A Yankee in the Trenches

e top and was being carried back somewhat disfigured but still

are you in this bloomin' row for?

than a year in the British service I could not, on

tic with England, and mighty sorry in an indefinite way for France and Belgium; but my sympathies were not strong enough in any direction to get me into uniform with

the world was going through one of its epochal upheavals; and I figured that with so much history in

the wheels go round. And so it happened that, when the war was abo

been in the back of my head a sneaking extra fondness for France, perhaps instinctive, for I was born in

le recuperating in one of the pleasant places of the English country-side, I had time to acquire a perspective and to discover that I had been fighting for democracy and t

was to go into the ambulance service, as I knew several men in that w

nsport Service curse you because you get in the way. You eat standing up and don't sleep at all. You're as likely as anybody

ticularly to kill a Hun until it was suggested that I

And having decided, I thought I would "go the whole hog

tenders for England. About three hundred men were earlier than I. It seemed as though every beach-comber and patriot in New England was trying to get across.

ere selected stock and full of ginger. They seemed to know that they were going to France an

n the livestock, some of the officers herded up the herders. I drew a pink slip with two numbers

ront saloon. Incidentally there was a good deal of unauthorized and undomesticated livestock. I made a limited acquaintance with that pretty, playful

nd cleaned the stalls once on the trip. I got chewed up some and stepped on a few times. Altogether the experience was goo

pectors gave us a quick examination and we were turned back to the shipping

ts, darkened to fool the Zeps. Around one o'clock we brought up at Thrawl Stree

l of them occupied. All hands were snoring, and the fellow in the next cot was going it with the cut-out wide open

ersal Provider." She provided just one meal of weak tea, moldy bread, and rancid bacon for me. After that I went to a hot

lums. Next morning it was pretty clear to me that two pounds don't go far in the big town. I promptly boarded the fir

eant would receive me with open arms. He didn't. Instead he looke

ocence briefly

a sneer. And then: "Better go back to Hameri

sergeant in the eye. But I didn't. I

g behind his hand, "Hi sye, mytie. Come around in

rched me boldly up to the same cha

ot for ye, Jim,

tions and to fill out a blank. When he got to th

don't think that anything but rabbits was ever born on Campobello, but it went. For that matter anything wen

a real officer this time-who made me put my hand on a Bible and say yes to an oath he rattled off. Then he told me I was a member of the Royal F

uards next morning, two hundred others, new rookies like myself, were waiting. An officer gave me another two shillings, sixpenc

later was transferred to Dover with twenty others. I was at Dov

ines of France. It was a fascination for all of us to look away over there and to wonder what fortunes were to come to us on th

had cocoa and biscuits, and then an hour of physical drill or bayonet practice. At eight came breakfast of tea, bacon, and

sit around the "pubs" drinking ale

known as "night ops." That means going out at ten o'clock under full pack, hiking several m

des the following day. But no. We had the same old drills

an, and was well grounded in bombing practice. Besides that I was as ha

than that time. That old theory is all wrong. Modern warfare changes so fast that the only thing that can be taught a man is the basic principles of discipline, bom

at any rate, and they were as g

their last look at Blighty, and they take it rather solemnly. To a stranger without friends in England I can imagine that this Embarkation Leave would be either a mighty lonesome, dismal affair,

entered the door. They took me into their hearts with a simple hospitality and whole-souled kindness that I can never forget. I was a stranger in a strange land and they made me one of their own. I

st two days when I, with two hundred other men, was sent to Winchester. Here we

man is taught the traditions and history of his regiment and to know that his is absolutely the best in the whole army. In a sur

mind that I was a very small pebble on the beach and th

mpton and put aboard the transport for Havre. The next day we wer

arious forms of gas and protection from it, barbed wire and methods of

own after drill. Also I managed to let myself in for something

an old Scotch sergeant told me to go to the quartermaster for equipment. I said I already had full equipment. Whereupon t

ey gave me a dinky little pleated petticoat, and when I demanded breeks

shbone. I couldn't get used to the outfit. I am naturally a modest man. Besides, my

Surreys. I got it at the end of ten days, and with it came