The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-01

like so many diamonds. from each joint | of tho ice on the shrubbery.
 Christmas breakfast consisted of tho usual menu: Two pieces of bacon about | the size of your two fingers, one piece of bread and a cup of coffee That wasn't encouraging. Later in the morn | ing rumors came via "kitchen police+ that we were to have roast pork for din- ner and that the captain had ordered
 smoking tobacco from the government canteen, 30 kilometers from there This was both good and exciting news From that time on perfect "liaison" communication was kept up between the kitchen and the company. Everyone was eager with anticipation. Other rumors began to drift around to the effect that we would have stewed prunes, delicacy., Now, was 1t stewed prunes or was it dried figs and dried peaches stewed to- gether? I am inclined to believe that l it was the latter. Anyway, it would be a great treat.
 One o'clock came; still no dinner was | in sight Heated discussion took place as to whether we would really get any or not runner was immediately dis. patched to the scene of action, the kitch- | en, to bring back the latest developments. body lined up with mess kits" in front of the mess hall two hours before there was any necessity of it
 Eagerly the company stood out on the | frozen, ice-covered ground for two hours or more. Here and there one would see some poor fellow marking time'' in order | to get the blood circulating through his
 numbed and half-frozen feet. But this was Christmas; we were to have roast pork and dried figs and dried peaches stewed together, with lots of sugar. l Finally the big doors of the mass hall l opened Everybody made a rush to get inside and were jammed in the doorway.
 Stand hack there,'' shouted the cap- tain. thrOsting his big form in front Of the men. Get out and form line. Not | a man gets bit to eat until line has been formed"
 l Quickly the line was formed, the men stumbling over one another in their haste, and then the captain gave orders | to let us in the mess hall This method
 was too slow for some, who tried to slip in at the head of the line, while others l wishing to act with more fairness, would
 cry out: .,..,. | plenty of room on the end of the line" Oh! what feast we had; roast pork, | mashed potatoes, peaches and figs stewed l together in plenty of sugar, one apple, one piece of bread, four nuts, and bag
 of Bull Durham smoking tobacco. This
 was our first Christmas dinner in France.
 There was "ooaies' and ''oodles' of it. even seconds and thirds on some of the dishes. Such fine feast as this
 meant that we wouldn't have any sup per, but everybody was satisfied. Let supper take care of itself.
 l Several of the peasant people from the ! little village of Verseines had stood be-
 side our garbage can, waiting to catch
 such scraps as would fall from the mess I A-tt ky- hn | their Christmas dinner. They couldn't
 understand the waste of the Americans. who, 1t seemed to them, threw away per- l fecty good food.
 | That evening we went over to the Y.
 M. c. A. building where the Red Cross were going to give the little folks of the village n Christmas under the auspices of the Y. M. c. A. There were about
 20 of these children, wearing their quaint l little wooden shoes and accompanied by their parents and older sisters.
 1 It was an odd and motley group that gathered in that hut that evening. In the foreground were the peasants of the 1 village with their children, while in the background we formed a dark line of 1 grnning youths. It was grand sight
 to see the eager faces of the children, ] full of anticipation, and hear their joy ous shouts when they received bit of candy or some fragile toy. It warmed our hearts toward these people of an | alien land and made us one of them. It recalled us more vividly to your own l childhood days. not so long past, and spent in Gods Country"
 1 We spent the remainder of the even- 1 ing among these people and grew ac- quainted. playing many of our old child hood games. A piece of mistletoe sprang up from somewhere, nobody knew where. and many fair mademoiselles were caught beneath it CD.