The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-09-15
love for the fatherland which was slipping

love for the fatherland which was slipping
away from us.
was deep in my thoughts when suddenly
| heard my name called. 1t was my turn to
recite. What wouldn't l have given to be
able TO say, clear to the end, that famous rule
| Of participates, very loud, very clear, without
a single fault but | stumbled at the first
| words, and stood there beside my bench,
swaying back and forth, my heart swelling.
without daring to raise my head heard
NJ. Hamel speaking to me.
| ~ will not scold you. my little Frantz," he
said; this should be punishment enough. 1t
is always like this Each day We say to our
selves, 'Pshaw! l have plenty of time.
will learn tomorrow And now you see
what has come-ah, that has been the great
misfortune of our Alsace; always putting of
| her education until tomorrow. Now these
men have the right to say to us: How il
this. You pretend to be French, and you
can neither speak nor write your languagei
You are not the most to blame, my poor
Frantz We all have much to reproach our
| selves for
| "Your fathers and mothers haven't given
enough attention to your education. They
| like better to send you to work in the fields
or to help the spinners, because it brings in a
| few sous more. And !, have l no fault to
find with myself How often have sent
you to water my garden instead of making
you suGyl And when wanted to 60 trout
fishing, how impatient have been to get rid
Of you ALP
Then, running on from one thing to another,
| NJ. Hamel began to talk to us about our Ian
guage, saying it was the most beautiful in
| all the world, the clearest and Tire strongest;
and that we must guard 1t among US and
never forget it, for when people fell into
slavery, so long as they held fast to their
language it was as If they kept the key to
their prison. Then he took upa grammar
and read us our lesson. was astonished to
see how we'll understood it. AL that he
said seemed so easy to me- think, also, that
had never listened so attentively before, and
perhaps, too, that he had never before had
so much patience in explaining to us. One
would have said that before going away
from us the poor man wanted to give us all
his knowledge, to force it into our heads ut a
single stroke.
When the lesson was finished we had our
writing next. For this last day NJ Hamsl
had made new copies for us, on which were
written in a clear, round hand: France,
Alsace France, Alsace.'. They looked like
so many little futtering flags hanging from
the rail vt the front Of each desk. You
should have seen how we applied ourselves;
and what a silence there was! One heard
only the scratching of the pens on the paper.
Once some beetles few in at the window, but
no one paid any attention to them, not even
the little ones, who were tracing their up
strokes and down strokes as theoretically and
as conscientiously as if there were something
French in that, too. On the roof Of the
school house the pigeons were cooling softly,
and said to myself while listened: And
the pigeons, too; will they have to sing in
GermanF
| From time to time, when raised my eyes
to the top of the page, could see NJ. Hamel
sitting motonless in his chair, fixing his eyes
on the things around him, as if he wanted to
carry away in his mind the whole Of his
little school. Just think Of It'll For forty
years he had sat there in the same place,
looking into his little court yard through the
window in front of him, and with his class
always the same. Only the desks and benches
had become worn and polished by usage; the
walnut trees in the court yard had grown
bigger, and the hop vine that he had planted
| with his own hands now encircled the win
dows and climbed up to the roof. How it
must have made his heart ache to think Of
| leaving all these things; to hear his sister
going and coming in the chamber above
while she fastened their boxes; for they were
going the next day-going away from their
country forever!
But for all that he had the courage to
| teach us to the end. After our writing came
our history lesson; then the little ones
chanted their "Ba-be-bi-bo-bu." There at
| the back of the room old Hauser had put on
his spectacles, and, holding his primer in
| both hands, was spelling out the letters with
them. You could see how earnest he was;
his voice trembled with emotion, and it was
so droll to hear him that we could hardly
keep from laughing and crying, too. All!
| shall always remember that last day.
All at once the clock in the church tower
sounded for noon, then chimed the "An-
| gelus." At the same moment the trumrets
of the Prussians, who were returning from
their drill, rang out under our windows. NJ.
| Hamel raised himself from his chair; he was
| very pale. He had never looked so tall to
| me as be did then.
"My friends" he said, my friends,
| Up
But something choked him. He couldn't
| finish what he was going to say.
He turned to the blackboard, took up a
piece of chalk, and bearing on it with all his
strength he wrote as large as he could
give Ia France"
Then he stood there leaning his head
against the wall, and, without speaking,
made a gesture with his hand:
at is -go!"-Translated from the
French Of Daudet for The Evening Sun.