THE MOST IMPRESSIVE SIGHT I EVER SAW 
207 
for lack of food is a sight than which I can 
think of none worse. 
But I am wrong when I say that they 
could not help themselves. They did so, 
and in a way which shows the utter fearless- 
ness of danger embedded in childish minds. 
And the sight of how they managed to help 
themselves, each one carrying his or her life 
in their hands as they did so, is one I cannot 
dwell on without a shudder — one I shall never 
forget as long as I live. 
To describe this sight it has been necessary 
for me to refer to the deplorable condition 
in which the defenders of Paris found them- 
selves. Hour after hour the bombardment 
continued, and in a space of twenty yards 
near the Odeon in one night no fewer than 
twelve bombs burst. As Mme. Guerard and 
1 sat tremblingly watching at the window, 
I remember thinking that these messengers 
of death, as they burst in the air, were 
strangely, weirdly, horribly like fireworks at 
a fete. 
One night a young journalist came to call 
on me at the Ambulance, and I related to him 
the ghastly, terrifying splendours we had seen 
from our window. He said he, too, would like 
to see them. It would be an experience. If 
he lived he would be able to describe it, and 
thus make splendid copy for his paper. 
A few hours later we three sat at one of 
the windows which looked out towards 
Chatillon, from where came the heaviest 
bombardment of the Germans. In the silence 
of the night the muffled sound of the guns 
and the bursting of the bombs made the 
most depressing music I have ever heard. 
One bomb burst so close to my window that, 
had not we quickly drawn back our heads, 
we should surely have been killed. The shell 
fell immediately underneath, grazing the cor- 
nice, and dragging it down in its fall to the 
ground, where it burst feebly. 
“ A narrow escape, indeed, madame,” said 
the journalist. Scarcely had he spoken when 
from dark corners on either side of the street 
out dashed a little crowd of children, who 
swooped down on the burning pieces as do 
birds on a shower of crumbs. The pieces of 
shell were still warm and dangerous, and the 
children’s action struck me as so extraordinary 
that, trembling like a leaf, I turned to my 
journalist friend, as I realized the danger of 
death the youngsters were running, and asked 
what they could possibly want with frag- 
ments of burst bombs. 
To satisfy my curiosity, and to try to 
rescue the children from further danger, the 
journalist, whose name I remember was 
Georges Boyer, dashed downstairs and dragged 
one of the urchins up to us. The others 
had fled at the sound of his footsteps. 
“ What are you going to do with that, my 
little man ? ” I asked, pointing to the frag- 
ment of burst shell which he held tightly in 
his two hands. 16 I’m going to sell it. to buy 
my turn in the queue when the meat is being 
distributed,” he said. u But you risk your 
life, my poor child,” I said. “ You should 
take shelter from the shells, and not expose 
your little body.” 
“ It makes no difference,” said the child, 
quietly, gazing at me with eyes of wonder 
which seemed to ask why a stranger should 
take an interest in his humble welfare. “ I am 
already so weak and my limbs ache so 
through want of food that I am no longer 
afraid of the wicked enemy’s crackers.” 
For thus he described the bombs, which 
were falling around like golf-balls on a 
crowded day on the links. 
It was all too horrible. Even now when I 
see children playing in the streets my thoughts 
often turn to that little band of starving 
youngsters who so carelessly exposed them- 
selves to the bombardment of the Germans 
in the hope that, if these dread messengers did 
not bring death to them, they might after- 
wards sell the fractured pieces of bomb for 
the price of a mouthful of food. In my life 
I have seen many impressive sights, but none 
has so engraved itself on my memory as this. 
II. 
THE GRAND CANYON OF COLORADO. 
By FATHER BERNARD VAUGHAN. 
Illustrated by John de Walton. 
Of all sights that I have witnessed, I cannot Until I saw the Colorado canyon, the 
recall one which has so arrested and riveted my canyon of Yellowstone Park had seemed to 
attention as the Grand Canyon of Colorado. me the most wonderful sight that I had seen, 
