Chapter II

PIERRE: I made a perfect landing over there
Behind the church--

CELESTE: The Virgin heard my prayer!
Now I must burn the candle that I vowed--

PIERRE: Then ’twas our Blessed Lady sent that Cloud
That saved me when the Boche came up behind.
I made a lightning turn, only to find
The Boche on top of me. It seemed a kind
Of miracle to see that Cloud--I swear
A moment past the sky was everywhere
As clear as clear; there was no Cloud in sight.
It looked to me, floating there calm and white.
Like a great mother hen, and I a chick.
She seemed to call me, and I scurried quick
Behind her wing. That spoiled the Boche’s game,
And gave me time to turn and take good aim.
I emptied my last drum, and saw him drop
Ten thousand feet in flames--

CELESTE (_shuddering_): Stop! Pierre, stop!
Maybe a girl is waiting for him too--

PIERRE: ’Twas either him or me--

CELESTE: Thank God, not you!

PIERRE (_pointing to the church_): Come, let us burn
the candle that you vowed.

CELESTE: Two candles!

PIERRE: Who’s the other for?

CELESTE: The Cloud!

FINIS

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Three repeated section headings were removed.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg viii, ‘High Brow Hen’ replaced by ‘Highbrow Hen’.
Pg 39, ‘Lese Majestee’ replaced by ‘Lésé Majesté’.
Pg 61, ‘if we trangress’ replaced by ‘if we transgress’.
Pg 77, ‘smothered sn’ replaced by ‘smothered snore’.