Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1915-04-01
In the Path
Of Battle
70
-Dy-
Kathryn Jarboe

051S1S1S1S2525252S 25252S2S1S1S2551
Copyright. The Frank A. Munsey Coz
Under the yellow August sunlight
the fields lay deserted: here a scythe
leaning against half-completed stack.
there q sickle rusting on the stubble.
The twilight fell upon deserted
hearths where women. with trembling
fingers, cooked their scanty meals.
| The round, full moon looked down
upon scattered homes where only the
| children slept, where the women wept
and shuddered and waited. ..l
For the men had marched away I'M
der the brilliant, Haunting colors
None had been too old to go, none
too young. Their lips had shouted the
raucous notes, the valiant words
Honneur. Patrie. Gloire-but every
eye was wet. every heart heavy with
despair and terror
Bibi had watched them go, the tiny
star In his clenched fingers beating
time TO the brave music, to the hur.
rying feet, but. In the nameless ter
ror that had descended upon the land.
he chung to the old grandmother's
hand and, when all were gone-fa-
Their. uncle. brother--he flung himself
sobbing upon the ground. The wom-
an. left alone in the world save for
the small grandchild, watched with
eyes too old for tears until there was
no longer even cloud of dust upon
the horizon: then she turned and hob
bled into the empty house, leaving
the child still lying there upon the
lonely road.
Before the hearth she sat, seeing
the long procession of all the others
who, under that same tricolor, had
| marched out. away from her life.
never to return. Hours later, when
Bibi came in. his little tragedy all for
gotten. his face rejecting only the
golden glory of the summer day, he
found her sitting there, dry-eyed, her
shriveied lips muttering prayers for
those already dead, for those about to
die. Into her shaking hands he thrust
his offering--a nosegay OF bluets, the
color Of the sky. of fieldpoppies, a
flame OF red, and mullen, white with
the dust OF the road-the tricolor that
had taken from them grandfather.
father, husband and sons
A choking sob slipped across her
lips and she flung the flowers from her
on to the hearth, where the red petals
Of the poppies lay in mimicry OF the
fire that might never again blaze
thereon.
Days passed; only a few--Bibi
could not count them. Mere Craquette
would not. The heavy-headed blades
Of grain lay prone upon the ground,
ungarnered by the hands that were too
tiny, the hands that were too old
There were others. of course, In that
deserted land, as lonely as these two,
but there were no other quite so
helpless child OF six. q grandam OF
eighty-six. Indoors, the woman could
only sit and pray. Out of doors, the
child played with his fiowers-bluets,
bits OF the sky. peoples, red as blood,
and mullen, q dried and CHASTITY white.
The short-lived poppies dropped and
fell to the earth, the MULLEN crumbled
to dust, only the bluets were left.
And then there dawned the day of
horror. For hours Of light and dark
ness the roar OF cannon had filled the
universe. for hours of light and dark
ness the grandmother had knelt quiy-
ering and trembling before the cruel.
fix, At daybreak the low horizon
Stretched long line of fire and
smoke: flames licking up the parched
fields with the novels that stood in
their midst, black smoke creeping like
| pail across the sky. -.
In the gray light before the sun had
risen Mere Craquette stood In the
doorway and watched the oncoming
devastation. a foeman that feet, how
ever young and agile. might not out
distance. that no human hand might
stay. Clutching Bib by the wrist, she
| re-entered the house and closed the
door Better to die crouched before
the cross, with suppliant hands upon
| its succoring feet. than to be caught
| creeping and crawling through the
fields of matted grain.
For a little time Bib lay quiet in
her arms. listening to the ever-in-
| creasing roar. watching the light that
| even now was redder than any rays
| OF sunlight that had ever flooded the
windows OF his home. Soon, though,
| he grew restless and slipped away
| from the feeble hands that, with the
passing of all things earthly, had al
most forgotten to hold him. Out of
doors the horizon was sin only line
| of red and black. and Bib could not
| know that 1t was a score OF miles
nearer to his home than it had been
n short hour before. Here and there
above the broken grain there waved
a tiny flag of blue. Upon his baby lips
fragments of "Honneur, Gloire, Patrie, -
he ran to and fro gathering his be-
loved bluets.
Tired. stitied by the heat, the source
| OF which he could not understand. he
sat down at the edge of the road. And
now there was new sound in the air
not the deadly roar of the cannon
that had Numbered for two whole
days. not the rush of fame, but n
steady, rhythmic throb that, with CIV.
\ a ~ -vrt