with such admiration and envy! He asked us endless questions and
constantly wanted explanations. Without seeming to do so, he was
learning. For a reply to some question about the art of flying, he would
have run to the other end of the camp to get us a few drops of gasoline
for our tanks...."[14]

[Footnote 14: _Le Petit Parisien_, September 27, 1917.]

He was learning, and when he saw his way clear, he wanted to begin
flying. New Year's Day arrived--that sad New Year's Day of the first
year of the war. What gifts would he ask of his father? He would ask for
help to win his diploma as pilot. "Don't you know somebody in your class
at Saint-Cyr who could help me?" He always associated his father with
every step he took in advance. The child had no fear of creating a
conflict between his father's love for him and the service due to
France: he knew very well that he would never receive from his father
any counsel against his honor, and without pity he compelled him to
facilitate his son's progress toward mortal danger. Certain former
classmates of M. Guynemer's at Saint-Cyr had, in fact, reached the rank
of general, and the influence of one of them hastened Guynemer's
promotion from student mechanician to student pilot (January 26, 1915).

On this same date, Guynemer, soldier of the 2d Class, began his first
journal of flights. The first page is as follows:

_Wednesday_, January 27: Doing camp chores.
_Thursday_, " 28: ib.
_Friday_, " 29: Lecture and camp chores.
_Saturday_, " 30: Lecture at the Blériot
aërodrome.