Part 29 (2/2)
”She never answered the verse you sent from Givenchy, I suppose,” I remarked
”It's not that----”
”Did she answer your letter saying she reciprocated your sentirande, I say Speak that I can understand you Wait a minute till I reshi+perate that,” he suddenly exclai over the parapet He sent five shots in the direction fro at us all day, was firing Then he returned to his arguarbe?” he asked
”Yes,” I replied ”Pryor said that her ankles were abnormally thick”
”Pryor's a fool,” Bill exclaimed
”But they really looked thick----”
”You're a bigger fool than 'iirl,” I said ”How did it happen?”
”Bliirl with a good 'eart Twas out in the horchard in the farm I first met 'er (p 288) I was out pullin' apples, pinchin' them if you like to say so, and I was shakin' the apples from the branches I had to keep my eyes on the farm to see that nobody seen th to rumble apples off a tree when you're shakin' a trunk that's stouter than the bread basket of a Bow butcher All at once I saw the girl of the farm comin' runnin' at me with a stick
Round to the other side of the tree I ran like lightnin', and after me she comes Then round to the other side went I----”
”Which side?” I asked
”The side she wasn't on,” said Bill ”After me she came and round to her side I 'opped----”
”Who was on the other side now?” I inquired
”I took good care that she was always on the other side until I sahat she was up to with the stick,” said Bill ”But d'yer knohat the stick was for? 'Twas to help reat women, the women of France,” concluded my mate
The women of France! what heroism and fortitude anie from Souchez to the sea! What labours (p 289) they do in the fields between the foothills of the Pyrenees and the Church of ----, where the woman nearest the Gerh and sickle are symbols of peace and power in the hands of the women of France in a land where irls of the hundred and one villages which fringe the line of destruction, proceed with their day's work under shell fire, calm as if death did not wait ready to pounce on them at every corner
I have seen a woman in one place take her white horse fro in the field and lead the anihbours were killed in the same field the day before One of our ht with danger ”I am convinced of that,” she replied ”It is madness to reo to?” During the winter the French occupied the trenches nearer her hoone further south now and our -out and trench but not in the wolish soldiers have coo away,” she says ”He went south beyond Souchez, and now he's dead”
The wo-out and bring him coffee for breakfast and soup for dinner; this in winter when the slush in the trenches reached the waist and when soldiers were carried out daily suffering from frostbite
A woman sells _cafe noir_ near Cuinchy Brewery in a jumble of bricks that was once her home Once it was _cafe au lait_ and it cost four sous a cup, she only charges three sous now since her cow got shot in the sto with a few o and a bullet entered the door and smashed the coffee pot; the woman now makes coffee in a biscuit tin
The road fro line is as uncomfortable as a road under shell fire can be, but what ti parties, wefurniture away froe behind the trenches The French military authorities forbade civilians to live there and drove thehtly they came back, contrary to orders, and carried away property to their teoods that were not entirely their own, but at what risk! One or two got killed nightly andback and carrying away beds, tables, mirrors and chairs in all sorts of queer conveyances, barrows, peraent dogs
”They are great women, the women of France,” as Bill Teake remarks
CHAPTER XXI (p 292)
IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT
”What do you do with your rifle, son?” I clean it every day, And rub it with an oily rag to keep the rust away; I slope, present and port the thing when sweating on parade