olonel, who received her kindly, his astonishment only equalled by his
admiration for her patriotism.

"But women do not go to war, my dear," he ejaculated when Maria told
him her decision.

"Nevertheless I intend to go and I desire you to enlist me," the brave
girl answered.

The Colonel could not disobey regulations and enlist a woman in the
army, but a telegram was sent to the Czar himself, and in a short time
an answer was received from the Czar's official headquarters,
announcing that Maria Botchkareva was entitled to become a soldier in
the Russian army.

So Maria put on her uniform and was nicknamed "Yashka," a name that
soon was known throughout her regiment. Dressed in a man's clothes and
bearing arms like a man, she went through the regular drill and fatigue
and in a very short time became proficient in handling a rifle which
increased the respect in which her comrades held her. They had
ridiculed her at first, and made life a burden to her with insults and
practical jokes, but she bore these things stolidly and at last won
their respect and affection.

The regiment entrained for the front and Yashka went with it. A Russian
general heard of the presence of a girl soldier in its ranks and
angrily ordered that she be taken from the line and sent to the
rear--but Yashka was clever enough to point out that her enlistment had
been received by the Czar himself and so superseded the order of the
General, who wished to send her home from whence she had come.

The regiment went into the trenches, and Maria, for the first time,
heard the roar of the cannon and the whistling of the shells. Her
comrades had jokingly told her that she would run when the first shot
was fired, but she minded the bombardment no more than any one else.
The Germans threw over large quantities of their favorite weapon, gas,
and the trenches and the hollows in the ground were filled with the
noxious vapors that it was death to breathe, but the Russians put on
their gas masks and still went forward.

Then, after serving in the line for some time, the girl soldier had her
first experience in more active warfare, for her company was ordered
over the top to capture the German sector opposite them, and with fixed
bayonets the men moved forward under a heavy fire from the batteries of
their own artillery. It was a severe attack, bravely delivered, but
doomed to failure because the barbed wire entanglements of the enemy
had not been destroyed b