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Updated: June 26, 2025
When the "reliefs" went up scores of men could not walk back from the trenches, but had to crawl, or be carried pick-a-back by their comrades, to the field dressing stations. So I saw hundreds of them, and, as the winter dragged on, thousands. The medical officers cut off their boots and their puttees, and the socks that had become part of their skins, exposing blackened and rotting feet.
I found him in the garage no, I can't say I found him, for I didn't recognize him, but I heard his voice assuring me that it was he. He was in khaki; from head to foot, from his peaked military cap to his puttees he was in faultless, well-fitting khaki; even his shirt and his neck-tie were khaki. Jimmy's colours showed up wonderfully out of all that brownish, greyish, yellowish green.
Thrice he traversed the entire extent of our prison, seeking, I imagine, a loop-hole for escape, but finding none he returned in my direction. Slowly he came quite close to me, sniffed at my shoes, my puttees, my hands, and then limped off a few feet and lay down again. Now that he was able to get around, I was a little un-certain as to the wisdom of my impulsive mercy.
Breeches and stockings may be worn, but long puttees should be avoided as they constrict the muscles and stop the circulation, thus tending to frost-bite, which is a serious danger at high altitudes.
Whereat the frightened youth in black puttees sidled over and explained with a pathetic, at once ingratiating and patronising, accent. "He is not nasty. He's a good fellow. He's my friend. He wants to say that it's his, that box. He doesn't speak French." "It's the Gottverdummer Polak's box," said the Triangular Man exploding in Dutch.
The first thing he decided needed alteration was his uniform. Breeches and puttees were not only too hot but they closed in the leg and afforded cover to the lively little fellow who lives indiscriminately on the soldiers of both sides. As each soldier began to trim his uniform to his own idea of comfort, it was soon, in very reality, a "ragtime" army.
He laid her on the moss, well screened by the granite barrier, and beyond range of the brook's rainbow spray. She was already asleep again. He took off both her shoes, unwound the spiral puttees and gave her bruised little feet a chance to breathe. He made camp, tested the wind and found it safe to build a fire, set water to simmer, and unpacked the tinned rations.
He did not look like a rustler, with his fat good-nature and his town-bred personality, and his gray tweed suit and pigskin puttees, and the big cameo ring on his manicured little finger, and his fresh-shaven face as round as the sun above his head and almost as cheerful. Perfectly harmless, but Jean would not yield to the extent of softening her glance or her manner one hundredth of a degree.
I paused, aware all at once of an intense drowsiness. O'Keefe, yawning, reached down to unfasten his puttees. "Lord, I'm sleepy!" he exclaimed. "Can't understand it what you say most interesting Lord!" he yawned again; straightened. "What made Reddy take such a shine to the Russian?" he asked. "Thanaroa," I answered, fighting to keep my eyes open. "What?"
When first the corps came to Hinges, the inhabitants were exalted. The small boys came out in puttees and the women put ribbons in their hair. Now, if you pronounce Hinges in the French fashion, you give forth an exclamation of distressful pain. The name cannot be shouted from a motor-cycle. It has its difficulties even for the student of French.
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