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Updated: May 28, 2025
"'Owever, as I was sayin'," he continued at last, "that there Alf Cobb used to fair aggryvate me with 'is grousin'. When 'e got sent up for a spell in the trenches, and 'ad all 'the fun of the fightin', 'e groused because 'e couldn't go off to some ole estaminet an' order 'is glass o' bitters like a dook.
Stiffy and Mahooley were a pair of "good hard guys," but here the resemblance ended. Stiffy was dry, scanty-haired, mercantile; Mahooley was noisy, red-faced, of a fleshly temperament, and a wag, according to his lights. "I'd give a dollar for a new newspaper," growled Mahooley. "That's you, always grousin' for nothin' to do!" said his partner. "Why don't you keep busy like me?"
At length the Sergeant blew the whistle and shouted: "Fall in! Yer'd better put a jerk in it yer won't go till yer've finished. It's a task job. Yer didn't shift 'alf the sleepers this mornin' there's another couple o' thousand left, so get a bloody move on!" The grumbling was renewed in the ranks. "It's no good yer bloody well grousin'. The work's got ter be done. Carry on!"
'Anyways peaceful, or was you dodgin' the Coal-Boxes this time? 'Not a Coal-Box, or any other box, said the Bombardier, hammering a biscuit to fragments with a rifle-butt. 'An' I 'aven't 'ad a shell drop near me for a week. 'If we keeps on like this, said the Centre Driver, 'we'll get fancyin' we're back on Long Valley man-oovers. 'Wot you grousin' about anyway? remarked the Wheel Driver.
'No good grousin', says ole Joe Lewis, an' 'e still stayed cheerful, an' the night 'e 'eard as 'ow 'is young woman 'ad gone off 'e played away on 'is ole mouth-organ as 'appily as a fellow what's on 'is way to the Green Dragon with five bob in 'is pocket. The other blokes what knew about it thought as 'ow Joe didn't care at all, but I was 'is mate an' I knew as 'ow it 'urt a lot.
McCullough paused and filled his pipe with elaborate care, "Th' last time I see him he was in th' buildin' an' contractin' line carryin' a hod an' pushin' an Irishman's buggy . . . There's but, aw hell! what's th' use o' talkin'?" he concluded disgustedly. "No! times ain't what they was, by gum! rough stuff an' all things was run more real reg'mental them days not half th' grousin' either."
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