Diokybush after — kem into the party, me bein' th’owldest the homestid. "Gawd save,' soljer be four days. ',

Then he says, 'all in this place. I'd have put him through at, Two volunteers to go wirin'?' be eripes. As ut was, I had

I “We had been out for a on'y me tongue to come to me while, so there wasn't th' ugly suooour. rush that there was in the wil' “Why was ut,' said I, whin early days at anny word of Shane had tuk lave of us, the kin'-every man for some 'why was at, Corp., that I sport for himself before they'd got in before yo? Ayo, in a have a peace signed on him. oanter.' Ev'rywan knew be now he'd “Ye're a liar,' says he, with be kilt in his turn, widout his teejus habit of missin' leppin' out of his place in the the point of annythin' that a oue. Every wan knew ut ex- person would say. 'I was as oept a few lads jus' come out wishful to go as yerself.' on & draf'.

I had to spake “Ye were that,' says I. quickly be raison of them. But Your on'y trouble was, when I'd have given me bowl for an the time oame for a good burst hour's quiet that minnut, out of speed, ye were thinkin' in of range of that Orangeman's English, a foreign language inendlass haranguin'. An' so I stinotively quare to your min', let a yell that won be a head: an' yon a son of the Gael, how• Ye promust me, Sergeant, ever pervarted.' the time that I misbehaved in "An' how long wad ye be, the lorry

your own self, ye fantastio “The same instiant minnat owld antiquariam,' says MarShane nodded at me, an' tin, 'in spittin' out even as Martin's owl'oreak of a voice much as “Here, Sergeant kem in good second. itself, in the Gaelio? From · Here's wan,

wan, Sergeant,' he this out till to-morra, mebbe, said. The boys from the an' then needin' a penoil an' draf' also ran. A Jook that glate brought to ye before ye'd was wan of thim had a very compose ut.' good argymint nearly ready “Very fort'nut was it that why he should go. But they I know me fao's. The mere hadn't an owl' soljer's rapid gabbin',' says I, 'is nothin' rayaotion andher a sobimulus. at all. It's the thinkin' that So I stept down before thim matters. into the pool. An' they hadn'native language that's hangin' enjured howl gen'rations of about at the back of your livin' nex' door to the Martins. min', an' think in it bowldly.

Gawd help me! There's no other way ye'll Martin was in for at too, an' escape from this habit of me qui-ut day in the country sthrikin' in late in th' hour rooned before ut had started. of trile—the way a hen 'ud be

“Dad, if he hadn' been an in an' she attemptin' to neigh aotin' Lanoe - Corpril, onpaid, or to bark it all oat in her I'd have been in comman' of min', instead of oluekin', before

Learn your

own

An' now,

60

6

she'd quit out of the way of matoh for th' owl' women that & oart.

She'd be swif'ly run won't use a ha'porth of linen over.'

that's med with anny machine “He didn't answer me then that was new since the Flood!'

" At elivin we p'raded for “For a man,' says I, 'tryin' ordhers, relatin' to th’innemy's to marshal his thoughts in an wire. The Captain himself- outlandish tongue, yo've not he was kilt at High Wood- dawdled at all,' says I, fin was out an' about in the trepob devisin' that smashin' retort. whin we quitted for Germ'ny. Very barely four hours.' Be that we knew we'd be safe “An' why stop at the from behin'. The m'ral of the Gaelio?' he says, pantin'. men was that high they'd be Why not go back to the reel loosin' off all night at anny startin' gate while ye're at owl'olod they'd peroaive, in the ut, an' think in Persian or hope it might be a good action. Greek or some owld yappin' As for annythin' movin', Gawd noise your forefawthers med, help ut! An' so we were glad. an' they monkeys leppin' about If annythin' human ond hol' in the trees?' baok oar sentries from makin' “I was beginnin' at 'Hwat good groups on our sterns, are the fao's?' when Martin Shane an' the Cap. were the adjourned th' alterosyshn be men.

boltin' again. It had done “Th' innemy's wire was no good to our tempers. To siventy paces away, an', as you Martin's at all ovense. Well know, siventy pages route. he knew I'd have put at across maroh on your belly, the way him on that new quistion he'd of the snake in the garden, is raised, before gettin' off, about no good to annywan, over. An' soi'noe an' religion. So nothin' we went about an' about. An' would do him but plunge on not a good mot'rin' road. An' ahead - I'll engage he was Martin Diver stopped but sharp'nin already the nex' dart wanst to take breath. Mebbe he'd plant in me vitals—an'not ye've observed, when takin' & mind at all where he went till walk with a friend, there are he'd slung himself hid over heels men that go faster an' faster into wan of th' owld flooded the more they're intint, in bog-howls left be the shells. It their seorut insides, on inventin' was eammiflaged well, I'll adthe divil's own repartees, all mit, be the grass an' weeds ready to fire, an' whin they're growin' out long from th’edges. gettin'

gran'ly within, “I med sure th' inn'my wud forgin' all the munitions they'd hear. How wuddent he hear want, they're fit to gallop itself. a rhinoo'rus, the like of that, Jawn was wan of the breed. ent'rin' his bath? An', the dex'

" “Th' on'y time he tak iver a thing, I knew ut. Aye, be pall, he turned on me sudden dint of a weeny oliokin' noise an' ven'mus.

from his trenoh. It's the cock “Yo an' yer preestorio owl of a Very pistol, thinks I, Gaelio!' he whispers.

'A an' the light's oomin' on-that

on

en

or some godluss breed of an ber ye do at these orit’oul Emma G that they have, an' momints. Thinkin' of all the it bein' oalled to attention be- blisth'rin' foroe of the chat fore it'd start the good work. I'd be givin' te Martin after Au' be now the mist was liftin' lights-out. I that had come like smoke, an' a clean half to that remote place for å moon was dhrawin' itself away season of quiet, away from up the sky, informin' upon us. the janglin' an' strafes of the

“Jawn's head was stiokin' worl'. out of the deep. I'll

“In due course the fireworks gage he was cowid. But his ixpired. It was amazin'-the body was sheltered from sol- bats hadn't seen me at all, lads at anny rate, under th' I'll own that the firs' thing I eastern wall of the howl, an' done with me new start in he oud submerge for short in- life was to spend a few seconds theryals, too, if th’inn'my in grinnin' an' shiv'rin' with shud menaoe his piriscope. I ohuokles, alone with meself in was the viotim, out in the the kin', friendly dark, the wide worl', An' Jawn saw ut. way I'd not done since the • Flatten yourself,' he whis- time that I was a boy an' pers, over the face of the snooissfully hid in the loft wathers. Flatter, be far, for from me fawther. the love of Gawd. Rowl your- “Me nex' thought was of self out into pastry before they others. Jawn had crep' forth put the light on ye.'

from the bed of the howl an' “Begob, I'd been flat as a lay on the shelvin' fore-shore plaioe from that diabolus oliok like a newt. onward. Breadth had I been "Shall we shank on wid us, from that out; no thioknuss at Corpril?' I whispered. Or all. I hadn' stopped to tilli- have yo come out,' I added, phone to the Corps. An' when to this rugged spot to enjoy I was plast'rin the groun' the adult baptism on'g?' I knew like of a poultus, I found & me fao's, an' the pistilint seot bowl the size of a thimble an' of the man. pat me nose in ut.

“The game is quared on us,' “Then kem the trouble. he mutters discontintedlyTh' inn'my was damnin' ex- more to himself than to annypinse. Pourin' out money. wan. Three, four, five Very lights "It's devilloped,' says I, be at wan instiant. Wan great what I can see, into ruthless baste of an aro light of a moon subm'rine warfare.' that ad illum'nate half Water- 66 Mebbe I'd do right,' says loo Station went on loiterin' he, 'to go back for fresh over me head; I'd enjured & ordbers. Th'innimy 'll watch twelvemonth, be what I oud an' pray from this out.' judge, of invijjas publio'ty " Aye will be,' says I-'the before ut went out. An' me prayer of all sentries on earth there thinkin' slowly an'

an' to rest onmolested, thim an' garef'lly, the way yo'll romim- their wire, to th' end of their

6

6

6

watoh. An' shall we,' says I, out notas-he'd do right, the 'grant their request! Isn't it like of a cat knockin' into a carryin' gratiohude altogether dog an' she walkin' about in too far, for the Reformaysh'n her sleep-she'd have th' eyes itself, an' the lunch that the of him out before lettin' a Kaiser gev Carson ?' I'd have yawn, an' Jawn was her aquil. said more, but ye know the

“ There was clouds now neoiss'ty of keepin' concise in sthravadin' over the moon, the field.

so I sudden't see all.

But “Begob, in the moon comin' me heart tol' me Jawn was up I oud see the whites of his sof’ly exthraotin' a bomb from eyes very quare - shaped an' his right tanio - pooket, an' vishus at that, the like of a piokin' the pin of it out, an' horse that'd offer to bite ye. howldin' it ready to throw. Carry on workin',' he says, An' so I conformed to his an' he was off on the top gear movemints. again, lettin' her rip for th' “He didn' throw yet. An' inn'my's wire, the way I was then he set off orawlin' preout of me breath, beltin' after Dawshusly on too'rds the man, him on me intestines, before he an' the man keepin' still, the let up all of a suddent. An' two of thim there like a dog then I saw why.

reoonnoithrin' a strange dog, “He'd his head liftud up from an' movin' gradjal an' stiff an' the groun' an' pressed back colleoted for action. Jawn same as Heads backward- orep' an' he crep' till he'd bend' at phys'oul drill, on'y crep' right ap to the man, frozen. Starin' rijjud he was, an' then he put out a han' to his front-ye oud tell be the an' felt the face of the man, baok of his neok, an' it dark an' the man didn' mind ut at night, how he had the eyes all. An' then Jawn signalled bulgin' out of him, starin' me on. at somethin'. Then I saw at " Ye'll have guessed how at too.

Fritz had been dead a “It was a man, lyin' full on great while.

He'll have gone his belly, the like of ourselves. on some irrand or other, the He was faoin' at us, an' he same as ourselves. There'd had his head a weeny shade bin no battle there, at the lower than Martin's—a better time, an' dead men in the open posish'n. Crouchin' outside th' not plintiful yet. innimy's wire he was, ten feet “I got me head levil to away from us.

Jawn's.

Gran'

oover we “Wan thing I knew, Jawn had, behin' the dead German, 'ud do right. A quar’lsome 'How soon did ye know?' I man an' a bigot, an' yet a whispered. good soljer, the way he'd do “Know hwat?' says he best the time all before him'd gourly. be goin' its worst. He'd earned “That Fritz,' says I,'had his stripe well. Pat him in gone west ?' anny owld sort of a fix, with- « From the moment,' says

W&8.

he, that he kem in me aisy about it at all. Conpresenoe.'

stantly sendin' up flares an' “How'd ye see ut ?' says I. bringin' about unimployment.

“I didn', says he. 'I smelt We'd have had little done if ut. The man was a Papis'. the Cap. hadn't worked the Wuddn'I know a dead Papis' lights for as the gran' way he at ten feet away in the good did, makin' it black whore we soontin' weather we're havin'?' were, be the force of con

“Thinks I, “Ye van soore thrast. We saw his han' in it yourself wan, me fine lad, but an' thanked Hivvin for a good the night isn't over.' I left ut off"cer. at that for the momint. 'An' “At las' wo wore through so,' says I, 'the pin is not out with our job on the wire, an' of your bomb?'

then we assimbled behin' a good it. It is not,' says he. sizable mole-hill. We tuk the Why'd I stir ut at all, an' it bearin's of home. Then Martin, apt not to go baok to jooty that hadn't seemed to be when wandt demob'lised, an' troubled till then, says low in have me there howldin' a mad me ear, “A nice way I'm in trigger down for the rest of with this engine of death that th' exoursion?'

ye gev me rampin' roun'in me “Ye're luoky,' says I. 'Me pookut.' own pin's out an' lost on me “Says I, 'Apt we'll both of howlly, beyant in the grass.' us be to be kilt be a prim

“ Han' me over the bomb,' mature burst before we'd see says Martin.

home.' "I may have hizzitated a “We'd do right,' says he, sooond.

'to be quit of ut early. ". Han' ut across,' be re- " Aye, an'wan

two payted. We're not howldin' more,' says I, 'be way of

• the firs' session after Howm support.

It's not twinty Rule.'

paces,' I says, “to the innimy's “I handed it over. Stbrain. trenoh.' in' it seemed to be, under me "An aisy throw,' he says, han', to be off an' at work in 'an' we'd be protectin' ourits station in life.

selves.' “I'll give ut a home,' he “Aye, an' wearin' down

. says, 'now, an'a chanst in life also,' says I, 'the innimy's after.'

man-pow'r.' “How Jawn kep' ut still “They're affordin' the bes' in his pookut I'll not oonjio- mark,' he says, 'that we've had tare—whether he med a new in the war. They're as thiok pin of the wire he'd always in that trench as a p’litical

& have in his pookut for snarin' meetin'. Lay your ear to the & hare, or tuk out the de- ground and tonathor itself, or hwat all,

"Have I ivver laid ut annyAnnyway we went on wid our where else,' says I, durin' the own work, an' a long hour howl of the outin'”' it tuk, th’ innimy not bein' “He had an offensive way

or