The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-10-09

"
and as all the preparing Of the veg
e,ables was done, the chickens killed
and all the gossip Of the town talked
or rather screamed over by the busy
servants just below. !, is needless to
say We hunted for another billet. We
found lovely clean room in the
house Of the town cobbler. Our bed
was hung with wonderful brocaded
canopy. and the heavy linen sheets
were fifty years old and had been IN
Madame's trousseau. Madame took
us in only because she liked US too
well TO let US go to the hotel, and
"for the good of the Allies! The
front door opened into vestlbule be-
side which the cobbler tapped out his
work all day, the parlour came next,
then the family bedroom with its
large tiled stove for winter use and
beyond that, the kitchen. There was
a little gas stove here which Is what
Madame uses most Of the time: coal
is very expensive and hard to procure,
and the gas is turned off all through
the town excepting at meal hours. Az
the back was a tiny yard, where there
was cactus in full bloom, and begon-
las and ferns to ones waist. Every
thing in the house was spotlessly
clean (even the cobble-stone side walk
was swept every dayO In our room
the center table was covered with "A
valuable old camels- hair shawl, we
had large wash stand with a pitcher
which held no more than a pint OF
water, and big chest of drawers,
filled with the most beautiful linen
imaginable, Madame's dot. Great
stone girders crossed the ceiling and
the window sills showed the thickness
of the walls, almost two feet. A small
room opened off ours, but our host
ess wouldn't make it up for US be-
cause it was where she kept her best
dresses, her bags of bread crusts to
be used for soups and pudGings, and
the butter But when one of US came
down with the Spanish Influenza, the
other secretly climbed into the feather
bed there and it never disturbed the
butter at all. The walls were so thick
that the whole house was cool all
through tie hottest weather, and the
precious butter never melted.
AT night we sang in the Hotel de
Vile. A queer old-fashioied theatre,
where the gas did not work and we
had lamps at each side Of the stage.
There were three balconies, which 1t
seemed as though one could reach out
and touch the stage. Our audience
was composed of officers who were at
various schools" in town. They were
a wonderfully alert crowd, and learned
our choruses directly we had sung
them once A deg lay in the aisle
peacefully sleeping, until the time
when one of us did a whiatling solo,
then ne ambled up to the stage,
caught a flea, kicked out his hind leg,
and that was the end of any traces OF
formality which might have existedup
to that time. The whole audience, the
dog, and we howled; we humans with
laughter. After the program was I'm
ished, the boys all stayed TO talk, for
quite an hours time.
The Twelfth Century Church was
so crowded on Sunday, that we could
not get near the doors, even the street
was packed.
We were taken out to the aviation
camp to dinner that afternoon by two
officers and dined in the barracks We
had canned beef, mashed potatoes,
white bread, camoufiagcd butter, cof
fee in large yellow bowls and real
apple pie. We were in the midst of
our dinner, when soldier rushed
wildly IN, one half Of his face covered
with lather and waving o razor, to tell
US that a Handley-Page, the emostenor-
nous of all sky craft, was about TO
light in the field. Zone of them had
brought over piano and sixteen men
from England few days preyious.)
1t was a wonderful sight, each Of the
upright supports is as large as the
body Of a man. The Offices helped us
up into the car and thea took a photo
graph Of us standing beside the out
spread wings: we must have looked
r!l.euously small They threw out
some Of their ballast, and the aero
plane started off to ball game, load
ed with soldicrs.
Later in the afternoon we sang n
the little school building which had
been turned into base hospital. In
the courtyard !, the kitchen, hard
place for the boy cooks TO work in:
the smoke from tie wood fires blows
in NJ the open window, it Is hot and