ANTWERP ROAD





[OCTOBER, 1914]

Along the straight, glistening road, through a dim arcade of drooping
trees, a tunnel of faded green and gold, dripping with the misty
rain of a late October afternoon, a human tide was flowing, not
swiftly, but slowly, with the patient, pathetic slowness of weary
feet, and numb brains, and heavy hearts.

Yet they were in haste, all of these old men and women, fathers
and mothers, and little children; they were flying as fast as
they could; either away from something that they feared, or toward
something that they desired.

That was the strange thing--the tide on the road flowed in two
directions.

Some fled away from ruined homes to escape the perils of war. Some
fled back to ruined homes to escape the desolation of exile. But
all were fugitives, anxious to be gone, striving along the road
one way or the other, and making no more speed than a creeping
snail's pace of unutterable fatigue. I saw many separate things
in the tide, and remembered them without noting.