for his
home-coming." They were anxious, for here had been no news for some
time. "Every time the postman comes we hope for a little note from you."
Can any generous heart think of that anxious waiting unmoved? Shall we
children of one Life wait till we have wholly darkened each other's
homes, and then call our handiwork peace?

But by that time, by the judgment of God, our eyes will be opened.

We who are bound by the same grief for ever,
When all our sons are dead may talk together,
Each asking pardon of the other one,
For her dead son.[52]

It is we at home who seem to yield only to this dread proof. With the
fighters it is often different, as we have seen, and though the stories
savour of repetition, the repetition is surely worth while. I have aimed
here at no literary production, but simply at a collection of facts that
may reach the heart. "We sing," said a soldier from Baden, "to the
accompaniment of the piano--especially during the interval for dinner.
We have indeed entered into a tacit agreement with the French to stop
all fire between 12 and 1 o'clock, so that they and we might not be
disturbed when we feed." (_Zeitung am Mittag_, as quoted in the _Daily
Chronicle_, November 10, 1914.) "One of our teachers, a lieutenant in
the R.F.A., who has been out most of the time, had a few days' leave
some weeks ago. He said to the school, assembled to do him honour,
'Boys, do not believe the stories you read about the Germans in the
newspapers. Whatever they may have done at the beginning of the war, the
German is a brave and noble soldier, and after the war we must be
friends.'" (From a private letter.) A soldier writes that a diary he
kept was blown to bits by a shell. He gave what remained of it to a
wounded German who pleaded for it. He had met many German Socialists in
the fighting. "It is a blessing to meet such men and amid all the
slaughter brought about by our present system, it seems heaven upon
earth." (_Labour Leader_, June 24, 1915.)

ARE WE ALWAYS CHIVALROUS?

It will only be making the _amende honorable_ if we do our best now to
spread reports of good deeds of the enemy, for in the early stages of
the war we deliberately deleted them from messages, and we have
certainly done a great deal to conceal them ever since. Writing to the
_Times_ in October, 1914, Mr. Herbert Corey, the American correspondent,
said: "The _Times_ leader quotes the _Post_ as charging that I 'flatly
mad