They were crossing from Boulogne to Folkestone on a late spring afternoon; it was toward the close of a warm and quiet day so that the water was still and blue.
On this passage the little channel steamer was largely filled by British officers and soldiers returning home after service in France.
As the boat pushed off from the French shore a farewell shout rang out from the people crowding the dock; from somewhere back in the old French town a Cathedral bell began chiming an evening hymn.
A British officer chanced to be standing beside Mrs. Burton, both of them leaning over the railing watching the receding line of shore.
“It has been a great adventure, Madame, a world adventure, this fighting for brotherhood in France. I see you are an American woman, yet whether or not one ever returns to these shores, the old axiom is now forever true, every one of us who has lived in France during the war will henceforward have two countries—his own and Glorious France!”
The officer, lifting his hand, saluted the French shore.
Footnotes
[1]See “The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor.”
[2]See “The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor.”
[3]See “The Camp Fire Girls on the Field of Honor.”