263)
natives have become almost indifferent to shell-fire.
In the villages in the line of war between Souchez and Ypres strange
things happen and wonderful sights can be seen.
CHAPTER XIX (p. 264)
SOUVENIR HUNTERS
I have a big French rifle, its stock is riddled clean,
And shrapnel smashed its barrel, likewise its magazine;
I've carried it from A to X and back to A again,
I've found it on the battlefield amidst the soldiers slain.
A souvenir for blighty away across the foam,
That's if the French authorities will let me take it home.
Most people are souvenir hunters, but the craze for souvenirs has
never affected me until now; at present I have a decent collection of
curios, consisting amongst other things of a French rifle, which I
took from the hands of a dead soldier on the field near Souchez; a
little nickel boot, which was taken from the pack of a Breton
piou-piou who was found dead by a trench in Vermelles--one of our men
who obtained this relic carried it about with him for many weeks until
he was killed by a shell and then the boot fell into my hands. I have
two percussion caps, one from a shell that came through the roof of a
dug-out and killed two of our boys, the other was gotten beside a dead
lieutenant in a deserted house in Festubert. In addition to these (p. 265)
I have many shell splinters that fell into the trench and landed at my
feet, rings made from aluminium timing-pieces of shells and several
other odds and ends picked up from the field of battle.
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