1. The curiosity of the foreign officers over losing contact with the French forces;
2. The colloquial way in which the history of the —nth Battalion is given;
3. The establishing of truth through the mouths of two witnesses;
4. The emphasis on the forty seconds, which under the conditions of presentation gains significance;
5. The assurance that the children have been sent to the rear to be cared for.
Characterization. The individual characters of the main incident are lost in the group—save for the bright passage about the dead woman captain. Avenging their dead, righting a wrong, holding sacred a trust, keeping faith with the Fatherland, dying in performance of duty—of all these the avenging women were nobly capable. The struggle, in its relation to woman nature, is one of the most psychologically true found in fiction. It was all over in forty seconds; yet the so-called instinct of woman—in reality her ability to judge and decide quickly—terminated the struggle between tenderness and trust, with ample time left over. Faith would be kept, even at the expense of their mortal bodies and of their immortal souls.—The characteristic of the White Battalion is the spirit of protection. The characteristics of Fouquet and Barres are simplicity, honesty and an almost homely every-day-heroic quality, all of which work to the conviction of the reader. Because of the family relations, the fundamental notions of honor, and elemental ideals exhibited, this story is destined to last. Founded on bed-rock principles of life itself, it towers into the realm of spirit.
“The short-story is, of course, the recountal of some struggle or complication so artistically told as to leave upon the reader one dominant impression. Perhaps the ‘artistic’ is redundant, for can a story leave such an impression unless it be artistically told? Even geniuses must master their vehicle of expression or remain dumb. To win the sought for reaction to a short-story, painting, play or oratorio, one learns either in the hard, blind school of ‘rejection slips’ or by the intelligent method of skilled critic and master, but learn one must.
“The high water mark in story writing is reached most often for me by the dramatic story, objectively told. It is the genius who selects just the right, again the artistic, material which limns the personality of the character and reveals it to us through that unconscious tell-tale, the character himself; whose story-people talk in just the tone that makes even the impossible carry conviction; and who last, or perhaps first, has a story to tell and an unhackneyed way of telling it.
“Suggestion and restraint in a story appeal to me most strongly.... And when in ‘the joy of working’ one masters the writer’s art, genius as well as mere talent, the reaction will come; the audience will laugh or cry—or both, if the gods are kind.”—Frances Gilchrist Wood.