The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-04-25

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Our guns crew, as was its wont, was
sitting on the straw In the corner of
our billet, far from the rest Of the sec
tion. The previous night we had been
relieved from the fire trench, and were
resting In rest billets. Our days
rest" had been occupied In digging a
bombing trench, this trench to be used
for the purpose Of breaking In would
be bombers.
Hungry Foxcroft was slicing away
at huge loaf Of bread, while on his
knee he was balancing piece Of as
sue" cheese. His jack-knife was pretty
dull and the bread was hard, SO every
now and then he would pause In his
cutting operation to take large bite
from the cheese.
Curly Wallace whispered to me:
"Three bob to tanner, Yank, that he
eats the cheese before he finishes Sic
ing that 'rooty.'"
l whispered back:
Nothing doing, Curly, you are
Scotch, and did you ever see Scots
man bet ON anything unless it was
sure winnerT
He answered In an undertone:
'Well, let's make it pack of Tags.
How about 1t. Yank?"
acQuiesced. (Curly won the fags.)
Sailor Bill was sitting next to Curly,
and had our mascot. Jim-a sorry-look-
ing mut--between his knees, and was
picking hard pieces Of mud from Its
paws Jim was wagging his stump of
= tail and was intently watching Hun
gry's operation on the bread. Every
time Hungry reached for the cheese
Jim would follow the movement with
his eyes, and his tall would wag faster.
Hungry, noting this look, bit OFF a
small piece of the cheese and Tipped
It In Jim's direction. Jim deity caught
II In his mouth and then the fun be-
gan. Our mascot hated cheese. 1t was
fun to see him spit 1t out and sneeze.
key Honey reached over, took the
candle, and started searching in his
pack, amidst chorus of grbwls from
US at his rudeness In thus depriving us
OF light. l was watching him closely
and suspected what was coming. Sure
enough, out came that harmonica and
/ knew 1t was up to me to start the
ball Of conversation rolling before he
began playing. because, after he had
once started, nothing short OF a Ger
man "five-nine" shellburst would stop
him. So slyly kicked Sailor Bill. who
Immediately got wise, and then /
broke the ice with:
"Sailor, l heard you say this after
noon, while we were building that
traverse, that 1t was your opinion that
darn few medals were really won; that
II was more or less an accident. Now,
Just because your D. G. NJ. came up
with the rations, and. as you say, 1t
was wished on you, there Is no reason
In my mind to class every winner OF
4 medal as being accidentally lucky
This medal business was a sore point
with Sailor BIZ, and he came right
back at me with:
"Well, II any Of you lubbers can tell
me where d. G. NJ. truly came aboard
In a shipshape manner-that Is, uT
the after gangplank-thenI will strike
my colors and lay up on lee shore fol
drydock."
key Honey had just taken a long
indrawn breath, and his cheeks were
puffed out like balloon, preparatory
to blowing 1t into the harmonica. which
he had at his lips. but paused. and. re
moving the musical instrument Of tor
ture, he exploded:
'Blime me. / know OF a bloke who
won d. G. NJ. and 1t wasn't acct
dental or lucky, either. l was right
out in front with him. Blime me.
sure had the wind up, but with French
1t was business as usual He Just
carried on
We all chirped in, "Come on. key
let's have the story"
Il will If you'll just let me play this
sse tune first" answered key.
He started In and was accompanied
by a dismal, moaning howl from Jim
KEY had been playing about a minute
when the orderly sergeant poked his
head In the door of the billet, saying
1.-THE captain says to stop that infer
nal noise"
Highly insulted. key stopped, with
"Some people ave no idea of mu
sic"
We agreed with him.
Somewhat Modified, he started:
Corporal French is the same bloke
WHO just returned from Blighty ant
$,lned the Third section yesterday"
tAuthor'' Note-The incident here re
1ated il true happening. Corpora
French Won the ID. c. n. in the manne
described by Honey. l VIII not attemp
TO give it In the cockney dialect)
"We were holding 2 part of The lint
up Fromelles AZ. and were ssou
two hundred yards from the Germans
This sure was hot section of thu
line. We were against the Prussians
and 1t was case, at night, of keeping
you, ears and eyes open. No Mans
tahG yes full Of their patrols and ours