On Sunday week,—­that was August 30,—­Amelie walked to Esbly, and came back with the news that they were rushing trains full of wounded soldiers and Belgian refugies through toward Paris, and that the ambulance there was quite insufficient for the work it had to do.  So Monday and Tuesday we drove down in the donkey cart to carry bread and fruit, water and cigarettes, and to “lend a hand.”

It was a pretty terrible sight.  There were long trains of wounded soldiers.  There was train after train crowded with Belgians—­well-dressed women and children (evidently all in their Sunday best)—­packed on to open trucks, sitting on straw, in the burning sun, without shelter, covered with dust, hungry and thirsty.  The sight set me to doing some hard thinking after I got home that first night.  But it was not until Tuesday afternoon that I got my first hint of the truth.  That afternoon, while I was standing on the platform, I heard a drum beat in the street, and sent Amelie out to see what was going on.  She came back at once to say that it was the garde champetre calling on the inhabitants to carry all their guns, revolvers, etc., to the mairie before sundown.  That meant the disarming of our departement, and it flashed through my mind that the Germans must be nearer than the official announcements had told us.

While I stood reflecting a moment,—­it looked serious,—­I saw approaching from the west side of the track a procession of wagons.  Amelie ran down the track to the crossing to see what it meant, and came back at once to tell me that they were evacuating the towns to the north of us.

I handed the basket of fruit I was holding into a coach of the train just pulling into the station, and threw my last package of cigarettes after it; and, without a word, Amelie and I went out into the street, untied the donkey, climbed into the wagon, and started for home.

By the time we got to the road which leads east to Montry, whence there is a road over the hill to the south, it was full of the flying crowd.  It was a sad sight.  The procession led in both directions as far as we could see.  There were huge wagons of grain; there were herds of cattle, flocks of sheep; there were wagons full of household effects, with often as many as twenty people sitting aloft; there were carriages; there were automobiles with the occupants crowded in among bundles done up in sheets; there were women pushing overloaded handcarts; there were women pushing baby-carriages; there were dogs and cats, and goats; there was every sort of a vehicle you ever saw, drawn by every sort of beast that can draw, from dogs to oxen, from boys to donkeys.  Here and there was a man on horseback, riding along the line, trying to keep it moving in order and to encourage the weary.  Every one was calm and silent.  There was no talking, no complaining.