A LITTLE GRIMY-FINGERED GIRL LEE WILSON DODD
Reading edition
in The Outlook
Permission to reproduce in this book
In sending his permission to use this sharp flash of the spirit of France, Mr. Dodd wrote: “It may interest you to know that the little grimy-fingered girl is real, and that I bought ‘L’Intrans’ from her every evening for many months during the dark days of last spring in Paris.” The spring referred to being that of 1918, when the Germans were only a few miles from the city.
A LITTLE grimy-fingered girl In stringy black and broken shoes Stands where sharp human eddies whirl And offers—news: News from the front. “‘L’Intransigeant’, M’sieu, comme d’ordinaire?” Her smile Is friendly though her face is gaunt; There is no guile, No mere mechanic flash of teeth, No calculating leer of glance ... You wear your courage like a wreath, Daughter of France. Back of old sorrow in tired eyes Back of endurance, through the night That wearies you and makes you wise, I see a light Unshaken, proud, that does not pale, —And you are nobody, my dear; “Une vraie gamine,” who does not quail, Who knows not fear. Rattle your sabers, Lords of Hate, Ye shall not force them to their knees! A street-girl scorns your God, your State—— The least of these....
Place du Théâtre Français, Paris, February, 1918.