"I was busy with Ginger----"
"Ginger Weeson?" I enquired.
"That's 'im," was the reply. "Did yer 'ear 'im yell? Course yer did;
ye'd 'ave 'eard 'im over at La Bassee."
"What happened to him?" I asked.
"A bullet through 'is belly," said the voice. "When 'e roared I put my
'and on 'is mouth and 'e gave me such a punch. I was nearly angry, and
'im in orful pain. Pore Ginger! Not many get better from a wound like
his one."
Their wounds dressed, the men went away; others came by carrying (p. 299)
out the stricken; many had fractured limbs, one was struck on the
shoulder, another in the leg and one I noticed had several teeth
knocked away.
The working-party had one killed and fifty-nine wounded in the
morning's work; some of the wounded, amongst them, Ginger Weeson, died
in hospital.
The ration-party came back at two o'clock jubilant. The post arrived
when the men were in the village and many bulky parcels came in for
us. Meals are a treat when parcels are bulky. We would have a fine
breakfast.
CHAPTER XXII (p. 300)
ROMANCE
The young recruit is apt to think
Of war as a romance;
But he'll find its boots and bayonets
When he's somewhere out in France.
When the young soldier takes the long, poplar-lined road from ---- his
heart is stirred with the romance of his mission. It is morning and he
is bound for the trenches; the early sunshine is tangled in the
branches, and silvery gossamer, beaded with iridescent jewels of dew,
hang fairylike from the green leaves.
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