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A sergeant, whom I knew to be a distinguished young scholar in civilian life, was always throwing messages wrapped round a stone into the German trenches; the messages were killingly funny, amiably indecent, and very jejune. Invariably they provoked a storm of grenades, and sometimes epistles in the same vein from the Boches.
I had not given it much thought, though I do remember her saying, when the subterranean passage was sealed up: "Let the Boches come! They'll find mighty little in my house." Well the clocks are rusted. They are soaking in kerosene now, and I imagine it is little good that will do them. All her linen is damp and smelly, and much of it is mildewed. As for the blankets and flannels ough!
With a supremely disagreeable expression on his immaculate face the victorious minister of security pressed his victim with regained assurance: "But you are doubtless aware of the atrocities committed by the boches?" "I have read about them," I replied very cheerfully. "You do not believe?" "Ca ce peut." "Oh, in that case, of course anyone must detest them," I averred with perfect politeness.
They chopped the trees and blew up many houses. But mine was marked, as the Boches did in those first days: 'These are good people. Let them be. So I was not molested," finished Mother Gervaise. "Now, sit you down, Mademoiselle, at the table. Here where I have spread a napkin. The ragout
Early in the morning he was awakened by the sharp report of the weapon. Quickly springing up, he saw, high in the air, a black speck which he knew to be an enemy airplane, because the gun squad was firing at it. "Once more Mattia took up his work of carrying ammunition. Something tremendous exploded not far from the squad. "'The Boches are bombing us, cried a soldier.
I would like to see the whole lot of us have a shot at the Boches at the same time, before we quit." "I had a letter from Archie to-day," said Jimmy Hill. "He says it will be some time before he rejoins us." "Well, five of us are here yet, thanks more to luck than good sense," laughed Joe. "I think the Boche would know the five of us were left if we went out together and had a smack at him."
Wouldn't it be much better to trust to us, give us the order to fix bayonets and drive those Boches out of their trenches over there? You'd see if the Territorials couldn't do it as well as the Regulars.... And then one would have a chance of getting warm." I felt sure that he spoke the truth, and that his opinion was shared by the majority of his companions.
That's Mother Gervaise's cottage. It's out of reach of the Boches' shells." "But you'll be killed, Charlie Bragg!" wailed the girl, suddenly realizing all the peril of their situation. "Haven't ever been killed yet," he returned. "I tell you I've got to get this flivver out of the hole. These supplies have got to be taken to that field hospital. They're needed. I can't leave 'em here and run."
Here and there, when a few Boches showed signs of getting into a trench instead of keeping to the open, some soldier would administer a friendly jab with the bayonet to show them what was expected of them. The Tanks came along behind us, meaning to form up in Magny woods, and wait there till we went on.
Or, perhaps, it would live in the heart of the village woman clad in mourning who did not know how to solve the problem of existence; or in the minds of the children going to school in black blouses and saying with ferocious energy "When I grow up I am going to kill the Boches to avenge my father's death!"
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