The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-05-16

curly wallace, placing MS hdnd on
the speakers knee. softly said:
"Righto, mate. we know you can
see far beyond us. but tell us Of Aunt
ed Jerry and the pome e wrote the
day before e clicked 1t at the lone
tree"
Jerrys brother nodded in a compre-
bending way, and reaching into the
pocket Of his tunic drew out a creased
and muddy piece Of paper which he
opened out upon his knee, and then, in
an unnatural, singsong voice, which
sent shIvers through US, recited the
following poem:
Between the lines. In No MANI Land,
| With foliage gone, and trL..k that's
A lonely sentry takes his stand,
| Silently watching from morn to morn.
On starlit nights. when moon Is bright,
And spreads Its rays OF ghostlikc
beams;
Against the sky, that tree of blight
CHASTITY hangman's gibbet seems.
When night is black. and winds faint
| sigh
Through its shelltorn branches means.
| A call to men. ITO die to die.''
They answer 1t with groans and groans,
But obey the CALL for 'rnore and more"
And Death sits by and grins and grins,
And watches the fast-growing score.
The harvest of his sentry's whims.
There they lie huddled, friend and foe.
CHASTITY heaps. English. Hun and
French
| And still those piles forever grow,
They are fed by the Men of the
Trench"
| No wooden cross to mark their fall
| No tombstone theirs, no carven rocks.
Just the Lone Treo with its grim call,
Which forever mocks and mocks.
When Jerry's brother had finished,
a dead silence ensued. nervOusly
lighted fng, and out of the corner
Of my eye noticed that Sailor Bin was
uneasily squirming on the firestep.
Letting out n sigh, which seemed to
whistle between his teeth, our guest"
carried on:
"Jerry weren't much at cheerful
writing, because e 'ad calling.
Even back 'ome In Blighty. e weren't
much for lights nor fun. &c took af-
ter our mother. The neighbors called
Ter 'aunted, too, but she weren't. She
could see things, like Jerry.
"This ere lone tree sentinel Jerry
writes about was an old tree in No
Mans land, about a 'undred yards from
our front-line trench. It was pretty
| oil y
shell fragments. 1t made pretty good
guide post. stlckin' sort o. lonely like
up gainst the skyline at night. Re
connoitering patrols and boIlbing par
ties used it to show em the wye
back to their trenches, because,
y know, out there In the blackness
it's easy to lose your wye, unless
you ave spirits a-guidin' you.
Lots of times English and German
patrols would meet near the lone
tree, and many a 'andto-'and fight
would tyke place around its roots.
AT that part o. the line it were
pretty 'ot, what with the rifle and ma
chlne-gun firing. The only time there
would be hull in the firing was when
q accommodating patrol was out in
'front.' and then, as you know, you
couldn't fire for fear of a lifting your
own blokes. All around the lone tree
were scattered many bodies, mostly
English and German. Some of 'em
'au been allyn there for weeks, and
when the wind were a-blowin' from the
German lines towards us 1t were sort
OF unpleasant In our front line.
"Every time the captain would call
for soldiers for accommodating pa
troll, 'Aunted Jerry, as you call i'm,
always put is bloomin' nyme on the
list. 1t got so that after while e
never asked If e wanted to go; the
captain would just naturally put rs
Lyme down as agoin'.
"In our dugout, Jerry would tell me
'ow many dead were around the tree
'Ow e could count 'em in the dark, ]
don't know, but e could see could
see.
Sometimes in the daytime e would
rig up periscope on lis own, and sit
on the firestep for hours alookin' out