thin, low-lying mist over everything, but clear enough above, and there was a kind of poor moonlight. There was a good deal of delay in getting away, and we had b

is a great little accumulator of junk. I had acquired the souvenir craze early in the game, and was toting excess b

time I was in the service, and was constantl

, you'd say that he would want to fly light; but he doesn't. And that reminds

ps about a good deal. This is done so that no one unit will become too much at home in any

e is shifted, he's going to be in an embarrassing position. He'll have to give

oad, we could see the Very lights beginning to go up far off to the left, showing where the lines were. We could distinguish between our own star lig

s we swung away to the south and louder aga

that the American ragtime was more popular among the boys th

eep time and puts pep into a column and makes the packs seem lighter. The of

marching order move very slowly, even with the music-and the hours drag. The ten minutes' rest

shining through empty holes that had been windows. The people were gone from these places, but a dog howled over

es that once had been Bouvigny Wood were behind us, and to the right, to the left, a pulverized ruin where houses had stood. Blofeld

ping touch, no smoking and no talking, and I supposed we were about to enter a communication trench. But no. We swung on to a "du

. But whatever the reason, there was none, and we were right out in the open on the duck walk. The order for no

d over the "Berthas" in flocks. The "Bertha" is an uncommonly ugly breed of nine-inch shell loaded with H.E. It comes sa

d a little farther off you get a case of shell-shock. Just at the edge of the destructiv

re was no stopping for the wounded. They lay where they fell. We kept on the run, sometimes on the duck walk, sometimes in the mud, for three miles. I had reached the li

ot into the trenches skirting the Pimple and soon came out on the Quarries. This was a bowl-like depression formed by an old quarry. The place gave a natu

each burrow. There was a cheerful, mouth-watering smell of cookery on t

at the dug-outs assigned us and went at the grub and the char off

sonably dry and roomy, but they had no ventilation except the tunnel entrance,

ting down to "kip" when a sentry came up and said I would have to get inside. It seemed that Fritz had the range of th

came a call for C company. I got the men from my platoon out as

er 11 to the left sector, and Number 12 to the right sect

om two hundred to three hundred yards of open ground. There were no dug-outs. It was impossible to leave these trenches except under cover of darkness-or to get to them or to get

division we relieved gave us hardly any instruction, but beat it on the hot foot, glad to get away and anxious to go before sun-up

my little back roo

ve for a pound a

d to li

arried

ng pan into the

nt every w

r times a night. That first night there was one more patrol necessary before daylight. Tired as I was,

e-gun bullets were squealing and snapping overhead pretty continuously, and we had to hug the dirt. It is surprising to see how flat a man can keep and stil

at the same time. Nothing happened. Presently the lights died, and Bellinger gave me a poke in the ribs. We started to crawfish. Why we weren't seen I don't know, but we had gone all of one hundred feet before they spotted us. Fortunately we were on the edge of a

ed to wait a while. We argued for as much as five minutes, I should think, and then the lights ha

over to make sure of the job in case the machines hadn't. It was a close pinch-two close pinches. I was in places afterwards where there was m

ed and that instead of the left sector being directly to the left of ours-the center-it was to the left and to the rear. Also there was a telephone wire running from one to