An Oxford University dean speaks with his colleague, the two complaining of the shortage of students since the start of World War I. His colleague tells him that after the war, there will be no classes on Latin poetry. The dean ponders this, then asks his colleague if he knows the meaning of “Bis patriae manus cecidere.” He responds that it means, “Twice the hands of the father fell,” referring to the death of a son and its effects on the father. The dean begins telling the story of a stonemason who lived in his village. The stonemason was a French refugee originally from Alsace-Lorraine. Since he was not completely fluent in English, he would sometimes communicate with the dean using the Latin he learned from doing funerary carvings. The stonemason grew popular in the town, though he garnered a cranky reputation. Very little is known about his life, other than his marriage to a woman who died while giving birth to their son. When the village encountered air raids, the stonemason remained outside, scanning the sky for signs of the aircraft leaving. He was always the first to notify his community that the planes had left—even before the “all clear” signal. Due to his own experiences, the stonemason possessed a bitter hatred for the Germans. One day, the dean saw the stonemason speaking to a group of soldiers about his idea to bring the German planes down. During the next raid, the signal curiously declared the community safe, not the stonemason. Concerned, the dean began looking for the stonemason, then found him at the site of an airplane crash, excited that his idea had been successful. The gunners had followed the stonemason’s instructions and managed to kill the pilot. In the coming days, the village hailed the stonemason as a hero and welcome guest. At a pastor’s observation that the pilot was just a victim of the German autocracy, the village decided to bury him with a gravestone. The stonemason, eager to demonstrate his prowess at carving and using Latin, suggested a lengthy epitaph. However, the dean recommended a much simpler one that won over most of the townsfolk. The stonemason received the commission, and the town buried the German.     During the time of the epitaph debate, the dean's school created a little exhibition of the German’s meager belongings. His only surviving possession was a photo of his mother. When the dean visited the stonemason, he found him exhausted and collapsed on the ground. The dean and the woman of the house took the stonemason inside to care for him, and the woman of the house told the dean that the stonemason had seemed fine earlier. He had gone to buy a chisel and see the exhibition. Unfortunately, the stonemason grew weaker and weaker, losing all will to live. On the onset of fall, the village found his dead body next to the tombstone. The stone has been partially carved with the letters “Bis patriae m…,” the beginnings of “Twice the hands of the father fell.” The fallen pilot had been the stonemason’s son.