Download to read offline
![A SOLDIER OF THE LEGION
BY E. MORLAE
IT was almost daylight, and things were visible at two to three metres. The
bombardment had died down, and the quiet was hardly disturbed by
occasional shots. Our captain marched ahead of the second section,
swinging a cane and contentedly puffing on his pipe. Nearly everybody was
smoking. As we marched along we noticed that new trenches had been dug
during the night from sixty to a hundred metres in rear of the position we
had held, and were filled by the Twenty-ninth Chasseur Regiment, which
replaced us.
Very cunningly these trenches were arranged. They were deep and narrow,
fully seven feet deep and barely a yard wide. At every favorable point, on
every little rise in the ground, a salient had been constructed, projecting out
from the main trench ten to fifteen metres, protected by heavy logs,
corrugated steel sheets, and two to three feet of dirt. Each side of the
salients bristled with machine-guns. Any attack upon this position would be
bound to fail, owing to the intense volume of fire that could be brought to
bear upon the flanks of the enemy.
To make assurance doubly sure, the Engineer Corps had dug rows of cup-
shaped bowls, two feet in diameter, two feet deep, leaving but a narrow
wedge of dirt between each two; and in the centre of each bowl was placed
a six-pointed twisted steel 'porcupine.' This instrument, however it is
placed, always presents a sharp point right at you. Five rows of these man-
traps I counted, separated by a thin wall of dirt not strong enough to
maintain the weight of a man, so that any one who attempted to rush past
would be thrown against the 'porcupine' and be spitted like a pigeon. As an
additional precaution a mass of barbed wire lay in rolls, ready to be placed
in front of this ouvrage, to make it safe against any surprise.
We marched along, talking and chatting, discussing this and that, without
a care in the world. Every one hoped we were going to the rear to
recuperate and enjoy a good square meal and a good night’s rest. Seeger[A]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/83471-250414104723-13d753fa/75/Teaching-Physical-Education-for-Learning-6th-Edition-Judith-Rink-45-2048.jpg)
![wanted a good wash, he said. He was rather dirty, and so was I. My puttees
dangled in pieces round my calves. It seems I had torn them going through
the German wire the day before. I told Haeffle to keep his eyes open for a
good pair on some dead man. He said he would.
[A] Alan Seeger, the poet, who was later killed in battle.
The company marched round the hill we descended so swiftly yesterday
and, describing a semi-circle, entered again the Schützengraben Spandau
and marched back in the direction we had come from. The trench, however,
presented a different appearance. The bad places had been repaired, the
loose dirt had been shoveled out, and the dead had disappeared. On the east
side of the trench an extremely high parapet had been built. This parapet
was complete even to loop-holes—rather funny-looking loop-holes, I
thought; and when I looked closer, I saw that they were framed in by boots!
I reached my hand into several of them as we walked along, and touched
the limbs of dead men. The engineers, it seems, in need of material, had
placed the dead Germans on top of the ground, feet flush with the inside of
the ditch, leaving from six to seven inches between two bodies, and laying
another body cross-wise on top of the two, spanning the gap between them.
Then they had shoveled the dirt on top of them, thus killing two birds with
one stone.
The discovery created a riot of excitement among the men. Curses
intermingled with laughter came from ahead of us. Everybody was tickled
by the ingenuity of our génie. 'They are marvelous!' we thought. Dowd’s
face showed consternation, yet he could not help smiling. Little King was
pale around the mouth, yet his lips were twisted in a grin. It was horribly
amusing.
Every 200 metres we passed groups of the One Hundred and Seventieth,
on duty in the trench. The front line, they told us, was twelve hundred
metres farther east, and this trench formed the second line for their
regiment. We entered the third-line trench of the Germans, from which they
ran yesterday to surrender, and continued marching in the same direction—
always east. Here we had a chance to investigate the erstwhile German
habitations.
Exactly forty paces apart, doorways opened into the dirt bank, and from
each of them fourteen steps descended at about forty-five degrees into a
cellar-like room. The stairs were built of wood and the sides of the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/83471-250414104723-13d753fa/75/Teaching-Physical-Education-for-Learning-6th-Edition-Judith-Rink-46-2048.jpg)
Teaching Physical Education for Learning 6th Edition Judith Rink
- 1. Teaching Physical Educationfor Learning 6th Edition Judith Rink pdf download https://ebookname.com/product/teaching-physical-education-for- learning-6th-edition-judith-rink/ Get Instant Ebook Downloads – Browse at https://ebookname.com
- 2. Instant digital products(PDF, ePub, MOBI) available Download now and explore formats that suit you... Teaching and Learning in Further Education Prue Huddleston https://ebookname.com/product/teaching-and-learning-in-further- education-prue-huddleston/ Effective Learning and Teaching in Law Effective Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1st Edition Roger Burridge https://ebookname.com/product/effective-learning-and-teaching-in- law-effective-learning-and-teaching-in-higher-education-1st- edition-roger-burridge/ Online education and adult learning new frontiers for teaching practices 1st Edition Terry Kidd https://ebookname.com/product/online-education-and-adult- learning-new-frontiers-for-teaching-practices-1st-edition-terry- kidd/ The Brother of Jesus Bruce Chilton https://ebookname.com/product/the-brother-of-jesus-bruce-chilton/
- 3. Post modern DraculaFrom Victorian Themes to Postmodern Praxis 1st Unabridged Edition John S. Bak https://ebookname.com/product/post-modern-dracula-from-victorian- themes-to-postmodern-praxis-1st-unabridged-edition-john-s-bak/ Frommer s Walt Disney World and Orlando 2009 Laura Lea Miller https://ebookname.com/product/frommer-s-walt-disney-world-and- orlando-2009-laura-lea-miller/ Building the Constitution The Practice of Constitutional Interpretation in Post Apartheid South Africa 1st Edition James Fowkes https://ebookname.com/product/building-the-constitution-the- practice-of-constitutional-interpretation-in-post-apartheid- south-africa-1st-edition-james-fowkes/ The Value Added Employee 31 Competencies to Make Yourself Irresistible to Any Company 2nd Edition Edward J. Cripe https://ebookname.com/product/the-value-added- employee-31-competencies-to-make-yourself-irresistible-to-any- company-2nd-edition-edward-j-cripe/ Shakespeare s Props Memory and Cognition 1st Edition Sophie Duncan https://ebookname.com/product/shakespeare-s-props-memory-and- cognition-1st-edition-sophie-duncan/
- 4. Introduction to EuropeanUnion Law 2nd edition Walter Cairns https://ebookname.com/product/introduction-to-european-union- law-2nd-edition-walter-cairns/
- 5. Teaching Physical Education fo r l e a r n i n g
- 7. Teaching Physical Education fo r l e a r n i n g Judith E. Rink University of South Carolina s i x t h e d i t i o n
- 8. A Division ofThe McGraw-Hill Companies Published by McGraw-Hill, an imprint of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2010, 2006, 2002, 1998, 1993, 1985 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 FGR/FGR 0 9 ISBN: 978-0-07-337652-3 MHID: 0-07-337652-3 Editor in Chief: Michael Ryan Publisher: William R. Glass Senior Sponsoring Editor: Christopher Johnson Executive Marketing Manager: Pamela Cooper Development Editor: Phil Butcher Editorial Coordinator: Marley Magaziner Production Editors: Melissa Williams/Les Chappell, Macmillan Publishing Solutions Manuscript Editor: Jillian West Cover Designer: Margarite Reynolds/Carole Lawson Production Supervisor: Louis Swaim Composition: This text was set in 10/12 Times Roman by Macmillan Publishing Solutions Printing: Printed on 45# New Era Matte Plus by Quebecor World, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rink, Judith. Teaching physical education for learning / Judith E. Rink.—6th ed. p. cm. ISBN 0-07-337652-3 1. Physical education and training—Study and teaching. 2. Physical education for children—Study and teaching. I. Title. GV363.R55 2010 613.7’07—dc22 2009002183 www.mhhe.com
- 9. For my mother,Eleanor
- 11. Brief Contents vii Preface xv PA R T I Understanding the Teaching-Learning Process 1 Teaching Physical Education: An Orientation 1 2 Factors That Influence Learning 21 P A R T II Effective Teaching Skills 3 Designing Learning Experiences and Tasks 41 4 Task Presentation 62 5 Content Analysis and Development 82 6 Developing and Maintaining a Learning Environment 107 7 Teacher Functions During Activity 130 8 Teaching Strategies 151 9 Student Motivation, Personal Growth, and Inclusion 181 10 Planning 209 11 Assessment in the Instructional Process 239 P A R T III Context and Reflection 12 Content-Specific Pedagogy 269 13 The Professional Teacher and the Continuous Learner 304 14 Observation Techniques and Tools 322 Glossary 352 Index 357
- 13. ix Contents Preface xv P AR T I Understanding the Teaching-Learning Process 1 Teaching Physical Education: An Orientation 1 Teaching as a Goal-Oriented Activity 2 Types of Goals 3 Establishing Realistic Goals 5 Choosing Instructional Processes to Meet Goals 6 Achieving Goals Through Processes 6 Criteria for a Learning Experience 7 Criterion One 9 Criterion Two 10 Criterion Three 11 Criterion Four 11 Understanding the Instructional Process 12 Prelesson and Postlesson Routines 12 Movement Task–Student Response Unit of Analysis 13 Teaching Functions 14 Management and Content Behavior 15 Looking to the Future: Becoming a Professional Teacher 16 Value Positions and Beliefs in Teaching 16 Personal Characteristics of a Teacher 17 Developing Commitment 18 Summary 19 Checking Your Understanding 19 2 Factors That Influence Learning 21 What Is Learning? 22 How Do People Learn Motor Skills? 23 Understanding the Control of Movement 24 Stages of Motor Learning 25 Requirements for Learning a Motor Skill 26 Prerequisites 27 Clear Idea of the Task 27 Motivational/Attentional Disposition to the Skill 28 Practice 28 Feedback 28 The Nature of Motor Skill Goals 29 Open and Closed Skills 29 Discrete, Serial, and Continuous Skills 31 Issues of Appropriateness in Skill Development and Learning 31 Environmental Conditions 31 Learner Abilities 32 Practice Profiles and Success Rates 33 Whole or Part 33 Practice Variability 33 Massed and Distributed Practice 35 Motivation and Goal Setting 35 Transfer of Learning 36 Bilateral Transfer 36 Intertask Transfer 36 Intratask Transfer 37
- 14. x Contents Personalize thePresentation 68 Repeat Things Difficult to Understand 68 Draw on the Personal Experience of Students 68 Check for Understanding 68 Present Material Dynamically 69 Choosing a Way to Communicate 69 Verbal Communication 69 Demonstration 69 Media Materials 72 Selecting and Organizing Learning Cues 72 Good Cues Are Accurate 73 Good Cues Are Brief and Critical to the Skill Being Performed 73 Good Cues Are Appropriate to the Learner’s Skill Level and Age 75 Good Cues Are Appropriate for Different Types of Content 77 Cues Are More Effective If They Are Sequentially Organized and Learners Have the Opportunity to Rehearse Them 79 Summary 81 Checking Your Understanding 81 5 Content Analysis and Development 82 The Process of Content Development— Overview 83 Establish a Progression (Extension) 83 Demonstrate a Concern for Quality of Performance (Refinement) 84 Give Students an Opportunity to Apply/Assess Their Skills (Application) 85 Planning for Content Development: The Developmental Analysis 86 Developing Extension Tasks—The Teacher’s Progression 88 Adding the Qualities of Refinement 92 Designing Application/Assessment Experiences for Content 93 What Content Development Looks Like in a Real Lesson 95 Guidelines for Developing Different Types of Content 95 Developing Closed Skills 96 Learner Characteristics 37 Motor Ability 37 Intelligence and Cognitive Development 38 Summary 39 Checking Your Understanding 39 P A R T II Effective Teaching Skills 3 Designing Learning Experiences and Tasks 41 Criteria for a Learning Experience 42 Designing the Movement Task 42 Content Dimension of Movement Tasks 43 Goal-Setting Dimension of the Task 44 Organizational Arrangements for Tasks 46 Transitions from One Organization to Another 52 Designing Learning Experiences That Are Safe 52 Teacher Legal Liability for Student Safety 53 Student Decision Making in Environmental Arrangements 54 The Influence of the Nature of Motor Content on the Design of a Learning Experience 55 Closed Skills 57 Open Skills 58 Summary 59 Checking Your Understanding 60 4 Task Presentation 62 Getting the Attention of the Learner 63 Establishing Signals and Procedures 64 Student Preoccupation with Other Environmental Factors 65 Inability to Hear or See 65 Inefficient Use of Time 65 Sequencing the Content and Organizational Aspects of Tasks 66 Improving the Clarity of Communication 67 Orient the Learner (Set Induction) 67 Sequence the Presentation in Logical Order 68 Give Examples and Nonexamples 68
- 15. Contents xi Observing andAnalyzing Student Responses 136 Positioning of the Teacher 137 Determining a Plan for Observing Large Groups 137 Knowing What to Look For 138 Providing Feedback to Learners 139 Evaluative and Corrective Feedback 140 Congruency of Feedback 140 General versus Specific Feedback 141 Negative versus Positive Feedback 142 The Target of Feedback 143 Timing of Feedback 144 Use of Feedback to Promote Student Understanding 144 Changing and Modifying Tasks for Individuals and Small Groups 144 Extending the Task for Individuals 145 Designing Applying/Assessment Task for Individuals 145 Changing the Task Completely for Individuals 146 Refining the Task for Individuals 146 Indirectly Contributing Behaviors 146 Attending to Injured Students 146 Engaging in Off-Topic Discussions 147 Dealing with the Personal Needs of Students 147 Participating with Students and Officiating 148 Noncontributing Behaviors 148 Summary 148 Checking Your Understanding 149 8 Teaching Strategies 151 Direct and Indirect Instruction 152 The Teaching Strategy as a Delivery System 155 Selection of Content 156 Communication of Tasks 156 Progression of Content 156 Provision for Feedback and Evaluation 156 The Teaching Strategies Described 156 Interactive Teaching 157 Developing Closed Skills Performed in Different Environments 98 Developing Open Skills 98 Summary 105 Checking Your Understanding 105 6 Developing and Maintaining a Learning Environment 107 The Ecology of the Gymnasium 108 Establishing and Maintaining a Management System 109 Establishing Routines 109 Establishing Class Rules 113 Gaining and Maintaining the Cooperation of Students 114 Strategies for Developing Student Self-Control and Responsibility 117 Hellison’s Levels of Responsibility 118 Behavior Modification 118 Authoritative Orientations to Management 122 Group Process Strategies for Developing Self-Direction 122 Conflict Resolution 123 Discipline: What to Do If It Does Not Work 123 Deterring Problems Before They Become Problems 124 Continued Inappropriate Behavior 124 Handling Students Who Continually Misbehave 126 Summary 128 Checking Your Understanding 128 7 Teacher Functions During Activity 130 I’ve Sent the Students Off to Practice—Now What? 131 Setting Priorities of What to Do First 133 Maintaining a Safe Learning Environment 134 Clarifying and Reinforcing Tasks for Learners 134 Maintaining a Productive Learning Environment 135
- 16. xii Contents Becoming Aware200 Developing a Climate for Inclusion 201 Building Equity 202 Gender Equity 202 Ethnic and Cultural Differences 203 Disadvantaged Students 203 Students with Disabilities 204 Discussion of Affective Goals for Physical Education 206 Summary 207 Checking Your Understanding 207 10 Planning 209 Establishing Goals and Objectives for Learning 211 Writing Objectives in Terms of What Students Will Learn 211 Levels of Specificity in Educational Objectives 213 Objectives in the Three Learning Domains 215 Writing Objectives Consistent with Content Standards 215 Planning Physical Education Experiences 217 Planning the Lesson 217 Beginning the Lesson 218 Developing the Lesson 218 Ending the Lesson—Closure 219 Format for Lesson Planning 219 Planning the Curriculum 225 Developing Curriculum from a Set of Standards 226 Planning for Units of Instruction 226 Considerations in Planning Units 229 Developing the Unit 231 The Unit Plan 232 Summary 238 Checking Your Understanding 238 11 Assessment in the Instructional Process 239 The Role of Assessment in Physical Education Programs 240 Station Teaching 160 Peer Teaching 162 Cooperative Learning 166 Self-Instructional Strategies 169 Cognitive Strategies 172 Team Teaching 175 Selecting a Teaching Strategy 179 Summary 179 Checking Your Understanding 179 9 Student Motivation, Personal Growth, and Inclusion 181 Motivation in Learning 183 Theories of Motivation—The Why of Behavior 183 Behaviorism 183 Social Learning Theory 183 Self-Determination Theory 183 Achievement Goal and Social Goals Theory 184 Interest Theories 185 Designing Experiences to Develop Personal and Situational Interest 186 Implications of Theories of Motivation 186 Promoting Personal Growth Through Personal Interaction 190 Motivation and Personal Growth Through Instructional Decision Making 192 Planning 192 Selection of Tasks and Design of Learning Experiences 193 Presentation of Units and Tasks 194 Organizational Arrangements 195 Teacher Functions During Activity 195 Pacing of Lessons 196 Assessment of Tasks, Units, and Lessons 196 Teaching Affective Goals as a Lesson Focus 196 The Unique and Shared Affective Goals of Physical Education 197 Instructional Strategies for Teaching Affect 197 Physical Education for Inclusion 199
- 17. Contents xiii P AR T III Context and Reflection 12 Content-Specific Pedagogy 269 Teaching Lifetime Physical Activity and Fitness 270 Teaching Lifetime Physical Activity 271 Teaching Fitness Concepts in the Classroom 272 Curricular Alternatives to Teaching Fitness 272 Teaching Games and Sports 275 The Games Stages 276 Considerations Using the Games Stages 284 Tactical and Skill Approaches to Teaching Games and Sports 284 Sport Education 286 Dance 287 Gymnastics 287 Outdoor Pursuits 287 Movement Concepts—Teaching for Transfer 289 Learning Theory Associated with the Transfer of Learning 290 Important Concepts in Physical Education 291 Teaching Movement Concepts 295 Summary 301 Checking Your Understanding 302 13 The Professional Teacher and the Continuous Learner 304 Teaching as a Profession 305 What Does It Mean to Act Professionally? 305 Professional Teachers Acquire the Skills for Best Practice 305 Professional Teachers Are Continuous Learners 307 Collecting Information on Your Teaching 312 Maintaining a Teaching Portfolio 312 Collecting Data on the Products and Processes of Teaching 312 Formative and Summative Assessment 241 Formative Assessment 241 Summative Assessment 242 Validity and Reliability Issues of Assessment 243 Validity of Assessment Measures 243 Reliability of Assessment Measures 244 Collecting Information: Formal and Informal Evaluation 245 Alternative Assessment 246 Checklists 246 Rating Scales 247 Scoring Rubrics 247 Types of Student Assessment 248 Observation 248 Event Tasks 250 Student Journals 255 Portfolio 256 Written Test 256 Skill Tests 257 Student/Group Projects and Reports 258 Student Logs 258 Student Interviews, Surveys, and Questionnaires 258 Parental Reports 260 Making Assessment a Practical and Important Part of Your Program 260 Establish Criteria 260 Use Self-Testing Tasks Frequently 262 Use Simple Check Sheets and Rating Scales 262 Use Peer Assessment 263 Use Thirty-Second Wonders 263 Use DVD/Computers 263 Sample Student Behavior 264 Get Comfortable with Technology 264 Preparing for Formal and High-Stakes Assessment 264 Student Grading 266 Student Achievement 266 Student Improvement 266 Student Effort 266 Student Conduct 266 Summary 267 Checking Your Understanding 267
- 18. xiv Contents Observing andAnalyzing Your Teaching 313 Deciding What to Look For 313 Choosing an Observational Method or Tool to Collect Information 315 Collecting Data 318 Analyzing and Interpreting the Meaning of Data 319 Making Changes in the Instructional Process 319 Monitoring Change in Teaching 320 Summary 320 Checking Your Understanding 320 14 Observation Techniques and Tools 322 Observational Methods 323 Intuitive Observation 323 Anecdotal Records 325 Rating Scales 327 Scoring Rubric 329 Event Recording 329 Duration Recording 331 Time Sampling 332 Observational Tools for the Analysis of Teaching 335 Student Motor Activity: ALT-PE 335 Student Use of Time 337 Content Development: OSCD-PE 338 Teacher Feedback 339 Student Conduct 341 Qualitative Measures of Teaching Performance Scale (QMTPS) 343 Teacher Movement 347 Summary 350 Checking Your Understanding 350 Glossary 352 Index 357
- 19. xv Preface T he recent obesityepidemic in this country has given physical education programs an oppor- tunity to demonstrate that we can achieve what we say we can do. In order to do this, teachers are going to have to have the skills to teach effec- tively to outcomes. Teaching is a process that is both interactive and context specific. Teachers need the technical skills of teaching, but they also need to be able to apply them situationally. The focus of this book is on the basic skills of teaching that are appropriate to teaching all con- tent areas. Without these skills teachers cannot be effective. ■ CHANGES IN THIS NEW EDITION In this new edition, the beginning teaching stan- dards (NASPE, 2008) are woven into each chap- ter’s introduction and are used as a framework for the introductory chapter. The research chapter has been removed, primarily because other, more inclu- sive sources for this information are now available and most beginning methods classes have not used the chapter. The chapter including motivation has been rewritten to include a more comprehensive discussion of newer motivation theories as the basis for teacher decision making and teacher efforts to increase student motivation. New and revised sec- tions on Mosston’s teaching styles, organizational transitions, legal liability, Bloom’s taxonomy, diver- sity, and writing objectives using standards have all been added to this addition. Additional examples and clarifications of material occur throughout. ■ ORGANIZATION The text is organized to begin with an orientation chapter that sets the stage for student learning as the primary goal of the teaching process. This chapter is a key to developing student understanding of the importance of chapters to follow. It is followed by a chapter on factors that influence student learning. Although many programs have course work in motor learning and development, the essential concepts from these areas are presented with their implications for teaching. Part II of the text presents chapters on the criti- cal teaching skills for teaching physical education. Although there is a rationale for the order in which they are presented, it is expected that instructors use order flexibly according to the specific needs of a pro- gram. Part III of the text presents a chapter on content- specific pedagogy. This chapter is not intended to be inclusive of what a teacher needs to know to teach fit- ness, games/sports, or movement concepts, but rather begins to identify pedagogical issues specific to a content area. The Rink Games Stages, a model found useful by many programs to help learners understand progressions in teaching games, is described in this chapter. Chapters on the professional teacher and observational techniques and tools are included in Part III of the text, as well. Many instructors want to begin course work in pedagogy with the chapter on the professional teacher to set the stage for that course work. The chapter on observation is designed as a ref- erence tool for systematic observation of teaching to facilitate instructor feedback on the teaching skills described in the text.
- 20. xvi Preface challenge forme and have played a major role in the development and growth of this text over the years. I am grateful to the reviewers who have challenged me to continue to make this text a better source for new generations of teachers. Reviewers for this edition include: Thomas Fuchs State University of New York Cortland Deborah A. Garrahy Illinois State University Betsy A. McKinley Slippery Rock University Joan Neide California State University Sacramento ■ SUCCESSFUL FEATURES AND SUPPLEMENTS Each chapter begins with an overview that sets the stage for the importance of the chapter, followed by an outline of the major topics presented in the chapter. Chapters conclude with a summary of key ideas of the chapter, questions designed to check student under- standing of the materials, references, and suggested reading. The website that accompanies Teaching Physical Education for Learning includes a test bank of short-answer questions for the instructor, as well as PowerPoint presentations for each of the chapters. The latest edition of Moving into the Future: National Content Standards for Physical Education can be packaged with Teaching Physical Education for Learning at the instructor’s request. This resource is an ideal accompaniment for the text, as the standards define learning outcomes for effective teaching. ■ ACADEMIC REVIEWERS I am indebted to the many friends, colleagues, and students with whom I have worked over the years. They are a continuous source of support and
- 21. 1 1 Teaching Physical Education: An Orientation OV E R V I E W Teaching can be viewed from many perspectives. The perspective teachers take when they look at the teaching-learning process determines what they will look at in that process and how they will look at it. Perspectives are important because they cause the teacher to see things in certain ways. This chapter establishes a perspective for this text. It is an overview on instruction from which other chapters in the text are developed. O U T L I N E ■ Teaching as a goal-oriented activity Types of goals Establishing realistic goals Choosing instructional processes to meet goals Achieving goals through processes ■ Criteria for a learning experience Criterion One Criterion Two Criterion Three Criterion Four ■ Understanding the instructional process Prelesson and postlesson routines Movement task–student response unit of analysis Teaching functions Management and content behavior ■ Looking to the future: Becoming a professional teacher Value positions and beliefs in teaching Personal characteristics of a teacher Developing commitment
- 22. 2 PART IUnderstanding the Teaching-Learning Process information but that they are able to use this informa- tion in their balance activities. If you want students to lead a physically active lifestyle outside of your class and as adults, you will teach differently than if you want them only to know that physical activity is good for them. It is important for teachers to choose instructional processes appropriate to their goals. To do this, teach- ers must have a clear idea of what they want students to be able to do and be able to implement instructional processes effectively for a given activity and group of students. This chapter explains the basic framework of the instructional process in physical education and identifies the skills needed to operate successfully within this framework. ■ TEACHING AS A GOAL-ORIENTED ACTIVITY Instruction is guided by a long-term plan for student outcomes called the curriculum. When curricular decisions are not made or used to guide instruction, the instructional process is like a moving car without a driver. For this reason curriculum and instruction are integrally related. Teaching as a goal-oriented activity begins at the curricular level. Many curricular deci- sions in today’s educational climate are being deter- mined by content standards at the national, state, and local level that clearly prescribe what students should know and be able to do in physical education. The consensus in the field is that the purpose of physical education is the development of a physically active lifestyle. The national standards for physical educa- tion were developed and published by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education in 1995, revised in 2004, and have been used extensively by states and local districts to articulate program goals related to this purpose. The six standards describe the skills, abilities, and dispositions students will need to lead a physically active lifestyle. These standards are listed in box 1.1. In the publication Moving into the Future: National Standards for Physical Education (NASPE, 2004), each of the standards is broken down by grade level so teachers can identify what students at each age should know and be able to do. M ost people who decide to teach physical education do so because they are good at it, have enjoyed their past experiences with sport and physical education, and like to work with people. These are good reasons to choose a profession. Because engaging in sport and physical activity is fun for most people, a misconception often exists that teaching physical education is easy, or at least easier than teaching any other content. Teaching physical education can be exciting, rewarding, and fun, but to do it effectively is not easy. Teaching is a complex activity. Its goal is stu- dent learning. The teacher has primary responsibil- ity for directing the teaching-learning process. This is why teaching can become difficult. If a student is not learning, the teacher must find an effective way to reach this student. There are many types of stu- dents and many types of skills, knowledges, and val- ues that teachers will want to teach. Finding ways to reach objectives for learning with all students is a real challenge. Teaching is not an exact science. Teach- ers need to design and redesign experiences for their students based on their pedagogic goals and their knowledge of the learner, the lesson content, and the teaching-learning process. Teaching Physical Education for Learning is pri- marilyatextoninstructionalprocessesandtheteaching skills required to execute those processes effectively; that is, what teachers can do to help students learn what teachers want them to learn. Several key ideas will be reinforced throughout this text. The first is that instruction is a goal-oriented activity. This means that the process is meaningless unless it is designed with a clear goal regarding what the student will learn. You will be asked to articulate what you want learners to learn as a result of what you do as a teacher. The sec- ond key idea is that instructional processes are specific to an intent. This means that you select an instructional process to best accomplish a specific purpose. For instance, a teacher may decide to lead students through a problem-solving experience while teaching balance to help them understand principles related to base of support. The teacher selects problem solving as the instructional process rather than telling because the teacher’s intent is not only that students know the
- 23. Chapter 1 TeachingPhysical Education 3 relationship between curriculum and instruction must be clearly defined and programs must be oriented toward clearly stated goals. The contrast between two elementary and secondary programs is made clear in box 1.2 (see p. 4), which describes two different pro- grams, one defensible and one not defensible. Read the example and see if you can identify what it is that makes a program defensible. Types of Goals Educational program outcomes are commonly called goals when they refer to broad outcomes and objectives when they refer to more specific outcomes. Whereas curriculum objectives and, more recently, student performance standards usually define what the student should achieve as result of an entire program, instructional objectives usually describe what the stu- dent should achieve as a result of a single lesson or unit of instruction. Educational goals and objectives are used for both curriculum and instruction. They are usually classified under one of three interrelated cate- gories according to the domain of learning that charac- terizes that particular goal or objective: psychomotor, cognitive, or affective. As you review the national standards, you should be able to identify which of the standards address which domain (figure 1.1). Physical educators must explain and defend their role and program in the schools. Physical education programsareexpensiveinthefacilities,equipment,and personnel they require. Growing opportunities for stu- dentstoparticipateinsportactivitiesoutsidetheschools have caused educators, administrators, and taxpayers to view with uncertainty the contributions of physical education programs to the overall educational picture. Research done by physical educators on the attitudes of secondary students toward physical education (and the products and processes of physical education programs) largely confirms the discrepancy between what physical educators promise and what they produce. Many physical education programs are not defensible. Lack of accountability for program goals in the schools has resulted in many poor programs of physical education: those without identifiable or defensible goals and programs that bear no relation to their stated goals. If physical education is to attain credibility as a truly educational program, the B O X 1 · 1 National Content Standards for Physical Education Programs Standard 1: Demonstrates competency in motor skills and movement patterns to perform a variety of physical activities. Standard 2: Demonstrates understanding of movement concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physical activities. Standard 3: Participates regularly in physical activity. Standard 4: Achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness. Standard 5: Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings. Standard 6: Values physical activity for health, enjoy- ment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction. Reprinted from Moving into the Future: National Standards for Physical Education (2nd ed., 2004). FIGURE 1.1 Physical education has responsibility for all domains of learning. Psychomotor Domain Affective Domain Cognitive Domain Knowledge Strategies Cognitive Abilities Motor Skills Fitness Outcomes Feelings Values Social Behavior Attitudes
- 24. 4 PART IUnderstanding the Teaching-Learning Process Goals and objectives that deal with motor and physical abilities are termed psychomotor objec- tives. Standards 1 and 4 (box 1.1) are directly related to the psychomotor content of physical education. Psychomotor outcomes are the unique contribution of physical education to the education of the stu- dents. No other educational program emphasizes psychomotor objectives the way physical education does. Psychomotor objectives include motor skill objectives such as teaching fundamental skills (e.g., skipping, throwing, or rolling) or the complex skills required for sports (e.g., the basketball layup or back handspring). Psychomotor objectives also include fitness outcomes (e.g., arm strength, cardiorespira- tory endurance, and flexibility). A psychomotor goal might be to play basketball at an intermediate level of ability or to reach a particular level of ability on a fitness test. Cognitive objectives describe knowledge or abil- ity levels in processing information. The national standard that is related to this outcome is primarily standard 2: Demonstrates understanding of move- ment concepts, principles, strategies, and tactics as they apply to the learning and performance of physi- cal activities. Many aspects of performance in the psychomotor and affective domains (discussed next) are related to cognitive abilities that must be devel- oped as well. In other words, you have to know how to achieve fitness in order to design a program to achieve and maintain a fitness level. Cognitive goals and objectives are intellectual and thinking related. They include outcomes related to knowledge students should have (e.g., how to develop joint flexibility) and outcomes related to problem solving and cre- ativity or the transfer of knowledge from one situa- tion to another (e.g., how to apply zone defense to a six-on-six soccer game). Affective objectives describe student feelings, attitudes, values, and social behaviors. The national standards directly related to affective outcomes are 5 and 6. Standard 5 deals with personal and social behavior, standard 6 with values related to the ben- efits of participation in physical activity. The desire to have students value fitness and engage in activity on a regular basis (standard 3) is mostly an affective goal B O X 1 · 2 Defensible and Not Defensible Programs Elementary—Defensible The teacher has planned the day’s lesson with psycho- motor, cognitive, and affective objectives from a writ- ten plan that describes what the learning objectives for the day will be and how the lesson will proceed. The second-grade class will be working on combining lo- comotor patterns. Opportunities to practice the skills separately and then combine them are provided. The teacher also has planned to have each student develop a personal routine that will be shared with a partner and assessed using peer review. Elementary—Not defensible The teacher decides on the way to work that the second-grade class really likes to play with the para- chute so that is what the class will do today. The teacher thinks of all the fun things that the students like to do with parachutes and writes them down when he/she gets to work. Secondary—Defensible The teacher is teaching a unit on volleyball. The teacher has carefully planned the unit so that each day students work on some aspect of their skill develop- ment they have decided with the teacher is a weak- ness. Each part of every day is also devoted to some gamelike or game play. At the end of each class the teacher and the students assess their play and skill and make a decision about what needs the most attention. The teacher plans the next lesson to work on those aspects of play that need attention. Secondary—Not defensible The teacher has been working on a unit in volley- ball. The first day of the unit the teacher presented all of the skills of volleyball and is running a tournament for the rest of the unit. Some students are better than others, but the students really don’t like to practice the skills. The teacher has decided that his/her role is primarily to keep the peace during play and to help the students deal with conflict that emerges on an individual basis.
- 25. Chapter 1 TeachingPhysical Education 5 instructional situation. Instructional programs cannot be conducted in a manner consistent with established goals if the goals set are hopelessly unattainable. Selecting realistic goals for a program is difficult in physical education. The field has the potential to con- tribute in many ways to educational goals and objec- tives. Physical educators can use active learning and physical activity to make major contributions to all domains of learning, and that makes it difficult to define our responsibility. Designating realistic goals has been a major problem for many programs. Physi- cal educators for the most part have tried to be all things to all people. As a result, they have tended to accomplish little. For example, a representative high school curriculum guide for the ninth grade might list the following goals: ■ Develop and maintain fitness. ■ Develop skills for participation in six team sports, four individual sports, gymnastics, and dance. ■ Teach students how to value themselves and interact with others in positive ways. ■ Teach students how to be independent learners and problem solvers. ■ Develop skills, attitudes, and knowledge related to participation in physical activity that will transfer to new skills and encourage lifetime participation. If students in this ninth grade have physical educa- tion class two times a week, it should be apparent that even the first goal of fitness is not attainable within the confines of the assigned class time. If the sport, gymnastics, and dance objectives are divided by the time normally available in a school year, the extent of the problem becomes apparent. Each sport would have less than two weeks of program time. Enough time is not available to successfully complete even the simplest of the stated goals. The goals listed in this curriculum are worthwhile. Teachers should be setting their goals high. However, had the designers of this curriculum considered the instructional pro- cess needed to reach their goals, they would have realized that the goals stated were not attainable in the time allotted. To attempt to meet all of these goals in one pro- gram can result only in accomplishing none of them, that needs skill and knowledge. Objectives teachers have related to student feelings, attitudes, values, and social behaviors are affective objectives. A major goal of physical education is to prepare students for a lifetime of physical activity. Unless teachers address affective goals in their programs, students may be skilled and may even be knowledgeable but may choose not to participate. Unlike sport programs outside the school, physical education also shares many cognitive and affective goals with all educational programs within a school. The teacher in physical education often has psycho- motor, cognitive, and affective objectives in one les- son. Physical educators should help students to be thinking, caring, and sharing individuals. Lessons that in part teach working productively with a partner, fair play, independent learning skills, and positive self-regard have objectives classified as affective. Chapter 10, “Planning,” describes in detail how teachers can write goals and objectives for different purposes when planning both curriculum and instruc- tion. At this point it is important to recognize that educational goals are concerned with each dimension of human development. Establishing Realistic Goals If the relationship between curriculum and instruc- tion is to be maintained, the curriculum goals and objectives established must be appropriate to the Physical education should prepare students for a life of physical activity.
- 26. 6 PART IUnderstanding the Teaching-Learning Process layup shot) require different processes from closed skills (those that take place in more stable environ- ments, such as archery). Teaching for transfer of learning from one skill to another requires a differ- ent process from teaching that does not intend trans- fer. All motor skill learning involves processes that require consideration of certain prerequisites for learning, such as the amount and type of information, practice, and feedback that learners at different levels of development need. Processes and criteria for meeting affective and cognitive objectives in physical education are not neatly packaged but are as specific as those for other areas. Physical educators have traditionally assumed that if learners are engaged in creative experiences, creative learning is occurring.They have assumed that learners engaged in social interaction with others are developing positive social interaction skills and that learners engaged in team sports will develop sports- manship and self-discipline. Teachers have come to realize that merely engaging in an experience that has the potential to make a positive contribution to affec- tive or cognitive goals does not ensure that these goals are met. Learning experiences must be designed and developed for specific outcomes: What is not taught often is not learned. Fair play, independent learning skills, problem solving, positive social interaction, and the development of positive self-concepts require specific conditions and processes. These goals should be designated, planned for, taught, and assessed, as with other kinds of content goals. Achieving Goals Through Processes Teachers can achieve psychomotor goals and objectives directly by teaching movement content. Physical educators can teach basketball, jumping, dance, or swimming by providing carefully planned and conducted experiences in basketball, jumping, dance, or swimming. A more difficult question con- cerns how the educator teaches creativity, positive self-concept, positive social interaction skills, love of activity, or fair play. Sometimes a teacher might put the primary emphasis of a lesson on developing student coopera- tive behavior or creativity through physical activity. A because the students need adequate time to experi- ence any degree of success. The goals established for any program must be realistic to their setting, which often means that the teacher must choose between many worthwhile goals. More realistic skill and fitness goals for this ninth- grade setting might have included the following: ■ Students should be able to design personal goals for fitness with the help of the instructor and meet those goals by the end of the school year through a personal fitness program. ■ Students should be able to attain a participant level of competency in one team sport and one individual sport of their choice. ■ Students should be able to design and safely conduct a personal weight-training program. Choosing Instructional Processes to Meet Goals Once the teacher has chosen goals and has trans- lated those goals into objectives for instruction, the teacher must choose instructional processes that can reach a specific objective. Instructional experi- ences and processes are chosen intentionally to reach specific goals. Although more occurs in classes than is intended, teaching processes are designed to be specific to their desired learning outcomes. It is impossible to discuss what to do or what is good instruction without discussing what the teacher hopes to accomplish. One of the best examples of the specificity of teach- ing processes to desired outcomes occurs in the area of fitness. Fitness is developed only when certain cri- teria for workload, duration of activity, and intensity are met. The type of exercise is specific to the type of fitness desired (e.g., strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, or cardiorespiratory endurance). Most activities that develop strength do not also develop flexibility. The type of fitness is specific not only to the type of exercise but also to a muscle group. Criteria for teaching processes involved in learn- ing motor skills objectives are not as neatly defined as those for fitness, but they are beginning to emerge in the literature. Open motor skills (those that take place in changing environments, such as the basketball
- 27. Chapter 1 TeachingPhysical Education 7 basketball; and their abilities to work independently, think creatively, and problem solve are all affected by the process the teacher chooses to teach the layup shot. If teaching the basketball layup were the only objective, teaching would be easy, or at least easier. Ateacher’s goals must be more inclusive.Although no teacher would intentionally teach for negative affect in class, in many classes affective goals and cognitive goals related to learning activity are ignored. Teacher decision making in the instructional process is affected by the complex interrelationship between what to teach (content) and how to teach it (process). The two are not easily separated. The teaching pro- cess a teacher uses results in products many times not intended. Effective teachers choose processes because they are aware of the potential contributions of those processes to their comprehensive goals. Little research has been done that links different pedagogic processes to specific affective and cogni- tive outcomes because of the difficulty of measuring such elusive and long-term products of instruction. Teachers, however, should be objective in assessing all the outcomes of their teaching. This necessarily includes affective and cognitive goals. Until teachers have a better understanding of the contribution of dif- ferent instructional processes to these important out- comes, they must make informed decisions regarding teaching and carefully observe the products of these processes. In the next section, criteria for designing learning experiences with students are established. ■ CRITERIA FOR A LEARNING EXPERIENCE To teach motor skills or concepts to learners, teachers must design learning experiences that lead the learn- ers from where they are to the desired objectives and goals. One of the most critical functions a teacher performs in an instructional setting is the design of learning experiences and the movement tasks that constitute them. The learning experience delivers the content to the learner. It structures and gives focus to student responses. It is at the level of the learning experience that the teacher determines the student’s role in the process of learning. teacher might also plan an entire lesson using physical education content to teach a moral value or to posi- tively contribute to the self-concept of students. Most often these affective concerns are taught in conjunc- tion with psychomotor or fitness skill development. The teacher chooses a way to develop the lesson with students so that more than a psychomotor emphasis becomes the focus of the lesson. This means that although the primary content might be the basketball layup shot (and we design experiences to best teach the basketball layup shot), how the teacher goes about teaching this skill contributes a great deal to affective and cognitive goals. How students feel about bas- ketball, themselves, and others; their knowledge of Instilling a love of activity in students is a primary objective of the physical education program.
- 28. 8 PART IUnderstanding the Teaching-Learning Process If the teacher is trying to teach partners how to dribble a soccer ball against a defensive player, the teacher might have several tasks related to this learn- ing objective, including the following: ■ Two offensive players and one defensive player without a goal Half speed without a goal Full speed without a goal Using the fake in the above ■ Focusing on the player without the ball Full speed—count number of passes Full speed—with a goal The teacher would design more than one task to reach the learning goal related to passing against a defensive player. How to develop the content to establish viable progressions of tasks is discussed in chapter 5. Each of the tasks related to the learning experience of passing against a defensive player can be described in many ways, including the following: ■ What the nature of the content was for the task ■ What the nature of the goal was for each of the tasks ■ How students were organized for the activity ■ How the space was arranged ■ What kind and how much equipment was used ■ What the teacher did during activity ■ How much time the class and each student spent in activity The decisions teachers make in regard to these questions and others determine the potential of the learning experience to contribute to reaching learning objectives, as well as the potential of the experience to contribute to different domains of learning. In this section, four essential criteria for the design of a learning experience are presented. These criteria should act as a first screen in sifting out instructional experiences that have the potential to facilitate learn- ing from those that do not. The criteria are a blend of professional knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes con- cerning what is important in what teachers do with their students in physical education. Teachers are guided in what they do by their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes. The answers to such questions as “Would the teacher consider check- ers appropriate content?” “Would the teacher line up Teachers have many options in the design of learn- ing experiences and movement tasks. For example, the questions in box 1.3 only begin to sort out the alternatives for teaching the headstand. Which approach would you take and why? Learning experi- ences can be designed to individualize the content for the learner, to give learners a decision-making role, or to focus student responses on a psychomotor, affec- tive, or cognitive process. Teachers choose one way of designing a learning experience over others, based on the specific nature of the content, their objectives for a lesson, their broader program goals, the charac- teristics of their students, and the facilities and equip- ment of their specific environment. A learning experience is that part of an instruc- tional lesson used to develop a particular set of student outcomes. In this text the term learning experience is defined as a set of instructional conditions and events that gives structure to student experience and is related to a particular set of teacher objectives. B O X 1 · 3 Content Decisions—The Headstand Should the teacher demonstrate the skill, walk the students through the skill one step at a time, or teach concepts about base of support and have students ap- ply those concepts to a balance using the head and the hands? Should all students be doing a headstand? What other arrangements for ability levels can and should be made? What kind of learning environment does the teacher want for practice? Should the practice be fun, task oriented, or relaxed? Should the student focus be maintaining balance? Showing extension and a clear body shape? Both? Should the students know why the head and hands are placed the way that they are? How should students be grouped for practice of the headstand? Should they practice in small groups, indi- vidually, or with a partner? Who chooses the groups and with what criteria? How will student performance be assessed? Self- assessment? Partner assessment? Teacher assessment?
- 29. Chapter 1 TeachingPhysical Education 9 but that the activity has the potential to improve per- formance in these areas. Interrelatedvariables. ThefollowingRealWorld box presents some of the problems we have when teachers at all levels do not see a responsibility to pro- duce learning in psychomotor skills. There are times when teachers will want to focus on affective or cog- nitive goals in the design of learning experiences. Cooperative games are examples of a content area spe- cifically designed to use activity to focus on affective concerns. Also, much has been written about physical education experiences integrated with other academic subjects, as well as developing cognitive goals in phys- ical education. The position taken in this text is that these goals are important but it is possible to use the half the class in front of one basket for a task?” “Does the teacher consider the role of the student merely to duplicate what the teacher shows?” and “Does the teacher consider student ability levels in teaching?” are determined by the teacher’s knowledge of, beliefs about, and attitudes toward the content of physical education and learning. Although it may not be possi- ble for every learning experience the teacher designs to meet each of these criteria, it is desirable that the teacher strive to meet these criteria. Teachers who are effective and provide well-rounded educational programs for students meet these criteria more often than not. Criterion One The first criterion is that the learning experience must have the potential to improve the motor perfor- mance/activity skills of students. This criterion makes clear a commitment to provide students with skills for a physically active lifestyle as the unique purpose of the instructional physical education program. It is not meant to exclude from physical education those activities that contribute to developing an active life- style but may not require complex motor skills. It is meant to exclude from programs experiences that do nothing but engage students in activity or play activities with no learning goal. Teachers must design experiences for students with the intent to provide a legitimate learning experience. Unless an experience has the potential to contribute to student learning and development in this way, it is not considered a valid physical education instructional experience. Support for this criterion comes from the idea that adults who are physically active were those who were active as youths in organized sport. The implications of this criterion should be clear. The teacher does not play games just because they are fun.The teacher does not teach reading through the use of movement experiences during time designated for physical education unless the psychomotor objective is an equally valid learning experience. The teacher does not plan lessons merely to engage students in motor activity or to provide a social experience. The criterion is not merely that students be engaged in an activity that involves balls or balance or coordination, THE REAL WORLD Criterion One: The Learning Experience Must Have the Potential to Improve the Motor Performance/Activity Skills of Students In my experiences in the public schools, I have had many opportunities to discuss this criterion with prac- ticing teachers. I have talked to elementary teachers who feel their job is merely to expose students to skills that they are not yet ready to learn. I have spoken with middle-school and junior high school teachers who feel their main responsibility is to introduce and ex- pose students to as many skills as they can. Finally, I have encountered many senior high school teachers who believe their job is simply to let students play. The following questions then remain: ■ Who has the responsibility to teach motor and activity skills to students? ■ Who has the responsibility to improve the physi- cal potential of students? To say that students suffer from overexposure to skills is an understatement. Rather than only expose students to skills, the physical education curriculum and the instructional process should be designed to make students skillful. This may mean spending more time on fewer skills.
- 30. Random documents withunrelated content Scribd suggests to you:
- 31. —'Was he surethat he knew James Whiting?' Was there a resident of Sutro who did not know him? 'Could he swear,—taking thought that he was under oath,—could he swear that the man on the side of the car was James Whiting and not some other man resembling him? If, on a moving train, another man resembling James Whiting, of about James Whiting’s size—' 'He knows he can’t touch me,' Robbins was thinking triumphantly. 'He knows it!' The question of truth or falsehood was quite removed from him now. He came down from the stand finely elated, and in the afternoon went back of his own accord to the court-room. Emerson, the truck-gardener, was under examination and faring badly. One by one, the damaging facts of his past came out against him—an arrest for theft, a jail sentence for vagrancy, a quarrel with the prisoner, proved threats. The victim emerged limp from the ordeal, and slunk away from the room, wholly discredited. 'Serves him right, though,' Robbins quenched his momentary pity. 'I knew all the time he was lying.' He started suddenly, so violently that the listener seated next him turned in irritation. 'And,' it had flashed through his mind, 'and he knew I was!' His eyes sought the prisoner—the man who also knew—where he sat hunched heavily forward in his chair, his arms upon the table. For an instant, pity, like some racking physical pain, shot through Robbins. To be caught in such a web! To be caught through no fault of his own! It was the first time the purely personal side had broken its way past his own selfish concern. It stifled him and, forcing his eyes from the man’s brooding face, he got up and stumbled out of the room. But he could not stay out. An indefinite dread dragged him back presently. An indefinite dread held him bound to his place during the examination of the witnesses who followed, during the days of argument, and the judge’s inconclusive charge. He lay awake on the night following the jury’s retirement, picturing over and over in his own mind the scene of their return —just what degree of astonishment his face should show in listening to their verdict, with just what proud reticence and conscious wrong he should make his way out from the crowd. He had never said that Whiting was guilty—he reminded himself of that. All he had ever said was that on one certain day, in one certain place— He rolled over on his face and, hands across his eyes, tried vainly to sleep.
- 32. Half of Sutrowas loafing about the court-house lawn next morning, pushing its way into the corridors at every rumor, drifting back to the freer outer air. When at last the rumor proved a true one, Robbins found himself far in the back of the room, the wall behind him, on three sides a packed, jostling crowd. There was a blur of unintentional noise in the place—heavy breathing, the creaking of a door. Through the noise pierced at intervals the accustomed voice of the judge, and set between the intervals the mumble of the foreman’s reply. '—Agreed, all of you?' 'Do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?' The mumble dropped lower still. A stir swept over the front of the room, a wave of voiceless interest passing from front to back. 'What—what—' Robbins stammered, straining higher on tiptoe. 'Guilty. Manslaughter,' said the man beside him. He brought his hand down heavily on the boy’s shoulder. 'Suits you all right. Everybody knew—' The gavel sounded and he broke off, bending forward to listen. But Robbins did not listen. It was as though the foundations of his world crumbled round him. That truth should fail, that innocent men should suffer — He fumbled at the sleeve of the man on the other side. 'I—didn’t hear. They said—' 'Sh-h!' the man warned him, and then, behind his sheltering hand, 'Guilty.' The judge’s voice dropped, and the speaker began moving with others toward the door. Robbins moved, too—as one dazed, uncertain what he did. Some one stopped him in the outer passage. He was conscious of congratulatory sentences. He heard his own voice speaking words which, seemingly, were not without meaning. And all the while his mind waited, awed, for the impending catastrophe. Mercifully, the house was empty when he reached home. He tiptoed into his own room, and there, the door closed behind him, stood for a moment, listening. Then, with an exclamation, he dropped to his knees beside the bed and buried his face against it. For an hour he knelt there, bodily quiet, his mind beating, circling, thrusting desperately against its surrounding cage of falsehood. At first it was all fear—how the exposure would come, how best he might sustain himself against it. Then, imperceptibly, a deeper terror crept into his
- 33. thinking. Suppose itshould not come? Suppose— But that was unthinkable. For a lie to blast a man’s whole life, for a lie to brand him. Stealthily, as if his very stirring might incense the devil-god of such a world, he slid down, sitting beside the bed, his distended, horror-fascinated eyes hard on the wall. In these minutes his young faith in God and justice fought to the death with the injustice before him—fought and won. 'He’ll be sentenced Friday,' he found himself thinking, drawing on some half-heard scrap of conversation. 'That’s four days. There’s time enough—' He dragged himself up and lay down at full length. Something hot smarted upon his face; he put up his hand to find his cheeks wet with tears. They flowed quietly for a long time—soothingly. He fell asleep at last, his lashes still heavy with them. He was very early at the court-house Friday morning. Cartwright, coming in at nine to his office, crossed the corridor to speak to him—cheerily. 'Well, we got our man, Robbins. You made a good witness—I meant to tell you so before; no confusing you. Look here, my boy, you’re not fretting over this? If it hadn’t been you, it would have been some one else. There’s no covering a crime like that.' 'Not—ever?' said Robbins thickly. His secret was at his tongue’s end. A glance of interrogation would have brought it spilling out. But there was no interrogation in his companion’s eyes—only an abstracted kindness. He looked away from the lad toward the stragglers along the corridor. 'You came up to hear the sentence? Come in through my office and we’ll find you a seat. The place will be packed.' 'There’s nothing new?' Robbins asked unwillingly. 'No—new evidence?' 'Why, no! The case will be closed in another half-hour. And then I hope it will be a long time before you have any thing to do with a criminal charge again. Now if you want to come in—' Robbins followed, silent. It did not trouble him to find himself placed conspicuously in the front row. His whole attention was set upon holding fast to the one strand of hope extended to him. In half an hour it would be over. In half an hour the hideous thing would be folded into the past. But it would not! The case against Whiting would be ended, the arraignment of God would be but just begun! To go on living in a world so guardianed—
- 34. The judge enteredand took his place; the lawyers on either side filed in to their stations about the long table; the prisoner was brought in, in the custody of a deputy sheriff. There was a little bustle of curiosity to herald his coming. Then the packed room settled to attention. Robbins leaned forward in his seat. He heard vaguely the opening interchanges of speech. He saw the prisoner rise. The man was clay- colored; his teeth scraped back and forth continually on his dry lower lip. There was no resource in him, no help. And suddenly the watcher knew that help was nowhere. The voice of the judge reached him, low-pitched and solemn, as befitted the occasion. '—Having been found guilty—decree that you be confined—' 'No!' said Robbins suddenly almost in a scream. All at once the thing was clear to him. It was not Whiting who was being sentenced: it was God who was on trial, it was truth, good faith, the right to hope. The impulse of his cry had wrenched him from his chair. He stood flung forward against the rail. 'You can’t! I never saw him! They were tormenting me and I said I did. He wasn’t there—' Behind him the court-room rang with excitement. He was aware of startled exclamations. He was aware of Cartwright, tragic-eyed, beside him, half-sheltering him, calling to him. 'Robbins! What’s wrong? He’s not speaking under oath. He’s been brooding—' 'It’s so!' said the boy. For a moment he held himself erect among them, high-headed, joyous, splendid with the exaltation of the martyr. Then, suddenly, his eyes met the eyes of the prisoner. He dropped back into his seat, his shaking hands before his face. It had lasted a second, less than a second, that frank, involuntary revelation; but in that second, his guard beaten down by sheer amazement, the prisoner’s guilt stood plain in his face. In that second, reading the craven record of it, Robbins saw the glory of martyrdom snatched from him forever—knew himself, now and now only, irrevocably perjured.
- 35. WHAT MR. GREYSAID BY MARGARET PRESCOTT MONTAGUE HE was the smallest blind child at Lomax, the State school for deaf and blind children. Even Jimmie Little, who looked like a small gray mouse, and who had always been regarded by the teachers as not much bigger than a minute, appeared large beside Stanislaus. He was so small, in fact, that Mr. Lincoln, the Superintendent, had declined at first to admit him. 'We don’t take children under six,' he had said to Stanislaus’s father when the latter had brought him to Lomax, 'and your little boy doesn’t look five yet.' 'He’ll be five the twenty-second of March,' the father said. 'I’ll be five ve twenty-second of March,' Stanislaus echoed. He was sitting holding his cap politely between his knees, swinging his fat legs with a gay serenity, while his blind eyes stared away into the dark. He had not been paying much attention to the conversation, being occupied with the working out of a little silent bit of rhythm by an elaborate system of leg-swings: twice out with the right foot; twice with the left; then twice together. He had found that swinging his legs helped to pass the time when grown-ups were talking. The mention of his birthday, however, brought him at once to the surface. That was because Mr. Grey had told him of a wonderful thing which would happen the day he was five. Thereafter his legs swung to the accompaniment of a happy unheard chant:— 'I’ll be five years old' (right leg out), 'I’ll be five years old' (left leg out), 'I’ll be five years old on my birf-day!' (Both legs in ecstatic conjunction.) Stanislaus’s father, a sad-eyed man, who, though he spoke with no accent, was evidently of emigrant extraction, looked troubled.
- 36. 'My wife’s dead,'he said, 'an’ I’m workin’ in the coalmines, an’ you know that ain’t no place for a little blind child. Every one told me sure you’d take him here.' Mr. Lincoln hesitated. 'Well,' he said at length, 'I’ll send for Miss Lyman, —she’s the matron for the blind boys,—and if she consents to take him, I’ll make no objection.' Miss Lyman appeared presently, and Mr. Lincoln explained the situation. 'But he is such a little chap,' he concluded, 'it seems hardly possible for us to take him.' Here, however, Stanislaus gave over his leg-swinging and took it upon himself to remonstrate. 'I ain’t little,' he said firmly. Slipping off his chair, he drew himself up very straight, and began patting himself all over. 'Feel me,' he urged, 'dest feel me, I’m weally big. Feel my arms,' he held these chubby members out to Miss Lyman. 'An’ my legs,—' he patted them,—'why ve’re aw-ful big!' His serious little mouth rounded itself to amazement at the bigness of his legs. It was beyond human nature, or at least beyond Miss Lyman’s nature, to resist the appeal of his eager voice and patting baby hands. Obediently she ran an inquiring touch over his soft body, which was still plump babyhood, not having as yet thinned to boyhood. 'Why,' she said, turning gravely to Mr. Lincoln, 'he does look rather small, but when you feel him, you find he is really quite big.' 'Does he feel big enough for us to take?' Mr. Lincoln demanded. 'Oh, I think so!' she answered quickly, one arm slipping about the little boy’s shoulders. 'An’ I’ll be five ve twenty-second of March,' Stanislaus threw in to overbalance the argument in his favor. He snuggled himself confidingly against Miss Lyman, and fell to playing with the many jingling attachments of her chatelaine. 'I heard vese tinkly fings when you was comin’ ’w-a-y a-w-a-y outside, 'fore you o-pened ve door,' he murmured softly. 'His mother’s dead,' the man explained. 'Little sister’s dead, too,' Stanislaus supplemented him. 'S’e token a awful bad cold so s’e couldn’t b’eave. I take awful bad colds, but I don’t die, do
- 37. I?' he demanded. 'Yes,'said the man, 'my baby’s dead, too. I had a woman lookin' after both kids, but she let the baby git the pneumonia.' 'I fink I like you better van vat other lady,' Stanislaus confided to Miss Lyman. 'Of course we can take him,' Miss Lyman said hastily to Mr. Lincoln. And thus it was that Stanislaus came to Lomax. As has been said, he was the youngest child at school. This in itself was sufficient to set him apart from the thirty or so other blind boys; but there were other things that served to distinguish him as well. His thoughts, for instance, were so different—so unexpected and whimsical; so entirely off the beaten track. Witness Mr. Grey, for instance. At his best Mr. Grey was a delightful person; but as he was of a retiring disposition, he never flowered into being, save in a sympathetic atmosphere. Miss Julia, for example, never met Mr. Grey. She was one of the older teachers, whose boast it was that she never stood for any foolishness. In her not doing so, however, she was apt to walk with a heavy foot over other folks' most cherished feelings. For which reason, sensitive people were inclined in her presence to retreat within themselves, sailing, as it were, with their lights blanketed. This was the reason, no doubt, why she and Mr. Grey never met. Indeed, Mr. Grey was of such an extremely shy nature that he had to be observed with the greatest delicacy. Looked at too closely, he was apt to go out like a blown candle. He lived apparently in an empty closet in the blind boys' clothes room. It is probable that he had taken up his abode there for the sake of being near Stanislaus, for as the latter was too small to be in school all the morning, he spent the rest of his time with Miss Lyman in the clothes room, where she sat and sewed on buttons, mended rips, and put on patches, in a desperate endeavor to keep her army of blind boys mended up. When the other children were about, as they usually were on Saturdays, Mr. Grey kept discreetly to himself, and his presence in the closet would not have been suspected. On the long school mornings, however, when Miss Lyman sat quietly sewing, with Stanislaus playing about, no one could be more unbending than Mr. Grey. Stanislaus would go over to the closet and open it a crack, and then he and Mr. Grey would fall into pleasant
- 38. conversation. Miss Lyman,of course, could hear only Stanislaus’s side of it, but he constantly repeated his friend’s remarks for her benefit. From hints which Stanislaus let fall, Miss Lyman gathered that there had once been a real Mr. Grey in the past, from which beginning, the interesting personality of the closet had developed. Mr. Grey’s comments upon things and people, as repeated by Stanislaus, showed a unique turn of mind. He seemed to have a poor opinion of mankind in general, coupled with an excellent one of himself in particular; for, retiring as he was before strangers, in the presence of friends he blossomed into an incorrigible braggart. If any one failed to do anything, Mr. Grey could always have done it, and never hesitated to say so. There was, for instance, the time when Mr. Beverly, one of the supervisors, was thrown from his horse and rather severely bruised. When informed of the incident by Stanislaus, who always gave his friend the news of the day, Mr. Grey was very scornful. 'Gwey says,' Stanislaus, over by the half-open closet door, turned to announce to Miss Lyman, '’at he never had no horse to frow him yet—an’ he’s wid all kinds of horses. Horses wif four legs, an’ horses wif five legs, —' Stanislaus had been learning to count lately,—'an’ horses wif six legs.' Again, when Miss Lyman sighed over a particularly disreputable pair of Edward Stone’s trousers, remarking that she really did not think she could patch those, she was met by the assertion, 'Gwey says he could patch 'em. He says he ain’t erfwaid to patch nobody’s pants. He could patch Eddy Stone’s, a-a-n’ he could patch Jimmie Nickle’s, a-a-a-n' Sam Black’s, an’— an’'—this last all in a hurry, and as a supreme evidence of proficiency in the art of patching—'he dest b’ieves he could patch Mr. Lincoln’s pants!' But this was more than Miss Lyman could stand. 'No, he couldn’t either, for Mrs. Lincoln wouldn’t let him,' she declared, stung to retort by such unbridled claims on the part of Mr. Grey. It is sad to relate also that Mr. Grey was a skeptic as well as a braggart, and had had, apparently, a doubtful past. This was revealed the morning after the Sunday on which Stanislaus had first encountered the Flood, the Ark, and Noah. After giving Mr. Grey on Monday morning a graphic account of the affair,—'An’ Noah him went into ve ark, an’ token all ve animals wif him, an’ ven all ve wicked people was dwown-ed,'—Stanislaus appeared to listen a moment, after which he turned to Miss Lyman.
- 39. 'Gwey says,' hereported, ''at he doesn’t b’ieve all ve wicked people was dwown-ed, 'cause he was a-livin' ven, an’ he was a very wicked man, an’ he didn’t go into ve Ark, an’ he wasn’t dwown-ed.' Miss Lyman might have forgiven Mr. Grey’s skepticism, but he showed a tendency to incite Stanislaus to a recklessness which could not be overlooked. None of the children were allowed to leave the school grounds without permission, but time and again Stanislaus slipped out of the gate, and was caught marching straight down the middle of the road leading to the village. This was a particularly alarming proceeding, because at this point in the road automobiles were apt to put on their last crazy burst of speed, before having to slow down to the sober ten miles an hour of the village limits. Indeed, one day, he was returned to the school by a white and irate automobilist. 'What do you suppose this little scoundrel did?' the man stormed. 'Why, he ran out from the side of the road and barked at my car!' 'I was dest pertendin' I was a little puppy dog,' Stanislaus murmured softly. 'Pretending you were a puppy dog!' roared the man. 'Well, if I hadn’t ditched my machine—! A puppy dog, indeed!' Stanislaus was turned over to Miss Lyman for very severe chastisement. He shed bitter tears, and in the midst of them his instigator’s name came out. 'G-gwey said he al’us barked at aut’mobiles—dest barked an’ barked at 'em—dest whenever he got weady,' he sobbed. 'If you ever do such a dreadful thing again, I shall give you the very worst whipping you ever had,' Miss Lyman scolded. 'Little blind boys have got to learn to be careful where they walk.' To which Stanislaus made the astonishing reply:— 'Gwey says he dest walked anywhere he got weady when he was little —'fore he got his eyes open.' That was the first hint that Miss Lyman got of it. Afterwards she and Miss Cynthia—Stanislaus’s teacher—caught constant glimpses of a curious idea that dodged in and out of the little boy’s flow of talk. A queer, elusive, will- o'-the-wisp idea, caught one minute, gone the next, yet informing all the child’s dreams and happy castles of the future.
- 40. At first theycompared notes on the subject. 'What do you suppose Stanny has got into his head?' Miss Lyman demanded of Miss Cynthia. 'When I told him that Kent Woodward had a little sister, he said, "Has s’e got her eyes open yet?" 'Yes,' agreed Miss Cynthia; 'and when I happened to say that Jimmie Nickle was the biggest blind boy in school, he said he must be awful stupid not to have got his eyes open yet.' But afterwards they both by common consent avoided the subject. This was because each dreaded that the other might confirm a fear that was shaping itself in their minds. It is probable that these two loved Stanislaus better than any one else loved him in all the world. Certainly if his father cared more for him, he did not take the trouble to show it, having seemingly washed his hands of the little fellow after turning him over to the school. It was partly his delightful trick of individualizing people in general, and his friends in particular, that had so endeared him to these two. 'I al’us know when it’s you,' he confided to Miss Lyman, as he played with her chatelaine, ''cause I hear vese tinkly fings coming way and away, 'fore you gits here.' While to Miss Cynthia he said, 'I al’us knows you by vat sweet smell.' And often he surprised them by such remarks as 'You don’t like wainy days, do you, Miss Lyman? I heard you tell Miss Cyn-fee-ia vat wainy days de-de-depwessed you.' He got the big word out after a struggle. 'I fink,' he added, 'vat wainy days de-depwess me too.' This last remark was simply an extra flourish of politeness on his part. Nothing ever really depressed him, and when he said, 'Miss Cyn-fee-ia says s’e likes to laugh; I fink I like to laugh too,' he came much nearer the truth. He did like to laugh, and he loved life and all it had to offer him. Each morning was a wonderful gift to him, and his days went by like a chain of golden beads strung together on a thread of delight. It was because of his delight in life, and because they loved him, and could not bear that Fate should prick any of his rainbow bubbles, that both Miss Lyman and Miss Cynthia avoided the subject after they had once discovered what tragic little hope his mind was fostering. Miss Julia, however, was different. Her sensibilities did not lead her into by-paths of pathos; therefore, when she chanced upon Stanislaus’s little secret, she joyfully proclaimed it.
- 41. 'Well, if thatlittle Stanislaus isn’t the funniest child I ever did see!' she began one evening in the teachers' hall. 'Why, if you’ll believe me, he thinks that children are like kittens and puppies, and are all born blind, and after a while they get their eyes open just like cats and dogs. He thinks he is big enough now to have his eyes open 'most any day. Well, I didn’t tell him any better, but I thought I should die laughing.' Here Miss Lyman and Miss Cynthia rose with one accord, and left the teachers' hall. Upstairs in Miss Lyman’s room they faced each other. 'You knew?' Miss Cynthia half questioned, half asserted. 'How can I help knowing!' Miss Lyman cried passionately. 'He’s always telling me what he’s going to do when "I’m big an’ can see." It isn’t a foolish idea! It’s a perfectly natural one. Some one has told him about puppies and kittens, and of course he thought children were the same way. It isn’t foolish, it’s—' 'You’ve got to tell him the truth,' Miss Cynthia interposed. 'I won’t,' Miss Lyman declared. 'All his dreams and hopes are centred on that idea.' 'If you don’t tell him, the other boys will find it out soon and laugh at him, and that will be worse.' 'Well, why have I got to tell him? Why don’t you?' 'He loves you best,' Miss Cynthia evaded. 'I don’t believe any one will have to tell him,' Miss Lyman took her up, hopefully. 'I believe it will just drop out of his mind as he gets older. He’ll just cease to believe it without any shock, without ever really knowing when he found out it wasn’t so.' But she reckoned without Mr. Grey. He, it appeared, had fixed a date for the great event. 'Gwey says,' Stanislaus announced, 'vat he got his eyes open ve day he was five, an’ he dest bets I’ll get mine open ven too.' Thereafter, all his dreams and plays were inspired by the magic words, 'When I’m five an’ can see.' The sentence served as a mental spring-board to jump his imagination off into a world of wonder where he could see, 'dest —dest as good as big folks' or 'dest as good as Gwey.' Every day his fifth birthday drew nearer, and Miss Cynthia’s eyes said, You’ve got to tell; and everyday Miss Lyman avoided them.
- 42. At last itwas the day before his birthday. He waked with the words, 'To- mowwow is my birfday,' on his tongue, and scrambled out of bed, a little night-shirted figure of ecstasy. His dressing that morning—the putting on of his shoes, the scrubbing of his fingers, the rather uncertain brushing of his hair—all went off to the happy refrain of— 'To-mowwow is my birfday, my birfday, my birfday!' Some deep wisdom kept him from letting the other boys suspect what Mr. Grey had foretold for his birthday; but when he came to Miss Lyman that she might look him over before he went to school, he pulled her down close to whisper, 'I’m goin' to look at you de very first one of all.' And to seal the matter he deposited a kiss in the palm of her hand, and shut her fingers upon it. 'Keep vat till I come back,' he commanded, and went jauntily off to school, where in all probability he made the same engaging promise to Miss Cynthia, and sealed it with the same token. But if he did, one may be certain he hid the token safe away in her hand. He was always shy about kisses, not being quite sure but that they might be visible. You could certainly feel the things, so why mightn’t they be seen as well, sticking right out on one’s cheek, for seeing people to stare at? For this reason, he refused them on his own account, ''cause vey might show'; and those that he gave were always bestowed in the palm of the hand, where the fingers could be closed hastily upon them. Miss Lyman sat in the clothes room that morning, and sewed and waited. Her needle blurred, and her thread knotted, and the patches seemed more difficult than ever, and all because she had told herself that presently she must take a little boy up in her lap and shatter his dearest hope with truth. She had made up her mind that, when he came from school that morning, she would have to tell him. Therefore she sat and sewed, her whole being tense for the sound of his footsteps. She knew just how he would come— with a sudden scamper up the steps outside. He always ran as soon as his fingers were sure of the rail, because much of his time he was an engine, 'An’ vats ve way twains come up steps.' Then he would whisk around the corner, fumble an instant for the door-handle, and burst in upon her. But after all, none of these sounds came. Instead, there was suddenly the trampling of grown-up feet, the rush of skirts, and Miss Cynthia threw the door open.
- 43. 'Oh, come—come quick!'she panted. 'Stanny is hurt—He ran away—Oh, I told him to come straight to you! But he ran away down the road, and a motor—' Together they sped down the long corridors to the hospital. They had brought Stanny there and laid him on one of the very clean little beds. Such a tiny crushed morsel of humanity in the centre of the big bare room! But his hand moved and he found Miss Lyman’s chatelaine as she bent over him. 'I knowed you was comin' by ve tinkly fings,' he whispered. Then—'I was dest playin' it was my birfday an’ I could see.—Gwey said to.—Is you—is you goin' to punish me vis time?' he quavered. 'No, lovey, no—not this time,' she faltered, for she had caught the look on the doctor’s face. 'Gwey said he al’us dest barked an’ barked at aut’mobiles.—Let me hold ve tinkly fings so’s I will know you is vere.' And by and by he murmured, 'It’ll be my birfday soon—weal soon now, won’t it?' 'Very, very soon now,' she answered, and clinched her hand tight to keep her voice steady. 'Why,' he said, his restless fingers chancing upon her clinched ones, 'why, you is still got my kiss all tight in you hand. I’d fink it would be all melted by now.' A little startled moan cut him short. 'I hurts!' he cried. 'Oh, I hurts!' 'Yes,' she answered breathlessly, 'yes, my darling, it will hurt a little.' 'Is it—is it 'cause my eyes is openin'?' he gasped. 'Yes, lovey, that’s the reason.' Her hand held his tight. 'But it won’t hurt long.' 'Gwey never—never said it would hurt like vis,' he sobbed. The doctor stooped down and made a tiny prick in the baby arm, and after a little Stanislaus lay still. 'He may be conscious again before the end,' the doctor said, 'but I hardly think it is likely.' He was not. He tossed a little, and murmured broken snatches of words, but he was too busy going along this new exciting path to turn back to the old ways, even to speak to his friends. Miss Lyman sat beside him all through the bright afternoon, through the tender dusk, and through the dark. Late in the night, he stirred, and cried out
- 44. with a littlehappy breath,— 'My birfday! It’s come!' And by the time it was morning he had gone. Miss Lyman closed the eyes that had opened so wide upon another world, drew up all the curtains, that the room might be flooded with the dancing light of his birthday morning, said a little prayer, committing him to his angel, and stole softly away.
- 45. A SOLDIER OFTHE LEGION BY E. MORLAE IT was almost daylight, and things were visible at two to three metres. The bombardment had died down, and the quiet was hardly disturbed by occasional shots. Our captain marched ahead of the second section, swinging a cane and contentedly puffing on his pipe. Nearly everybody was smoking. As we marched along we noticed that new trenches had been dug during the night from sixty to a hundred metres in rear of the position we had held, and were filled by the Twenty-ninth Chasseur Regiment, which replaced us. Very cunningly these trenches were arranged. They were deep and narrow, fully seven feet deep and barely a yard wide. At every favorable point, on every little rise in the ground, a salient had been constructed, projecting out from the main trench ten to fifteen metres, protected by heavy logs, corrugated steel sheets, and two to three feet of dirt. Each side of the salients bristled with machine-guns. Any attack upon this position would be bound to fail, owing to the intense volume of fire that could be brought to bear upon the flanks of the enemy. To make assurance doubly sure, the Engineer Corps had dug rows of cup- shaped bowls, two feet in diameter, two feet deep, leaving but a narrow wedge of dirt between each two; and in the centre of each bowl was placed a six-pointed twisted steel 'porcupine.' This instrument, however it is placed, always presents a sharp point right at you. Five rows of these man- traps I counted, separated by a thin wall of dirt not strong enough to maintain the weight of a man, so that any one who attempted to rush past would be thrown against the 'porcupine' and be spitted like a pigeon. As an additional precaution a mass of barbed wire lay in rolls, ready to be placed in front of this ouvrage, to make it safe against any surprise. We marched along, talking and chatting, discussing this and that, without a care in the world. Every one hoped we were going to the rear to recuperate and enjoy a good square meal and a good night’s rest. Seeger[A]
- 46. wanted a goodwash, he said. He was rather dirty, and so was I. My puttees dangled in pieces round my calves. It seems I had torn them going through the German wire the day before. I told Haeffle to keep his eyes open for a good pair on some dead man. He said he would. [A] Alan Seeger, the poet, who was later killed in battle. The company marched round the hill we descended so swiftly yesterday and, describing a semi-circle, entered again the Schützengraben Spandau and marched back in the direction we had come from. The trench, however, presented a different appearance. The bad places had been repaired, the loose dirt had been shoveled out, and the dead had disappeared. On the east side of the trench an extremely high parapet had been built. This parapet was complete even to loop-holes—rather funny-looking loop-holes, I thought; and when I looked closer, I saw that they were framed in by boots! I reached my hand into several of them as we walked along, and touched the limbs of dead men. The engineers, it seems, in need of material, had placed the dead Germans on top of the ground, feet flush with the inside of the ditch, leaving from six to seven inches between two bodies, and laying another body cross-wise on top of the two, spanning the gap between them. Then they had shoveled the dirt on top of them, thus killing two birds with one stone. The discovery created a riot of excitement among the men. Curses intermingled with laughter came from ahead of us. Everybody was tickled by the ingenuity of our génie. 'They are marvelous!' we thought. Dowd’s face showed consternation, yet he could not help smiling. Little King was pale around the mouth, yet his lips were twisted in a grin. It was horribly amusing. Every 200 metres we passed groups of the One Hundred and Seventieth, on duty in the trench. The front line, they told us, was twelve hundred metres farther east, and this trench formed the second line for their regiment. We entered the third-line trench of the Germans, from which they ran yesterday to surrender, and continued marching in the same direction— always east. Here we had a chance to investigate the erstwhile German habitations. Exactly forty paces apart, doorways opened into the dirt bank, and from each of them fourteen steps descended at about forty-five degrees into a cellar-like room. The stairs were built of wood and the sides of the
- 47. stairways and thechambers below were lined with one-inch pine boards. These domiciles must have been quite comfortable and safe, but now they were choked with bodies. As we continued our leisurely way, we met some of our trench-cleaners, and they recited their experiences with gusto. The Germans, they told us, pointing down into the charnel-houses, refused to come and give up, and even fired at them when summoned to surrender. 'Then what did you do?' I asked. 'Very simple,' answered one. 'We stood on the top of the ground right above the door and hurled grenade after grenade through the doorway until all noise gradually ceased down below. Then we went to the next hole and did the same thing. It wasn’t at all dangerous,' he added, 'and it was very effective.' We moved but slowly along the trench, and every once in a while there was a halt while some of the men investigated promising 'prospects' where the holes packed with dead Germans held out some promise of loot. Owing to the order of march, the first company was the last one in line, and my section at the very end. The head of the column was the fourth company, then the third, then the second, and then we. By the time my section came to any hole holding out hopes of souvenirs, there was nothing left for us. Yet I did find a German officer with a new pair of puttees, and, hastily unwinding them, I discarded my own and put on the new ones. As I bound them on I noticed the name on the tag—'Hindenburg.' I suppose that name stands for quality with the Boches. We left the trench and swung into another communication trench, going to the left, still in an easterly direction, straight on toward the Butte de Souain. That point, we knew, was still in the hands of the Germans, and very quickly they welcomed us. Shells came shrieking down—105mm., 150, 210, and 250. It’s very easy to tell when you are close to them, even if you can’t see a thing. When a big shell passes high, it sounds like a white-hot piece of iron suddenly doused in cold water; but when it gets close, the sw- i-ish suddenly rises in a high crescendo, a shriek punctuated by a horrible roar. The uniformity of movement as the men ducked was beautiful—and they all did it! One moment there was a line of gray helmets bobbing up and down the trenches as the line plodded on; and the next instant one could see only a line of black canvas close to the ground, as every man ducked and shifted his shoulder-sack over his neck. My sack had been blown to pieces when I was buried, and I felt uncomfortably handicapped, with only my musette for protection against steel splinters.
- 48. About a milefrom where we entered this boyau we came to a temporary halt, then went on once more. The fourth company had come to a halt, and we squeezed past them as we marched along. Every man of them had his shovel out and had commenced digging a niche for himself. We passed the fourth company, then the third, then the second, and finally the first, second, and third sections of our own company. Just beyond, we ourselves came to a halt and, lining up one man to the metre, started to organize the trench for defensive purposes. From the other side of a slight ridge, east of us and about six hundred metres away, came the sound of machine-guns. Between us and the ridge the Germans were executing a very lively feu de barrage, a screen of fire prohibiting any idea of sending reinforcements over to the front line. Attached for rations to my section were the major of the battalion, a captain, and three sergeants of the état-major. Two of the sergeants were at the trench telephone, and I could hear them report the news to the officers. 'The Germans' they reported, 'are penned in on three sides and are prevented from retreating by our artillery.' Twice they had attempted to pierce our line between them and the Butte de Souain, and twice they were driven back. Good news for us! At 10 A.M. we sent three men from each section to the rear for the soup. At about eleven they reappeared with steaming marmites of soup, stew, coffee, and buckets of wine. The food was very good, and disappeared to the last morsel. After eating, the captains granted me permission to walk along the ditch back to the fourth company. The trench being too crowded for comfort, I walked alongside to the second company, and searched for my friend, Sergeant Velte. Finally I found him lying in a shell-hole, side by side with his adjutant and Sergeant Morin. All three were dead, torn to pieces by one shell shortly after we had passed them in the morning. At the third company they reported that Second Lieutenant Sweeny had been shot through the chest by a lost ball that morning. Hard luck for Sweeny! The poor devil had just been nominated sous-lieutenant at the request of the French Embassy in Washington; and when he was attached as supernumerary to the third company we all had hopes that he would have a chance to prove his merit. In the fourth company also the losses were severe. The part of the trench occupied by the three companies was directly enfiladed by the German
- 49. batteries on theButte de Souain, and every little while a shell would fall square into the ditch and take toll from the occupants. Our company was fully a thousand metres nearer to these batteries, but the trenches we occupied presented a three-quarter face to the fire, and consequently were ever so much harder to hit. Even then, when I got back I found four men hors de combat in the fourth section. In my section two niches were demolished without any one being hit. Time dragged slowly until four in the afternoon, when we had soup again. Many of the men built little fires, and with the Erbsenwurst they had found on dead Germans prepared a very palatable soup by way of extra rations. At four o’clock sentries were posted and everybody fell asleep. A steady rain was falling, and to keep dry we hooked one edge of our tent-sheet on the ground above the niche and put dirt on top of it to hold. Then we pushed cartridges through the buttonholes of the tent, pinning them into the side of the trench, and forming a good cover for the occupant of the hole. Thus we rested until the new day broke, bringing a clear sky and sunshine. This day, the 27th,—the third of the battle,—passed without mishap to my section. We spent our time eating and sleeping, mildly distracted by an intermittent bombardment. Another night spent in the same cramped quarters! We were getting weary of inactivity, and it was rather hard work to keep the men in the ditch. They sneaked off singly and in pairs, always heading back to the German dug- outs, all bent on turning things upside down in the hope of finding something of value to carry as a keepsake. Haeffle came back once with three automatic pistols, but no cartridges; from another trip he returned with an officer’s helmet; and the third time he brought triumphantly back a string three feet long of dried sausages. Haeffle always did have a healthy appetite, and it transpired that on the way back he had eaten a dozen sausages, more or less. The dried meat had made him thirsty and he had drunk half a canteen of water on top of it. The result was, he swelled up like a poisoned pup, and for a time he was surely a sick man. Zinn found two shiny German bayonets, a long thin one, and one short and heavy, and swore he would pack them for a year if he had to. Zinn hailed from Battle Creek and wanted to use them as brush-knives on camping trips in the Michigan woods; but alas, in the sequel they got too heavy and were dropped along the road. One man found a German pipe
- 50. with a three-footsoft-rubber stem, which he intended sending to his brother as a souvenir. Man and pipe are buried on the slopes of the Butte de Souain. He died that same evening. At the usual time—4 P.M.—we had soup, and just after that, came the order to get ready. Looking over the trench, we watched the fourth company form in the open back of the ditch and, marching past us in an oblique direction, disappear round a spur of wooded hill. The third company followed at four hundred metres distance, then the second; and as they passed out of sight around the hill, we jumped out, and, forming in line sections at thirty-metre intervals, each company four hundred metres in the rear of the one ahead, we followed, arme à la bretelle. We were quite unobserved by the enemy, and marched the length of the hill for three fourths of a kilometre, keeping just below the crest. Above us sailed four big French battle-planes and some small aero scouts, on the lookout for enemy aircraft. For a while it seemed as if we should not be discovered, and the command was given to lie down. From where we lay we could observe clearly the ensuing scrap in the air, and it was worth watching. Several German planes had approached close to our lines, but were discovered by the swift-flying scouts. Immediately the little fellows returned with the news to the big planes, and we watched the monster biplanes mount to the combat. In a wide circle they swung, climbing, climbing higher and higher, and then headed in a bee-line straight toward the German Tauben. As they approached within range of each other, we saw little clouds appear close to the German planes, some in front, some over them, and others behind; and then, after an interval, the report of the 32mm. guns mounted on our battle-planes floated down to us, immediately followed like an echo by the crack of the bursting shell. Long before the Germans could get within effective range for their machine-guns, they were peppered by our planes and ignominiously forced to beat a retreat. One Albatross seemed to be hit. He staggered from one side to the other, then dipped forward, and, standing straight on his nose, dropped like a stone out of sight behind the forest crowning the hill. Again we moved on, and shortly arrived at the southern spur of the hill. Here the company made a quarter turn to the left, and in the same formation began the ascent of the hill. The second company was just disappearing into the scrubby pine forest on top. We entered also, continued on to the top, and halted just below the crest. The captain called the officers and sergeants,
- 51. and, following him,we crawled on our stomachs up to the highest point and looked over. Never shall I forget the panorama that spread before us! The four thin ranks of the second company seemed to stagger drunkenly through a sea of green fire and smoke. One moment gaps showed in the lines, only to be closed again as the rear files spurted. Undoubtedly they ran at top speed, but to us watchers they seemed to crawl, and at times almost to stop. Mixed in with the dark green of the grass covering the valley were rows of lighter color, telling of the men who fell in that mad sprint. The continuous bombardment sounded like a giant drum beating an incredibly swift rataplan. Along the whole length of our hill this curtain of shells was dropping, leveling the forest and seemingly beating off the very face of the hill itself, clean down to the bottom of the valley. Owing to the proximity of our troops to the enemy’s batteries, we received hardly any support from our own big guns, and the rôle of the combatants was entirely reversed. The Germans had their innings then, and full well they worked. As the company descended into the valley the pace became slower, and at the beginning of the opposite slope they halted and faced back. Owing to the height of the Butte de Souain, they were safe, and they considered that it was their turn to act as spectators. As our captain rose, we followed and took our places in front of our sections. Again I impressed upon the minds of my men the importance of following in a straight line and as close behind one another as possible. 'Arme à la main!' came the order, and slowly we moved to the crest and then immediately broke into a dog-trot. Instantly we were enveloped in flames and smoke. Hell kissed us welcome! Closely I watched the captain for the sign to increase our speed. I could have run a mile in record time, but he plugged steadily along, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four,— at a tempo of a hundred and eighty steps per minute, three to the second,— the regulation tempo. Inwardly I cursed his insistence upon having things réglementaires. As I looked at the middle of his back, longing for him to hurry, I caught sight, on my right, of a shell exploding directly in the centre of the third section. Out of the tail of my eye I saw the upper part of Corporal Keraudy’s body rise slowly into the air. The legs had disappeared, and with arms outstretched the trunk sank down on the corpse of Varma, the Hindu,
- 52. who had marchedbehind him. Instinctively, I almost stopped in my tracks: Keraudy was a friend of mine; but at the instant Corporal Mettayer, running behind me, bumped into my back, and shoved me again into life and action. We were out of the woods then, and running down the bare slope of the hill. A puff of smoke, red-hot, smote me in the face, and at the same moment intense pain shot up my jaw. I did not think I was hit seriously, since I was able to run all right. Some one in the second section intoned the regimental march, 'Allons, giron.' Others took it up; and there, in that scene of death and hell, this song portraying the lusts and vices of the Légion Étrangère became a very pæan of enthusiasm and courage. Glancing to the right, I saw that we were getting too close to the second section, so I gave the signal for a left oblique. We bore away from them until once again at our thirty paces distance. All at once my feet tangled up in something and I almost fell. It was long grass! Just then it seemed to grow upon my mind that we were down in the valley and out of range of the enemy. Then I glanced ahead, and not over a hundred metres away I saw the second company lying in the grass and watching us coming. As we neared, they shouted little pleasantries at us and congratulated us upon our speed. 'Why this unseemly haste?' one wants to know. 'You go to the devil!' answers Haeffle. 'Merci, mon ami!' retorts the first; 'I have just come through his back kitchen.' Counting my section, I missed Dubois, St. Hilaire, and Schueli. Collette, Joe told me, was left on the hill. The company had lost two sergeants, one corporal, and thirteen men coming down that short stretch! We mustered but forty-five men, all told. One, Sergeant Terisien, had commanded my section, the 'American Section,' for four months, but was transferred to the fourth. From where we rested we could see him slowly descending the hill, bareheaded and with his right hand clasping his left shoulder. He had been severely wounded in the head, and his left arm was nearly torn off at the shoulder. Poor devil! He was a good comrade and a good soldier. Just before the war broke out he had finished his third enlistment in the Legion, and was in line for a discharge and pension when he died. Looking up the awful slope we had just descended, we could see the bodies of our comrades, torn and mangled and again and again kicked up
- 53. into the airby the shells. For two days and nights the hellish hail continued to beat upon that blood-soaked slope, until we finally captured the Butte de Souain and forced an entire regiment of Saxons to the left of the butte to capitulate. Again we assembled in column of fours, and this time began the climb up hill. Just then I happened to think of the blow I had received under the jaw, and, feeling of the spot, discovered a slight wound under my left jaw-bone. Handing my rifle to a man, I pressed slightly upon the sore spot and pulled a steel splinter out of the wound. A very thin, long sliver of steel it was, half the diameter of a dime and not more than a dime’s thickness, but an inch and a half long. The metal was still hot to the touch. The scratch continued bleeding freely, but I did not bandage it at the time because I felt sure of needing my emergency dressing farther along. Up near the crest of the hill we halted in an angle of the woods and lay down alongside the One Hundred and Seventy-Second Regiment of infantry. They had made the attack in this direction on the 25th, but had been severely checked at this point. Infantry and machine-gun fire sounded very close, and lost bullets by the hundreds flicked through the branches overhead. The One Hundred and Seventy-Second informed us that a battalion of the Premier Étranger had entered the forest and was at that moment storming a position to our immediate left. Through the trees showed lights, brighter than day, cast from hundreds of German magnesium candles shot into the air. Our officers were grouped with those of the other regiment, and after a very long conference they separated, each to his command. Our captain called the officers and subalterns of the company together, and in terse sentences explained to us our positions and the object of the coming assault. It was to be a purely local affair, and the point was the clearing of the enemy from the hill we were on. On a map drawn to scale he pointed out the lay of the land. It looked to me a hard proposition. Imagine a tooth-brush about a mile long and three eighths to one half a mile wide. The back is formed by the summit of the hill, which is densely wooded, and the hairs of the brush are represented by four little ridges rising from the valley we had just crossed, each one crowned with strips of forest and uniting with the main ridge at right angles. Between each two lines of hair are open spaces, from one
- 54. hundred to onehundred and fifty metres wide. We, of the second regiment, were to deliver the assault parallel with the hairs and stretching from the crest down to the valley. The other column was to make a demonstration from our left, running a general course at right angles to ours. The time set was eight o’clock at night. Returning to our places, we informed the men of what they were in for. While we were talking, we noticed a group of men come from the edge of the woods and form into company formation, and we could hear them answer to the roll-call. I went over and peered at them. On their coat-collars I saw the gilt No. 1. It was the Premier Étranger. As the roll-call proceeded, I wondered. The sergeant was deciphering with difficulty the names from his little carnet, and response after response was, 'Mort.' Once in a while the answer changed to 'Mort sur le champ d’honneur,' or a brief 'Tombé.' There were twenty-two men in line, not counting the sergeant and a corporal, who in rear of the line supported himself precariously on two rifles which served him as crutches. Two more groups appeared back of this one, and the same proceeding was repeated. As I stood near the second group I could just catch the responses of the survivors. 'Duvivier': 'Present.'—'Selonti': 'Present.'—'Boismort': 'Tombé.'—'Herkis': 'Mort.'—Carney': 'Mort.'—'MacDonald': 'Present.'—'Farnsworth': 'Mort sur le champ d’honneur,' responded MacDonald. Several of the men I had known, Farnsworth among them. One officer, a second lieutenant, commanded the remains of the battalion. Seven hundred and fifty men, he informed me, had gone in an hour ago, and less than two hundred came back. 'Ah, mon ami,' he told me, 'c’est bien chaud dans le bois.' Quietly they turned into column of fours and disappeared in the darkness. Their attack had failed. Owing to the protection afforded by the trees, our aerial scouts had failed to gather definite information of the defenses constructed in the forest, and owing also to the same cause, our previous bombardment had been ineffective. It was our job to remedy this. One battalion of the One Hundred and Seventy-Second was detached and placed in line with us, and at eight P.M. sharp the major’s whistle sounded, echoed by that of our captain.
- 55. Quietly we linedup at the edge of the forest, shoulder to shoulder, bayonets fixed. Quietly each corporal examined the rifles of his men, inspected the magazines, and saw that each chamber also held a cartridge with firing-pin down. As silently as possible we entered between the trees, and carefully kept in touch with each other. It was dark in there, and we had moved along some little distance before our eyes were used to the blackness. As I picked my steps I prepared myself for the shock every man experiences at the first sound of a volley. Twice I fell down into shell-holes and cursed my clumsiness and that of some other fellows to my right. 'The "Dutch" must be asleep,' I thought, 'or else they beat it.' Hopefully the latter! We were approaching the farther edge of the tooth-brush 'bristle,' and breathlessly we halted at the edge of the little open space before us. About eighty metres across loomed the black line of another 'row of hairs.' The captain and second section to our right moved on and we kept in line, still slowly and cautiously, carefully putting one foot before the other. Suddenly from the darkness in front of us came four or five heavy reports like the noise of a shot-gun, followed by a long hiss. Into the air streamed trails of sparks. Above our heads the hiss ended with a sharp crack, and everything stood revealed as if it were broad daylight. At the first crash, the major, the captains—everybody, it seemed to me— yelled at the same time, 'En avant! Pas de charge!'—and in full run, with fixed bayonets, we flew across the meadow. As we neared the woods, we were met by solid sheets of steel balls. Roar upon roar came from the forest; the volleys came too fast, it shot into my mind, to be well aimed. Then something hit me on the chest and I fell sprawling. Barbed wire! Everybody seemed to be on the ground at once, crawling, pushing, struggling through. My rifle was lost and I grasped my parabellum. It was a German weapon, German charges, German cartridges. This time the Germans were to get a taste of their own medicine, I thought. Lying on my back, I wormed through the wire, butting into the men in front of me and getting kicked in the head by Mettayer. As I crawled I could hear the ping-ping of balls striking the wire, and the shrill moan as they glanced off and continued on their flight. Putting out my hand, I felt loose dirt, and, lying flat, peered over the parapet. 'Nobody home,' I thought; and then I saw one of the Collette brothers in the trench come running toward me, and ahead of him a burly
- 56. Boche. I couldsee Joe make a one-handed lunge with the rifle, and the bayonet showed fully a foot in front of the German’s chest. Re-forming, we advanced toward the farther fringe of the little forest. Half-way through the trees, we lay down flat on our stomachs, rifle in right hand, and slowly, very slowly, wormed our way past the trees into the opening between us and our goal. Every man had left his knapsack in front, or else hanging on the barbed wire, and we were in good shape for the work that lay ahead. But the sections and companies were inextricably mixed. On one side of me crawled a lieutenant of the One Hundred and Seventy- Second and on the other a private I had never seen before. Still we were all in line, and when some one shouted, 'Feu de quatre cartouches!' we fired four rounds, and after the command all crawled again a few paces nearer. Several times we halted to fire, aiming at the sheets of flame spurting toward us. Over the Germans floated several parachute magnesium rockets, sent up by our own men, giving a vivid light and enabling us to shoot with fair accuracy. I think now that the German fire was too high. Anyway, I did not notice any one in my immediate vicinity getting hit. Though our progress was slow, we finally arrived at the main wire entanglement. All corporals in the French Army carry wire-nippers, and it was our corporals' business to open a way through the entanglement. Several men to my right I could see one—he looked like Mettayer—lying flat on his back and, nippers in hand, snipping away at the wire overhead, while all of us behind kept up a murderous and constant fire at the enemy. Mingled with the roar of the rifles came the stuttering rattle of the machine-guns, at moments drowned by the crash of hand-grenades. Our grenadiers had rather poor success with their missiles, however, most of them hitting trees in front of the trench. The lieutenant on my left had four grenades. I could see him plainly. With one in his hand, he crawled close to the wire, rolled on his back, rested an instant with arms extended, both hands grasping the grenade, then suddenly he doubled forward and back and sent the bomb flying over his head. For two, three seconds—it seemed longer at the time —we listened, and then came the roar of the explosion. He smiled and nodded to me, and again went through the same manœuvre. In the meantime I kept my parabellum going. I had nine magazines loaded with dum-dum balls I had taken from some dead Germans, and I distributed the balls impartially between three créneaux in front of me. On my right,
- 57. men were surgingthrough several breaks in the wire. Swiftly I rolled over and over toward the free lane and went through with a rush. The combat had become a hand-grenade affair. Our grenadiers crawled alongside the parapet and at regular intervals tossed one of their missiles into it, while the others, shooting over their heads, potted the Germans as they ran to the rear. Suddenly the fusillade ceased, and with a crash, it seemed, silence and darkness descended upon us. The sudden cessation of the terrific rifle-firing and of the constant rattling of the machine-guns struck one like a blow. Sergeant Altoffer brought me some information about one of my men, and almost angrily I asked him not to shout! 'I’m not deaf yet,' I assured him. 'Mon vieux,' he raged, 'it’s you who are shouting!' I realized my fault and apologized, and in return accepted a drink of wine from his canteen. Finding the captain, we were ordered to assemble the men and maintain the trench, and after much searching I found a few men of the section. The little scrap had cost us three more men. Subiron, Dowd, and Zinn were wounded and sent to the rear. The One Hundred and Seventy-Second sent a patrol toward the farthest, the last hair of the tooth-brush, with orders to reconnoitre thoroughly. An hour passed and they had not returned. Twenty minutes more went by, still no patrol. Rather curious, we thought. No rifle- shots had come from that direction, nor any noise such as would be heard during a combat with the bayonet. The major’s patience gave way, and our captain received orders to send another patrol. He picked me and I chose King, Delpeuch, and Birchler. All three had automatics—King a parabellum, Delpeuch and Birchler, Brownings. They left rifles, bayonets, and cartridge-boxes behind, and in Indian file followed me at a full run in an oblique direction past the front of the company, and, when half way across the clearing, following my example, fell flat on the ground. We rested a while to regain our wind and then began to slide on our stomachs at right angles to our first course. We were extremely careful to remain silent. Every little branch and twig we moved carefully out of our way; with one hand extended we felt of the ground before us as we hitched ourselves along. So silent was our progress that several times I felt in doubt about any one being behind me and rested motionless until I felt the touch of Delpeuch’s hand upon my foot. After what seemed twenty minutes, we again changed direction, this time straight
- 58. toward the treeslooming close to us. We arrived abreast of the first row of trees, and lying still as death listened for sounds of the enemy. All was absolutely quiet; only the branches rustled overhead in a light breeze. A long time we lay there, but heard no sound. We began to feel somewhat creepy, and I was tempted to pull my pistol and let nine shots rip into the damnable stillness before us. However, I refrained, and touching my neighbor, started crawling along the edge of the wood. Extreme care was necessary, owing to the numberless branches littering the ground. The sweat was rolling down my face. Again we listened and again we were baffled by that silence. I was angry then and started to crawl between the trees. A tiny sound of metal scratching upon metal and I almost sank into the ground! Quickly I felt reassured. It was my helmet touching a strand of barbed wire. Still no sound! Boldly we rose and, standing behind trees, scanned the darkness. Over to our right we saw a glimmer of light and, walking this time, putting one foot carefully before the other, moved toward it. When opposite we halted and— I swore. From the supposed trench of the enemy came the hoarse voice of an apparently drunken man, singing the chanson 'La Riviera.' Another voice offered a toast to 'La Légion.' Carelessly we made our way through the barbed wire, crawling under and stepping over the strands, jumped over a ditch, and looked down into what seemed to be an underground palace. There they were,—the six men of the One Hundred and Seventy-Second,—three of them lying stiff and stark on benches, utterly drunk. Two were standing up disputing, and the singer sat in an armchair, holding a long-stemmed glass in his hand. Close by him were several unopened bottles of champagne on the table. Many empty bottles littered the floor. The singer welcomed us with a shout and an open hand, to which we, however, did not immediately respond. The heartbreaking work while approaching this place rankled in our minds. The sergeant and corporal were too drunk to be of any help, while two of the men were crying, locked in each others' arms. Another was asleep, and our friend the singer absolutely refused to budge. So, after I had stowed two bottles inside my shirt (an example punctiliously followed by the others), we returned. Leaving Birchler at the wire, I placed King in the middle of the clearing, Delpeuch near the edge of the wood held by us, and then reported. The
- 59. captain passed theword along to the major, and on the instant we were ordered to fall in, and in column of two marched over to the abandoned trench, following the line marked by my men. As we entered and disposed ourselves therein, I noticed all the officers, one after the other, disappear in the palace. Another patrol was sent out by our company, and, after ranging the country in our front, returned safely. That night it happened to be the second company’s turn to mount outposts, and we could see six groups of men, one corporal and five men in each, march out into the night and somewhere, each in some favorable spot, they placed themselves at a distance of about one hundred metres away to watch, while we slept the sleep of the just. Day came, and with it the corvée carrying hot coffee and bread. After breakfast another corvée was sent after picks and shovels, and the men were set to work remodeling the trench, shifting the parapet to the other side, building little outpost trenches and setting barbed wire. The latter job was done in a wonderfully short time, thanks to German thoroughness, since for the stakes to which the wire is tied the Boches had substituted soft iron rods, three quarters of an inch thick, twisted five times in the shape of a great corkscrew. This screw twisted into the ground exactly like a cork- puller into a cork. The straight part of the rod, being twisted upon itself down and up again every ten inches, formed six or seven small round loops in a height of about five feet. Into these eyes the barbed wire was laid and solidly secured with short lengths of tying wire. First cutting the tying wire, we lifted the barbed wire out of the eyes, shoved a small stick through one, and, turning the rod with the leverage of the stick, unscrewed it out of the ground and then, reversing the process, screwed it in again. The advantage of this rod is obvious. When a shell falls in the midst of this wire protection, the rods are bent and twisted, but unless broken off short they always support the wire, and even after a severe bombardment present a serious obstacle to the assaulters. In such cases wooden posts are blown to smithereens by the shells, and when broken off let the wire fall flat to the ground. As I was walking up and down, watching the work, I noticed a large box, resting bottom up in a deep hole opening from the trench. Dragging the box out and turning it over, I experienced a sudden flutter of the heart. There, before my astonished eyes, resting upon a little platform of boards, stood a neat little centrifugal pump painted green, and on the base of it in raised
- 60. iron letters Iread the words, 'Byron Jackson, San Francisco.' I felt queer at the stomach for an instant. San Francisco! my home town! Before my eyes passed pictures of Market Street and the 'Park.' In fancy I was again one of the Sunday crowd at the Cliff House. How came this pump so far from home? Many times I had passed the very place where it was made. How, I wonder, did the Boche get this pump? Before the war, or through Holland? A California-built pump to clean water out of German trenches, in France! It was astonishing! With something like reverence I put the pump back again, and, going to my place in the trench, dug out one of my bottles of champagne and stood treat to the crowd. Somehow, I felt almost happy. As I continued my rounds I came upon a man sitting on the edge of the ditch, surrounded by naked branches, busy cutting them into two-foot lengths and tying them together in the shape of a cross. I asked him how many he was making, and he told me that he expected to work all day to supply the crosses needed along one battalion front. French and German were treated alike, he assured me. There was absolutely no difference in the size of the crosses. As we worked, soup arrived, and when that was disposed of, the men rested for some hours. We were absolutely unmolested except by our officers. But at one o’clock that night we were again assembled in marching kit, each man with an extra pick or shovel, and marched along parallel with our trench to the summit of the butte. There we installed ourselves in the main line, out of which the Germans were driven by the One Hundred and Seventy-Second. There was no work of any kind to be done, and quickly we found some dry wood, built small fires, and with the material found in dug- outs brewed some really delightful beverages. Mine was a mixture of wine and water out of Haeffle’s canteen, judiciously blended with chocolate. The weather was delightful, and we spent the afternoon lying in sunny spots, shifting once in a while out of the encroaching shade into the warm rays. We had no idea where the Germans were—somewhere in front, of course, but just how far or how near mattered little to us. Anyhow, the One Hundred and Seventy-Second was fully forty metres nearer to them than we were, and we could see and hear the first-line troops picking and shoveling their way into the ground.
- 61. Little King was,as usual, making the round of the company, trying to find some one to build a fire and get water if he, King, would furnish the chocolate. He found no takers and soon he laid himself down, muttering about the laziness of the outfit. Just as we were dozing deliciously, an agonized yell brought every soldier to his feet. Rushing toward the cry, I found a man sitting on the ground, holding his leg below the knee with both hands, and moaning as he rocked back and forth, 'Je suis blesse! Je suis blesse!' Brushing his hands aside, I examined his leg. There was no blood. I took off the puttee, rolled up his trousers, and discovered no sign of a wound. On my asking the man again where the wound was, he passed his hand over a small red spot on his shin. Just then another man picked up a small piece of shell, and then the explanation dawned upon me. The Germans were shooting at our planes straight above us; a bit of shell had come down and hit our sleeper on the shin-bone. Amid a gale of laughter he limped away to a more sympathetic audience. Several more pieces of iron fell near us. Some fragments were no joking matter, being the entire rear ends of three-inch shells, weighing, I should think, fully seven pounds. At 4 P.M. the soup corvée arrived. Besides the usual soup we had roast mutton, one small slice per man, and a mixture of white beans, rice, and string beans. There was coffee, and one cup of wine per man, and, best of all, tobacco. As we munched our food, our attention was attracted to the sky above by an intense cannonade directed against several of our aeroplanes sailing east. As we looked, more and more of our war-birds appeared. Whipping out my glasses, I counted fifty-two machines. Another man counted sixty. Haeffle had it a hundred. The official report next day stated fifty-nine. They were flying very high and in very open formation, winging due east. The shells were breaking ahead of them and between them. The heaven was studded with hundreds upon hundreds of beautiful little round grayish clouds, each one the nimbus of a bursting shell. With my prismatics glued to my eyes, I watched closely for one falling bird. Though it seemed incredible at the moment, not one faltered or turned back. Due east they steered, into the red painted sky. For several minutes after they had sailed out of my sight I could still hear the roar of the guns. Only one machine, the official report said, was shot down, and that one fell on the return trip.
- 62. Just before nightfell, we all set to work cutting pine branches, and with the tips prepared soft beds for ourselves. Sentries were placed, one man per section, and we laid ourselves down to sleep. The night passed quietly; again the day started with the usual hot coffee and bread. Soup and stew at 10 A.M., and the same again at 4 P.M. One more quiet night, and quiet the following day. We were becoming somewhat restless with the monotony, but were cheered by the captain. That night, he told us, we should return to Suippes, and there reform the regiment and rest. The programme sounded good, but I felt very doubtful, we had heard the same tale so many times and so many times we had been disappointed. Each day the corvées had brought the same news from the kitchen. At least twenty times different telephonists and agents de liaison had brought the familiar story. The soup corvées assured us that the drivers of the rolling kitchens had orders to hitch up and pull out toward Souain and Suippes. The telephonists had listened to the order transmitted over the wires. The agents de liaison had overheard the major telling other officers that he had received marching orders, and, 'ma foi! each time each one was wrong!' So, after all, I was not much disappointed when the order came to unmake the sacks. We stayed that night and all day, and when the order to march the next evening came, all of us were surprised, including the captain. I was with the One Hundred and Seventy-Second, having some fun with a little Belgian. I had come upon him in the dark and had watched him, in growing wonder at his actions. There he was, stamping up and down, every so often stopping, shaking clenched fists in the air, and spouting curses. I asked him what was the matter. 'Rien, mon sergent,' he replied. 'Je m’excite.' 'Pourquoi?' I demanded. 'Ah,' he told me, 'look,'—pointing out toward the German line, —'out there lies my friend, dead, with three pounds of my chocolate in his musette, and when I’m good and mad, I’m going out to get it!' I hope he got it! That night at seven o’clock we left the hill, marched through Souain four miles to Suippes, and sixteen miles farther on, at St. Hilaire, we camped. A total of twenty-six miles for the day. At Suippes the regiment passed in parade march before some officer of the staff, and we were counted: eight hundred and fifty-two in the entire regiment, out of three thousand two hundred who entered the attack on the 25th of September!
- 63. THE BOULEVARD OFROGUES BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON NOTHING was ever funnier than Barton’s election to the City Council. However, it occurs to me that, if I’m going to speak of it at all, I may as well tell the whole story. At the University Club, where a dozen of us have met for luncheon every business day for many years, Barton’s ideas on the subject of municipal reform were always received in the most contumelious fashion. We shared his rage that things were as they were, but as practical business men we knew that there was no remedy. A city, Barton held, should be conducted like any other corporation. Its affairs are so various, and touch so intimately the comfort and security of all of us, that it is imperative that they be administered by servants of indubitable character and special training. He would point out that a citizen’s rights and privileges are similar to those of a stockholder, and that taxes are in effect assessments to which we submit only in the belief that the sums demanded are necessary to the wise handling of the public business; that we should be as anxious for dividends in the form of efficient and economical service as we are for cash dividends in other corporations. There is nothing foolish or unreasonable in these notions; but most of us are not as ingenious as Barton, or as resourceful as he in finding means of realizing them. Barton is a lawyer and something of a cynic. I have never known a man whose command of irony equaled his. He usually employed it, however, with perfect good-nature, and it was impossible to ruffle him. In the court- room I have seen him the target for attacks by a formidable array of opposing counsel, and have heard him answer an hour’s argument in an incisive reply compressed into ten minutes. His suggestions touching municipal reforms we dismissed as impractical, which was absurd, for Barton is essentially a practical man, as his professional successes clearly proved before he was thirty.
- 64. He maintained thatone capable man, working alone, could revolutionize a city’s government if he set about it in the right spirit; and he manifested the greatest scorn for 'movements,' committees of one hundred, and that sort of thing. He had no great confidence in the mass of mankind or in the soundness of the majority. His ideas were, we thought, often fantastic, but it could never be said that he lacked the courage of his convictions. He once assembled round a mahogany table the presidents of the six principal banks and trust companies in our town, and laid before them a plan by which, through the smothering of the city’s credit, a particularly vicious administration might be brought to terms. The city finances were in a bad way, and, as the result of a policy of wastefulness and shortsightedness, the administration was constantly seeking temporary loans, which the local banks were expected to carry. Barton dissected the municipal budget before the financiers, and proposed that, as another temporary accommodation was about to be asked, they put the screws on the mayor and demand that he immediately force the resignations of all his important appointees and replace them with men to be designated by three citizens to be named by the bankers. Barton had carefully formulated the whole matter, and he presented it with his usual clarity and effectiveness; but rivalry between the banks for the city’s business, and fear of incurring the displeasure of some of their individual depositors who were closely allied with the bosses of the bi-partisan machine, caused the scheme to be rejected. Our lunch-table strategy board was highly amused by Barton’s failure, which was just what we had predicted. Barton accepted his defeat with equanimity and spoke kindly of the bankers as good men but deficient in courage. But in the primaries the following spring he got himself nominated for city councilman. No one knew just how he had accomplished this. Of course, as things go in our American cities, no one qualified for membership in a university club is eligible for any municipal office, and no man of our acquaintance had ever before offered himself for a position soiled through many years by ignoble use. Even more amazing than Barton’s nomination was Barton’s election. Our councilmen are elected at large, and we had assumed that any strength he might develop in the more prosperous residential districts would be overbalanced by losses in industrial neighborhoods. The results proved to be quite otherwise. Barton ran his own campaign. He made no speeches, but
- 65. Welcome to ourwebsite – the ideal destination for book lovers and knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to specialized publications, self-development books, and children's literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system, we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading. Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and personal growth! ebookname.com