Joy in the Morning | Page 6

fight like that. You would go over
the top with the charging Blankth, with a shout, if the order
came--wouldn't you, my own man?
He. (Looking into the old ditch with his head bent reverently.) I hope
so.
She. And I hope I would send you with all my heart. Death like that is
more than life.
He. I've made you cry.
She. Not you. What they did--those boys.
He. It's fitting that Americans should come here, as they do come, as to
a Mecca, a holy place. For it was here that America was saved. That's
what they did, the boys who made that charge. They saved America
from the most savage and barbarous enemy of all time. As sure as
France and England were at the end of their rope--and they were--so
surely Germany, the victor, would have invaded America, and Belgium
would have happened in our country. A hundred years wouldn't have
been enough to free us again, if that had happened. You and I, dearest,
owe it to those soldiers that we are here together, free, prosperous
citizens of an ever greater country.
She. (Drops on her knees by the ditch.) It's a shrine. Men of my land, I
own my debt. I thank you for all I have and am. God bless you in your
heaven. (Silence.)
He. (_Tears in his eyes. His arm around her neck as he bends to her_.)
You'll not forget the story of the Charging Blank_th_?
She. Never again. In my life. (Rising.) I think their spirits must be here
often. Perhaps they're happy when Americans are here. It's a holy place,
as you said. Come away now. I love to leave it in sunshine and flowers
with the dear ghosts of the boys. (Exit He and She.)

FIFTH ACT
_The scene it the same trench in the year 2018. It is five o'clock of the
same summer afternoon. An officer of the American Army and an
English cabinet member come, together, to visit the old trench. The
American has a particular reason for his interest; the Englishman
accompanies the distinguished American. The two review the story of
the trench and speak of other things connected, and it is hoped that they
set forth the far-reaching work of the soldiers who died, not realizing
their work, in the great fight of the Charging Blank_th.
Englishman. It's a peaceful scene.
American. (_Advances to the side of the ditch. Looks down. Takes off
his cap_.) I came across the ocean to see it. (He looks over the fields.)
It's quiet.
Englishman. The trenches were filled in all over the invaded territory
within twenty-five years after the war. Except a very few kept as a
manner of monument. Object-lessons, don't you know, in what the
thing meant. Even those are getting obliterated. They say this is quite
the best specimen in all France.
American. It doesn't look warlike. What a lot of flowers!
Englishman. Yes. The folk about here have a tradition, don't you know,
that poppies mark the places where blood flowed most.
American. Ah! (Gazes into the ditch.) Poppies there. A hundred of our
soldiers died at once down there. Mere lads mostly. Their names and
ages are on a tablet in the capitol at Washington, and underneath is a
sentence from Lincoln's Gettysburg speech: "These dead shall not have
died in vain, and government of the people, by the people, for the
people shall not perish from the earth."
Englishman. Those are undying words.

American. And undying names--the lads' names.
Englishman. What they and the other Americans did can never die. Not
while the planet endures. No nation at that time realized how vital was
your country's entrance into the war. Three months later it would have
been too late. Your young, untried forces lifted worn-out France and
England and swept us to-victory. It was America's victory at the last. It
is our glory to confess that, for from then on America has been our kin.
American. (Smiles.) England is our well-beloved elder sister for all time
now.
Englishman. The soldiers who died there (_gestures to the ditch_) and
their like did that also. They tied the nations together with a bond of
common gratitude, common suffering, common glory.
American. You say well that there was common gratitude. England and
France had fought our battle for three years at the time we entered the
war. We had nestled behind the English fleet. Those grim gray ships of
yours stood between us and the barbarians very literally.
Englishman. Without doubt Germany would have been happy to invade
the only country on earth rich enough to pay her war debt. And you
were astonishingly open to invasion. It is one of the historical facts that
a student of history of this twenty-first century finds