The Washington times., 1931-11-28
CHAPTER AZ

I1leQ peBlnS Cne moor WlCn lUS
jumpers and ancient burial
mounds. Near the birch wood
a flock Of sheep is grazing. and
their woolly backs glow golden
under the light Of the descend.
ing sun.
Suddenly see Wolf make off
at full tilt toward the flock. I
suppose that the fight with
the bulldog has made him wild
and dash after him to prevent
a massacre among the sheep.
Hey! Look out for the dog!"
I shout loudly to the shepherd.
He laugh. Hes only sheep
dog; he won't do anything!"
Won't he, thought" I shout
back. You don't know him.
He's a war dog!"
Whats it matter?" says the
shepherd. War dog or no
war dog, he's all right.-There,
see-just look at him! Good
Good dog! Go for 'em. Fetch
'em in!"
can hardly believe my
eyes. Wolf-Wolf, who has
never seen a sheep in his life
before, is now driving the flock
as if he had never done any
thing else! With long bounds
he sweeps off, barking, after
two struggling lambs and drives
them back. Every time they
want to stand still or to go
off at a tangent, he bars their
way and snaps at their heels
so that they run on again
straight ahead.
"Tiptop!" says the shepherd;
"he's only nipping them;
couldn't be better!"
The dog seems tranSfigured.
His eyes sparkle, his tattered
ear flaps as he circles watch.
fully around the flock, and 1
can see he is immensely eX-
cited.
It'll buy him from you right
now" says the shepherd. MY
own can't do it better than that.
Just look now, how he is head
ing them home to the village!
He hasn't a thing to learn"
Not for a Million
I am quite beside myeslf.
''Wolf," I cry Wolf" and could
shout for joy to see him. He
grew up out there among the
shells and yet now, without any
one ever having shown him a
thing, he knows what his job is.
"I'll give you five pounds
down for him, and a sheep
ready killed into the bargain"
says the shepherd.
I shake my head. You
couldn't have him for million,
man." I retort.
Now it is the shepherd who is
shaking his head.
The harsh spikes of the
heather tickle my face. I bend
them aside and rest my head
on my arm. The dog is breath
ing quietly beside me and out
of the distance sounds family
the tinkle of sheep bells. Other
wise all is still.
Clouds float slowly over the
evening sky. The sun goes down.
The dark green Of the juniper
bushes turns to a deep brown,
and I perceive the night wind
rise up lightly out Of the dis
tant woods. Within the hour
it will be playing among the
birches.-Soldiers are as famil-
lar with the country as farmers
and foresters; they have not
lived in rooms. They know the
times of the wind and the yel-
low-brown, cinnamon haze Of
the gathering evening; they
know the shadows that ride
over the ground when the
clouds hide the sun, and the
ways Of the moon
once in Flanders, after a
fierce bombardment, it was
long before help could come up
for one of our men who had
been wounded. We put all our
field dressings on him and
bandaged him up as best we
could, but it was no use. he
still bled on, just bled away to
death. And behind him all the
while stood an immense
cloud in the evening sky-a
solitary cloud-but it was a
great mountain of white, gol-
den and red splendor. Unsub-
stantial and lofty. it lowered
up over the shattered brown Of
the landscape. 1t was quite
still and it glowed, and the
diving man was quite still as if
the two belonged together; and
yet to me it was Incompetent.
sible that the cloud should
stand there so lovely and u11-
concerned in the sky while
man died.
Fields of Blood
The last light of the sun has
tinged the heather to a dusky
red. Plovers rise complaining
on unstable wing. The cry of
bittern sounds up from the lake.
! still. gaze out over the wide.
purple.broWn plain-There was
a place near Houthoulet where
so many poppies grew in the
fields that they we're entirely red
because of them. We called
them the Fields of Blood, be-
cause whenever there was
thunderstorm they would take
on the pale color of fresh, newly
spilled blood. It was there Koh-
ler went mad one clear night as
we marched by, utterly wasted
and weary. In the uncertain
light Of the moon he thought he
saw whole lakes of blood and