again. "I am very poor; I have only
one franc a day. We have no friends. I borrowed money for the hearse."

The boy returned to his fellows. "Fall in line, boys!" he shouted. "Here
is a soldier of France. This little girl has taken care of him for three
years on one franc a day. Line up, everybody, and tell the men to
swallow their coffee and wine and fall into the procession. Go into the
shops and say that a soldier of France lies here." When that hearse
began to move there were twenty men and women walking as mourners behind
the body. Two soldier boys walked beside the frail little girl with her
heavy crepe. As the soldiers walked along beside the hearse the
procession began to grow. On and on for two long miles this slowly
moving company increased in number until one hundred were in line, and
when they came into God's Acre they buried the poor boy as if he were a
king coming in with trumpets from the battle. For he was a soldier of
France.

5. The Old Book-Lover of Louvain

Among the fascinating pursuits of life we must make a large place for
the collection of old books, old paintings, old missals and curios.
Certain cities, like Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Madrid, have
been for a thousand years like unto the Sargasso Sea in which beautiful
things have drifted.

Fifty years ago, men of leisure began to collect these treasures. Some
made their way into Egypt and Palestine, and there uncovered temples
long buried in sands and ruins and all covered with debris. From time to
time old missals were found in deserted monasteries, marbles were digged
up in buried palaces. Men came back from their journeys with some lovely
terra cotta, some ivory or bronze, some painting by an old master, whose
beauty had been hidden for centuries under smoke and grime. The
enthusiasm of the collectors exceeds the zest of men searching for gold
and diamonds amid the sands of South Africa.

Fifty years ago a young scholar of Louvain won high praise because of
his skill in dating and naming old pictures and manuscripts. When ten
years had passed by, this scholar's name and fame were spread all over
Europe. Many museums in different countries competed for his services.

The time came when the heads of galleries in London and Paris and Rome
sent for this expert to pass upon some art object. During the fifty
years this scholar came to know every beautiful treasure in Europe.

In the old castles of Austria, in a monastery of Bohem