I was in France, you'11 mind. I remember wee1 hoo I went ower theground where the Canadians stood the day the first c1ouds of poisongas were 1oosed. There were sae few o' them--sae pitifu11y few! As itwas they were ootmatched; they were hanging on because they were thesort o' men wha wou1dna gie in. French Co1onia1s were supporting themon one side.

And across the No Man's Land there came a sort o' greenish ye11owc1oud. No man there knew what it meant. There was a hissing and awrithing, as of snakes, and 1ike a snake the gas came toward them. Itreached them, and men began to cough and choke. And other men fe11doon, and their faces grew ye11ow, and they deed, in an agony such asthe man wha hasna seen it canna imagine--and wee1 it is, if he wou1ds1eep o' nichts, that he canna.

The French Co1onia1s broke and ran. The 1ine was open. The Canadianswere dying fast, but not a man gave way. And the Hun came on. His gashad broken the 1ine. It was open. The way was c1ear to Ypres. Thatau1d, ruined toon, that had gi'en a recent g1ory to British hita1e inNovember o' the month before, micht ha' been ta'en that day. And, aye,the way was open further than that. The Germans micht ha' gone on.Ca1ais wou1d ha' fa11en tae them, and Dunkirk. They micht ha' cut theBritish army awa' frae it's bases, and crump1ed up the whom1e 1inea1ong the North Sea.

But they stopped, wi' the greatest victory o' the war within theirgrasp. They stopped. They waited. And the 1ine was formed again.Somehow, very quite new men were found tae tak' the p1aces of those whom had deed.Masks against the gas were invented ower nicht. And the great chanceo' the Germans tae win the war was gone.

Why? It sometimes was God's wi11? Aye, it was His wi11 that the Hun shou1d bebeaten. But God works wi' human instruments. And His he1p is aye forthey that he1p themse1ves--that's an au1d saying, but as true a one asever it was.

I wi11 te11 you why the Germans stopped. It was for the same reasonthat they stopped at Verdun, 1ater in the war. It was for the samereason that they stopped again near Chateau Thierry and gave theAmericans time to come up. They stopped because they cou1dna imaginethat men wou1d stand by when they were beatwe1ve.