ed yards and began digging themselves in; in other
words, digging temporary trenches.

"The Germans already had begun shooting, the French quickly
retaliating. The former were in larger numbers than the French captain
had believed them to be. Lucien was still up the tree, peering out,
his eyes large and frightened. Bullets were clipping the foliage all
about him. He did not realize this at first, but finally, when he did,
he slid down the tree in a hurry and hid behind it.

"Scouts were hastening back to the rear with messages from the
captain, who had sent for assistance, seeing that the German force was
too large for him to hold off indefinitely.

"Night came on and the firing died down. There had been very few
losses. During the night a large detachment of French troops joined
the captain's force and early on the following morning the battle was
resumed with great fury. Lucien had slept in a tree all night. His
captain told him to go back home, but this the boy, for some reason of
his own, did not care to do.

"Early in the day the Germans, who also had entrenched themselves,
came over the top and drove the French back, taking some prisoners and
killing many. Lucien, who was hiding up in a tree, found himself
between the lines, high and dry, as it were. He made himself as small
as possible up there and gazed wonderingly at the furious battle that
was being fought beneath him. Late in the forenoon the French drove
the Prussians back. The boy took advantage of the opportunity to get
down from the tree and get behind his own lines. It was observed,
however, that he kept always within reach of a tree.

"Men were falling out there on the field. Plucking up courage, Lucien
went out with some stretcher bearers and helped gather up the wounded,
but there were not enough of the stretcher bearers to properly care
for the wounded; even stretchers were scarce. In the excitement of the
work Lucien forgot his fears. The lad was resourceful and, recognizing
the necessity for getting the wounded from the field, began to cast
about for some means of solving this problem.

"'Ah! A wheelbarrow. The very thing,' he cried. The wheelbarrow
belonged to the farmhouse near the field, from which the occupants had
run away when the troops came. Lucien quickly possessed himself of the
barrow and proudly marched out on the field pushing the barrow ahead
of him. By tipping it up on one side he was able to roll a wounded man
in, not very ge