as soon as possible. I had to get
on with my business, and besides, it was not fair to the woman. Any
moment I might be found here, and she would get into trouble for
harbouring me. I asked her if she knew where the Danube was, and her
answer surprised me. 'You will reach it in an hour's walk,' she said.
'The track through the wood runs straight to the ferry.'

Next morning after breakfast I took my departure. It was drizzling
weather, and I was feeling very lean. Before going I presented my
hostess and the children with two sovereigns apiece. 'It is English
gold,' I said, 'for I have to travel among our enemies and use our
enemies' money. But the gold is good, and if you go to any town they
will change it for you. But I advise you to put it in your
stocking-foot and use it only if all else fails. You must keep your
home going, for some day there will be peace and your man will come
back from the wars.'

I kissed the children, shook the woman's hand, and went off down the
clearing. They had cried 'Auf Wiedersehen,' but it wasn't likely I
would ever see them again.

The snow had all gone, except in patches in the deep hollows. The
ground was like a full sponge, and a cold rain drifted in my eyes.
After half an hour's steady trudge the trees thinned, and presently I
came out on a knuckle of open ground