'My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive.' What a thunderclap these words were to me! My last French lesson why I hardly knew how to write I should never learn anymore I must stop there then oh how sorry I was for not learning my lessons for seeking Birds eggs or going sliding on the Saar my books that had seemed such a nuisance a while ago so heavy to carry my grammar and my history of the... Show more 'My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive.' What a thunderclap these words were to me! My last French lesson why I hardly knew how to write I should never learn anymore I must stop there then oh how sorry I was for not learning my lessons for seeking Birds eggs or going sliding on the Saar my books that had seemed such a nuisance a while ago so heavy to carry my grammar and my history of the saints were old friends now that I couldn't give up. Poor man! It was in honour of this last lesson that, he had put on his fine Sunday clothes, and now I understood why the old men of the village were sitting there in the back of the room. It was because they were sorry, too, that they had not gone to school more. It was their way of thanking our master for his forty years of faithful service and of showing their respect for the country that was theirs no more. But I got mixed up on the first words and stood there, holding onto my desk, my heart beating, and not daring to look up. I heard M. Hamel say to me, 'I won't scold you, little Franz; you must feel bad enough. See how it is! Every day we have said to ourselves, Bah! I have plenty of time. I'll learn it tomorrow. And now you see where we have come out. That's the great trouble with Alsace; she puts off learning till tomorrow. M. Hamel went on to talk of the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful language in the world— the clearest, the most logical; that we must guard it among us and never forget it, because when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language as it is as if they had the key to their prison. Then he opened a grammar book and read us our lesson. I was amazed to see how well I understood it. All he said seemed so easy, so easy. All at once, the church clock struck 12, then the Angelus.","the same moment the trumpets of the Prussians, returning from drill sounded under our windows. M. Hamel stood up very pale in his chair. I never saw him look so tall. 'Viva La France!' then he stopped and leaned his head against the wall and without a word he made a gesture to us with his hand— 'school is dismissed—you may go'. Show less
'My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive.' What a thunderclap these words were to me! My last French lesson why I hardly knew how to write I should never learn anymore I must stop there then oh how sorry I was for not learning my lessons for seeking Birds eggs or going sliding on the Saar my books that had seemed such a nuisance a while ago so heavy to carry my grammar and my history of the saints were old friends now that I couldn't give up. Poor man! It was in honour of this last lesson that, he had put on his fine Sunday clothes, and now I understood why the old men of the village were sitting there in the back of the room. It was because they were sorry, too, that they had not gone to school more. It was their way of thanking our master for his forty years of faithful service and of showing their respect for the country that was theirs no more. But I got mixed up on the first words and stood there, holding onto my desk, my heart beating, and not daring to look up. I heard M. Hamel say to me, 'I won't scold you, little Franz; you must feel bad enough. See how it is! Every day we have said to ourselves, Bah! I have plenty of time. I'll learn it tomorrow. And now you see where we have come out. That's the great trouble with Alsace; she puts off learning till tomorrow. M. Hamel went on to talk of the French language, saying that it was the most beautiful language in the world— the clearest, the most logical; that we must guard it among us and never forget it, because when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language as it is as if they had the key to their prison. Then he opened a grammar book and read us our lesson. I was amazed to see how well I understood it. All he said seemed so easy, so easy. All at once, the church clock struck 12, then the Angelus.","the same moment the trumpets of the Prussians, returning from drill sounded under our windows. M. Hamel stood up very pale in his chair. I never saw him look so tall. 'Viva La France!' then he stopped and leaned his head against the wall and without a word he made a gesture to us with his hand— 'school is dismissed—you may go'.
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