tful detonation,
so close that she could feel the wind upon her cheek. A shell had
exploded directly before her and only a few yards away. She turned her
head and scrutinized for a moment the heights of the left bank, above
which the smoke from the German batteries was curling upward; she saw
what she must do, and when she started on her way again it was with eyes
fixed on the horizon, watching for the shells in order to avoid them.
There was method in the rash daring of her proceeding, and all the brave
tranquillity that the prudent little housewife had at her command. She
was not going to be killed if she could help it; she wished to find her
husband and bring him back with her, that they might yet have many days
of happy life together. The projectiles still came tumbling frequently
as ever; she sped along behind walls, made a cover of boundary stones,
availed herself of every slight depression. But presently she came to an
open space, a bit of unprotected road where splinters and fragments
of exploded shells lay thick, and she was watching behind a shed for a
chance to make a dash when she perceived, emerging from a sort of cleft
in the ground in front of her, a human head and two bright eyes that
peered about inquisitively. It was a little, bare-footed, ten-year-old
boy, dressed in a shirt and ragged trousers, an embryonic tramp, who was
watching the battle with huge delight. At every report his small black
beady eyes would snap and sparkle, and he jubilantly shouted:

"Oh my! aint it bully!--Look out, there comes another one! don't stir!
Boom! that was a rouser!--Don't stir! don't stir!"

And each time there came a shell he dived to the bottom of his hole,
then reappeared, showing his dirty, elfish face, until it was time to
duck again.

Henriette now noticed that the projectiles all came from Liry, while the
batteries at Pont-Maugis and Noyers were confining their attention to
Balan. At each discharge she could see the smoke distinctly, immediately
afterward she heard the scream of the shell, succeeded by the explosion.
Just then the gunners afforded them a brief respite; the bluish haze
above the heights drifted slowly away upon the wind.

"They've stopped to take a drink, you can go your money on it," said the
urchin. "Quick, quick, give me your hand! Now's the time to skip!"

He took her by the hand and dragged her along with him, and in this way
they crossed the open together, side by side, running for dea