ey think they can scare us that way!
They'd far better not waste their time, and let us sleep. It isn't a
bit funny any more, and I've got to work just the same to-morrow, Boche
or no Boche!"

Two rickety old creatures clasped each other in arms, and demanded in
trembling voices if there was any real danger! This produced a ripple
of merriment.

Monsieur Duplan, the butcher, then asked the ladies' permission to
smoke, the which permission was graciously accorded.

"Why, if I'd only thought, I'd have brought down another lamp and my
work. It's too bad to waste so much time."

"I have my knitting. You don't need any light for that."

"Where on earth did you get wool? How lucky you are!"

From Monsieur Leddin's lips now rose a loud and sonorous snore.

"Decidedly that man is possessed of all the charms," giggled a
sarcastic neighbour.

"Yes, it must be a perfect paradise to live with such an angel, and to
feel that you've got him safe at home till the end of the war. I don't
wonder his poor little wife took the children and went to Burgundy."

"Why isn't he at the front?" hissed some one in a whisper.

"Yes--why?"

"There are lots less healthy men than he out there. The fat old
plumber who lived on the rue de Jouy, and who can hardly breathe, was
taken----"

"And the milkman who passed a hundred and three medical inspections and
finally had to go."

"If you think my husband is overstrong, you're mistaken."

"And mine, Madame, how about him?"

Something told me that Monsieur Leddin's fate was hanging in the
balance on this eventful evening.

"Shake him up, Monsieur Neu, he doesn't need to sleep if we can't.
We've all got to work to-morrow and he can take a nice long nap at his
desk."

"Oh, leave him alone," put in Monsieur Laurent, the stationer, who was
seated near me. "Just listen to those fiendish women. Why they're
worse than we are about the slackers. After all, I keep telling them
there must be a few, otherwise who's going to write history? And
history's got to be written, hasn't it?"

"Most decidedly," I replied.

And having at length found a subject of conversation that I had deigned
approve, he continued,

"Just think of what all the poor kids in generations to come will have
to cram into their heads! The names of all the battles on all the
Fronts and the dates. It makes me dizzy! I'm glad it's not up to me.
I like history all well enough, but I'd rather make it than have to