his country; enraged and elated because of his rage,
and because he might one day go to the war unless, as
some thought, it were quickly over. He had seen
himself fighting shoulder to shoulder with Jan while
the regiment cheered their courage. A vision of glory
had obsessed his mind as he pictured the battlefields
of France with all a boy's childish but courageous
illusions, with all the chivalry of his youth and a
certain stubborn simplicity bequeathed to him by his
peasant forebears; but then had come that strange
feeling of grief for which he could still find no explana-
tion.
His silence, however, passed unnoticed, for le tout
petit Loup was intensely excited and was trying to walk
with a martial stride as though he already felt himself
to be marching — he was making the best of his four
foot eight by craning his neck and squaring his
shoulders.
€Tron de Dieune!' swore le tout petit Loup in his
piping voice; *I will kill any German who dares to
show his face in our town. Ai! las, that I am not a few
years older! But I grow. Maman, am I not growing
quite fast? I shall soon be tall enough to enlist; I
shall tell them that I am nearly eighteen and then they
will let me become a poilu. Already I can smoke
without being sick . . .* And he suddenly produced a
bent Caporal from his breeches pocket, and proceeded
to light it.
Marie snatched the cigarette out of his hand: 'What
is this? Who has taught you to smoke?5 she demanded.
But le tout petit Loup shrugged his shoulders and
grinned: 'One cannot remain a baby for ever. At
my age one smokes as a matter of course; moreover
I find that it helps my asthma. And as I get up at
half-past five every morning in order to sweep the
bazaar for that pig of a Bled, I certainly feel that I am
entitled to spend a few centimes on a packet of cigar-
Y 337