seen so great a grief as thine!"

And later I learned, after living in the Toul sector for two months,
that the challenging sentence on the crucifix had been read by nearly
every boy who had passed it; and all had. Either he had read it
himself or it had been quoted to him, and this one crucifix question
had much to do with challenging the boys who passed it to a new
understanding of all that France had passed through in the war.

The American boys have learned to respect the French soldier because of
the sacrifice that he has made. The American soldier remembers that
crowd of men called "Kitchener's Mob," which Kitchener sent into the
trenches of France to stem the tide of inhumanity, and to whom he gave
a message: "Go! Sacrifice yourselves while I raise an army in
England!" The American soldier knows all of this. He knows that
little Belgium might have said to all the world, "The forces were too
great for us," and she could have stepped aside and the world would
have forgiven her.

But instead she chose deliberately to sacrifice herself for the cause
of freedom, and sacrifice herself she did. And that sentence on the
crossroads crucifix in the Toul sector, day after day, sends its
reminder into the heart of the American soldiers, who stop their trucks
and their ammunition wagons, pause their weary marches to read it;
sends its reminder of the sacrifices that our allies have already made,
and the sacrifices that we may be called upon to make. "Traveller,
hast thou ever seen so great a grief as mine?"

And the American officer and soldier must admit that he has not; and he
prays God silently in the night as he rides by on his horse, or as he