.

|Cloud|: Then tell me, pray,
What I resemble now!

|Celeste|: I scarcely know.
But had you asked a little while ago,
I should have said a camel; then your hump
Dissolved, and you became a gosling plump,
Downy and white and warm--

|Cloud|: What! _Warm_, up here?
Ten thousand feet above the earth!

|Celeste|: Oh dear!
What am I thinking of! Of course I know
How cold it is. Pierre has told me so
A thousand times.

|Cloud|: And who is this Pierre
That tells you all the secrets of the air?
How came he to such frigid heights to soar?

|Celeste|: Pierre's my--He is in the Flying Corps.

|Cloud|: Ah, now I understand! And he's away?

|Celeste|: He left at dawn, where for he would not say,
Telling me only 'twas a bombing raid
Somewhere--My God! What's that?

|Cloud|: What, little maid?
|Celeste| (_pointing_): That--over there--beyond the wooded crest!

|Cloud|: Only a skylark dropping to her nest;
Her mate is hov'ring somewhere near. I heard
His tremulous song of love--

|Celeste|: That was no bird!
(_Drops upon her knees._)
O Mary! Blessed Mother! Hear, my prayer!
That one that fell--grant it was not Pierre!
Here is the cross my mother gave me--I
Will burn the longest candle it will buy!

|Cloud|: Courage, my child! Your prayer will not be vain!
Who guards the lark, will guide your lover's plane.
The West Wind's calling. I must go!--Hark! There
He sings again! _Le bon Dieu garde, ma chere!_

II

|Pierre|: I made a perfect landing over there
Behind the church--

|Celeste|: The Virgin heard my prayer!
Now I must burn the candle that I vowed--

|Pierre|: Then 'twas our Blessed Lady sent that Cloud
That saved me when the Boche came up behind.
I made a lightning turn, only to find
The Boche on top of me. It seemed a kind
Of miracle to see that Cloud--I swear
A moment past the sky was everywhere
As clear as clear; there was no Cloud in sight.
It looked to me, floating there calm and white.
Like a great mother hen, and I a chick.
She seemed to call me, and I scurried quick
Behind her wing. That spoiled the Boche's game,
And gave me time to turn and take good aim.
I emptied my last drum, and saw him drop
Ten thousand feet in flames--

|Celes