Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-10-14

The Last Lesson
TOLD BY AN ALSATIAN CHILD)
orom the French of Alphonse DaudeO
%(copyright, by ]. B. LlppIncott Cos

Lippincott Coz
ing their respects to the fatherland
to which he was going.
In the midst of my meditations l
heard my name called; 1t was my turn
to recite. What woald l not have CIV
en- to be able to repeat, loud and with
out a mistake, the whole of that ia
nous rule for the participles! But l
bungled the first words, and stood
wriggling in my place, heavy-hearted,
not daring to raise my head. Then /
heard M. Hamel speak to me:
Il will not reproach you, my boy;
you are sufficiently punished as it is.
You see now how it is; you have said
to yourself day by day: oh, l have
plenty of time; l will learn 1t to-mor-
row. and then you see what to.mor-
row brings when 1t comes. All, that
has been the great misfortune of our
Alsace, putting off its instruction un-
I'll tomorrow. And soon it will be just
for them to say to US: What you
pretend to be French, when you can
neither speak nor write your own
laaguage!'
But with 1t all, you are no worse
than the rest of us; we all deserve a
full share of the blame. Your par
ents have not been sufficiently anxious
to have you educated. They have pre-
ferred the sous you could make by
working in the fields or the factories.
And for my part l reproach myself;
Il reproach myself for making you SO
often water my garden when you
should have been studying, and for
not hesitating to give you a holiday
when | wanted to go fishing"
And then M. Hamel spoke to us Of
the French language, point by point,
saying that it was the most beautiful
language in the world, the most ex-
pressive, the most virile; that it be-
hooved us to preserve 1t among us
and never to forget it.
The lesson finished, we took UP wri-
ting. For this day, M. Hamel had pre-
pared entirely new copies, on which
was written in beautiful round-hand,
France, Alsace, France, Alsace;"
these were made in the shape of lit.
tie flags, which were hung from the
rods of u desks, and so floated on
all sides Of the class. You should
have seen how everyone applied him
self. And such silence! one could
hear nothing but the scratching of
pens upon paper. Even when cock
chafers buzzed into the room no one
paid any attention to them, not even
the smallest children, who applied
themselves as industriously as though
their pot-hooks were also French.
Upon the roof of the school the pi-
geons cooed softly. will not they
too have to S German" | asked my
self as I listened.
When raised my eyes from the
page in front of me from time to time,
| saw M. Hamel sitting motionless in
his seat, gazing long at the objects
about him, as though he would take
away in his memory all the little
sc~hoolhouse. Think Of It'll for
40 years he had been there In the
same place opposite his courtyard,
facing a classroom which had
changed in appearance only in that
the benches and desks had become
shiny, polished by use. The walnut
trees in the courtyard had grown, and
the hop-vine he had planted himself
had by this time festooned the win
dows UP to the roof. What a heart
breaking thing 1t must have been for
the poor man to turn his back on all
these things, and to hear his sister
walking to and fro in the room be-.
yond, packing their baggage, for they
must go away tomorrow forever.
Nevertheless, he had the courage to
keep the class up to the last moment.
After the writing exercise, we had our
history lesson; and then the little chill
dren sang their "ba, be, bi, DO, bu' in
concert. And old Hauser, who sat at
the end Of the room, putting on his
spectacles and holding his primer
with both hands, repeated the letters
with them. One could see that he was
in deadly earnest; but his voice ouiy-
cred so with emotion, and it was go
droll to hear him, that we hardly
knew whether to laugh or to weep.
All. I shall never forget that last
class.
Suddenly the church clock struck
midday, then the Angelus. At the
same moment the trumpet-call OF the
Prussians, who were returning from
their drill, burst through our windows.
M. Hamel raised himself, deathly
pale, in his seat. Never had be
seemed SO grand.
my friends" said he; my friends.
Ii"
But something choked him: he
could not finish the sentence. He
turned to the blackboard, and, taking
a piece Of chalk, he wrote with ali
his strength, as large as he could
"Vive la France!"
He stood there, his head bowed To
the wall, and, without speaking.
to us with his hand: This i
the end. You may CO."
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