She is inured to field-work, and half the harvest of France
this year lies in her lap. One feels at every turn how her
men trust her. She knows, for she shares everything with her
world, what has befallen her sisters who are now in German
hands, and her soul is the undying flame behind the men's
steel. Neither men nor women have any illusion as to miracles
presently to be performed which shall "sweep out" or "drive
back" the Boche. Since the Army is the Nation, they know
much, though they are officially told little. They all
recognize that the old-fashioned "victory" of the past is
almost as obsolete as a rifle in a front-line trench. They
all accept the new war, which means grinding down and wearing
out the enemy by every means and plan and device that can be
compassed. It is slow and expensive, but as deadly sure as
the logic that leads them to make it their one work, their
sole thought, their single preoccupation.
A NATION'S CONFIDENCE
The same logic saves them a vast amount of energy. They knew
Germany in '70, when the world would not believe in their
knowledge; they knew the German mind before the war; they know
what she has done (they have photographs) during this war.
They do not fall into spasms of horror and indignation over
atrocities "that cannot be mentioned," as the English papers
say.
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