likely to do it well.

Three girls--Genevieve, Virginie, and Pierrette--raised their hands and
waved them frantically in the air, but, curiously enough, the Abbe did
not seem to see them. Instead his glance fell upon Pierre, who was
gazing thoughtfully at the vaulted ceiling and hoping with all his
heart that the Abbe would not call upon him. "Pierre!" he said, and any
one looking at him very closely might have seen a twinkle in his eye as
Pierre withdrew his gaze from the ceiling and struggled reluctantly to
his feet. "You may recite the Ten Commandments."

Pierre began quite glibly, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me,"
and went on, with only two mistakes and one long wait, until he had
reached the fifth. "Thou shalt not kill," he recited, and then to save
his life he could not think what came next. He gazed imploringly at the
ceiling again, and at the high stained-glass window, but they told him
nothing. He kicked backward gently, hoping that Pierrette, who sat
next, would prompt him, but she too failed to respond. "I'll ask a
question," thought Pierre desperately, "and while the Abbe is answering
maybe it will come to me." Aloud he said: "If you please, your
reverence, I don't understand about that commandment. It says, 'Thou
shalt not kill,' and yet our soldiers have gone to war on purpose to
kill Germans, and the priests blessed them as they marched away!"

This was indeed a question! The class gasped with astonishment at
Pierre's boldness in asking it. The Abbe paused a moment before
answering. Then he said, "If you, Pierre, were to shoot a man in the
street in order to take his purse, would that be wrong?"

"Yes," answered the whole class.

"Very well," said the Abbe, "so it would. But if you should see a
murderer attack your mother or your sister, and you should kill him
before he could carry out his wicked purpose, would that be just the
same thing?"

"No," wavered the class, a little doubtfully.

"If instead of defending your mother or sister you were simply to stand
aside and let the murderer kill them both, you would really be helping
the murderer, would you not? It is like that today in France. An enemy
is upon us who seeks to kill us so that he may rob us of our beautiful
home land. God sees our hearts. He knows that the soldiers of France go
forth not to kill Germans but to save France! not wantonly to take
life, but because it is the only way to save lives for which they
themselves are rea