How It All Goes Down
- Joey and Topthorn are treated like heroes by the Germans. They even receive a war medal, the Iron Cross.
- In the evenings, the young girl, Emilie, takes care of the two horses, brushing them, tossing them hay, and offering companionship.
- One night, Emilie doesn't come to the barn. Her Grandpapa comes instead, and tells the horses that Emilie is sick. He asks them to "pray for her to whatever horse god [they] pray to" (10.8).
- The next day, there is lots of snow on the ground, and retrieving the wounded is difficult.
- But that night is Christmas. "Peace had come for one night" (10.12), a hiatus to the shelling and the violence.
- Not only that, but Emilie gets better. It's a Christmas miracle! Maybe this is a Dickens novel after all...