Produced by D Alexander, Larry B. Harrison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net ANOTHER SHEAF BY JOHN GALSWORTHY NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1919 Copyright, 1919, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published January, 1919 Copyright, 1917, by THE CROWELL PUBLISHING CO. Copyright, 1918, by HARPER & BROTHERS Copyright, 1918, by THE YALE PUBLISHING ASSN., Inc. TO MORLEY ROBERTS CONTENTS PAGE THE ROAD 1 THE SACRED WORK 4 BALANCE SHEET OF THE SOLDIER-WORKMAN 14 THE CHILDREN'S JEWEL FUND 46 FRANCE, 1916-1917--AN IMPRESSION 53 ENGLISHMAN AND RUSSIAN 82 AMERICAN AND BRITON 88 ANGLO-AMERICAN DRAMA AND ITS FUTURE 112 SPECULATIONS 140 THE LAND, 1917 169 THE LAND, 1918 205 GROTESQUES 245 ANOTHER SHEAF THE ROAD The road stretched in a pale, straight streak, narrowing to a mere thread at the limit of vision--the only living thing in the wild darkness. All was very still. It had been raining; the wet heather and the pines gave forth scent, and little gusty shivers shook the dripping birch trees. In the pools of sky, between broken clouds, a few stars shone, and half of a thin moon was seen from time to time, like the fragment of a silver horn held up there in an invisible hand, waiting to be blown. Hard to say when I first became aware that there was movement on the road, little specks of darkness on it far away, till its end was blackened out of sight, and it seemed to shorten towards me. Whatever was coming darkened it as an invading army of ants will darken a streak of sunlight on sand strewn with pine needles. Slowly this shadow crept along till it had covered all but the last dip and rise; and still it crept forward in that eerie way, as yet too far off for sound. Then began the voice of it in the dripping stillness, a tramping of weary feet, and I could tell that this advancing shadow was formed of men, millions of them moving all at one speed, very slowly, as if regulated by the march of the most tired among them. They had blotted out the road, now, from a few yards away to the horizon; and suddenly, in the dusk, a face showed.