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Seeing that argument was useless, we walked away and crossed the railway lines. My partner growled: "I 'ope I meet 'im in civvy life I'll give 'im somethin' ter think about I've seen better things'n what 'e is crorlin' about in cheese!" There were fifty or sixty sleepers left. We dawdled on our way back, hoping that there would be enough men in front of us to clear the lot.
"When this bloody war is over, O how happy I shall be, When I get my civvy clothes on, No more soldiering for me." and all the other songs familiar to every soldier in the British army. We marched all day along straight roads running in between flat fields and past ugly little villages. As we grew tired and footsore our rollicking spirit abated and the singing died down.
During a lull in operations I was seated at the plotting table reading a not very intellectual magazine when I became aware of his presence; I sprang to my feet. "No, no," he said, "sit down." I obeyed. "What's that you're reading?" he asked. I gave him the magazine which he scrutinised. "What's your job in civvy street?" he enquired. I told him.
In the course of my riding that day I knocked down "a civvy" in Dour, and bent a foot-rest endeavouring to avoid a major, but that was all in the day's work. The Signal Office was first established patriarchally with a table by the roadside, and thence I made my last journey that day to the 14th. I found them in a village under the most embarrassing attentions.
He was fed, so far as I remember on Soup. Fish. Rabbit-pie. Potatoes. Cabbage. Apple-tart. Fruit. Coffee. Liqueurs. and after lunch, I am told, showed a marked disinclination to ascend the hill and watch the shells bursting. He was only a "civvy." The battle lasted about ten days. Each morning the Staff, like lazy men who are "something in the city," arrived a little later at the tavern.
When the woman saw the hand she said 'My! but when she saw the foot she said 'Upon my civvy! and when, by slow and heavy degrees, the whole of Robert's enormous bulk was at last completely disclosed, she drew a long breath and began to say many things, compared with which 'balmy' and 'crumpet' seemed quite ordinary. She dropped into understandable English at last.
We stopped and questioned a "civvy" push-cyclist. He had just come from Béthisy and had seen no Germans. The officers started arguing whether or no they should wait for an escort. We got impatient and slipped on. Of course there was nothing in Béthisy except a wide-eyed population, a selection of smells, and a vast congregation of chickens.
Had we got to do squad drill for "duration"? Had Kitchener forgotten the Xth Division? Now and then a batch of men were put into khaki which arrived at the quartermaster's stores in driblets. Some had greeny puttees and sandy slacks, a "civvy" coat and a khaki cap. Others were rigged out in "Kitchener's workhouse blue," with little forage caps on one side.
It was two days before she saw him again, and he still wore his "civvy" suit. Janie smiled as he approached the bed, and fumbled with the halfpenny daily paper that somebody had given her to look at. "Ere," she whispered, "read that." Nosey bent over and read the lines indicated by the thin forefinger.
Then there's the Conchies what 'as a easy time in clink if I see a Conchy in civvy life, I'll knock 'is bloody 'ead orf, struth I will. And the civvies gorblimy when I was 'ome on leave they kep' on arstin' me, 'Ain't yer wounded yet? an' 'When are yer goin' back? But d'yer think they care a damn Not they, you bet yer life on it!
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