The Garland City globe. (Garland, Utah) 191?-1925, 1918-12-21

s.
II was Christmas eve, and cold; not
the kind OF cold which sends the red
blood tingling through your veins and
makes you want TO be sup and ut
EN-" but that miserable damp kind
that eats into the marrow OF your
bones. attacking you from the rear and
sending cold shivers Up and down your
spinal column. It gives you feeling
OF dread and loneliness.
The three OF US. Curly" Happy"
and myself, were standing at the cor
per of yankee avenue" and "Ylddlsh
street" waiting for the word "Stand
TO-" upon which we were TO mount our
machine gun on the pnrapet and go on
watch for two hours with our heads
sticking over the top.
yankee avenue" was the name of
the FIRE trench, while "Yiddish street"
was the communication trench lending
20 the rear. We were occupying "Y"
sector Of the front line OF our brigade.
Tile trench wns muddy. and IN some
places a thin crust OF ice was begin
ming TO form around the edges OF the
puddles.
We had wrapped our feet and legs
with empty sand bags, and looked like
snow shovelers on Fifth avenue. My
teeth were chatterlng with the cold.
Happy was slapplng his hands on his
thighs, while Curly had unbuttoned
one OF the buttons on his overcont
and with his left hand was desperately
trying 70 reach under his right armpit
no doubt "cootle" had gone mar
ketIng for Its Christmas dinner.
Then cnme the unwelcome "Stand
to-" and Il was up on the firestep Tor
US, 10 get our gun mounted. This took
about Ave minutes.
Curly, while working away, was
muttcring; "Blime me. Christmas eve,
and ERE / am somewhere In France,
'alf starved with the cold"
Happy was humming Keep the
Home Fires Burning" Right then. to
me, any kind OF n home fire would
have been very welcome.
II was black as pitch In No Mans
land Curly stopped muttering TO him
self and Happy's humming ceased
There was serious work In front OF us
For two hours we had to try and pene'
trate that blackness with our strninina
eyes to see that Fritz did not surprise
us with some Christmas stunt Of his.
Suddenly. Happy. who was standing
on the firestep next to me, gripped my
arm, and In a low, excited whisper
asked:
"Dld you see that out In front, Ynnk
little TO the right OF that black patel
In the barbod wireT
Turning my eyes In the direction In
dlcated. with my heart pounding
against my ribs, waited for some
thing TO develop.
Sure enough, could make out {
slight movement Happy must have
seen II at the same time, because h
carefully ensed his rifle over the top
ready for instant use. My rifle wins al
ready In position. Curly was fumblinI
with the flare pistol. Suddenly. ''plop!
as he pulled the trigger, and a RET
streak shot up into the air as the star
shell described an are out In front d
hit the ground and burst, THROWN,
out q white. ghostly light. fright
ened "meouw," and a cnt, with speed
clutch open. darted from the wire II
front OF us, jumped over our gun an'
disappeared Into the blackness OF tn
trench. Curly duclied his head, ant
Happy let out weak, squcaky laugh
l was frozen stiff with fear. Prett,
soon the pump action OF my heart wal
resumed, and once more ! looked ou
into No Mans land.
For the remainder OF our two hours
on guard nothing happened. Then W.
turned over" TO the second relief and
half frozen, wendell our way through
the icy mud TO the eatrance OF oul
dugout.
From the depths of the earth came
the notes Of harmonica playint
Pack Up Your Troubles In Your OLE
Kit Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile
Stumbling down the muddy steps W.
entered the dugout. About eight boys
of our section. sitting on their packs
had formed circle around woodeI
box. in an old ammunition tin si'
candles were burning. inwardly shud
dered at this extravaganza, but sud
denly remembered that 1t was Christ
mas eve. "Sailor BIZ" was making
cocoon over the nalnes OF ioniinF
cooker" while "Ikey" Honey wal
toastlng bread In front Of trench fir'
bucket. the fumes from which nearl!
choked us.
AS soon as we made our appearance
In the dugout the circle stood up. and
as is usual with the English, mad
room for us to get around the fir
bucket to thaw out our stlffened joints
In about twenty minutes or so tn
cold OF the trench was forgotten AM
we Joined in .he merriment The mu
slcian put hiA harmonica away, and
bursting with importance. Sailor Bil
ht iressed us:
"Gentlemen, 1t is now time for TIL