The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1919-10-30

4
bile 10 run without scraping of IL
wheels on the curbs. We never saf
indoors during the day, and when VI
were not taking walks through tn,
beautiful parks, always with our at
tendant numbers Of lonely boys. se
grateful just to be talked to, we wer'
apt To sit on bench in the sun, at on,
side OF our house, when the officers
just as glad as the men to hear :
woman speak English, would stop an,
tell us about home.
Everything seems to happen IN the
streets in France, here the boys filed
past us at noon time to their dinner
which was cooked in the park nearby
and which they ate balanced on the
stone walls, or sitting on the bare
ground: on their way back they would
stop at the pump to wash their dishes
and incidentally TO get in an extra
scrub or shave of their own. The
market, short distance from US, was
also practically on the street, and
when the women would leave there,
carrying a goose or fowl under their
arms (which they had just bought
from the lap of a neighbor who had
raised it to selD they would stop, cut
its throat with jack knife, and COM
placently hold it over the gutter to
bleed.
One of our boys told us that "the
French are a nation that eat their pet
rabbitsw
In the stable near, thirty boys were
billeted, they had no light but q
candle, but it was kept scrupulously
clean. One of the men did the laun-
dry for the others on wide board
stretched from one box to another.
He was frugal boy, for he used only
one pail of water for the whole lot of
clothes, he folded every article and
then scrubbed it with scrubbing
brush! There was absolutely no place
for them to 60 to but to the "Y" hut,
and they were always there in hun
dreds. All day long, when they were
not on duty, they were singing, whistl-
ing and playing with French children.
#
A dear old couple in the grounds Of
whose chateau the boys were living in
their pup" tents, told US that there
never was moment when the Ameri-
cans were anything but "gentil" that
they had not picked d flower from
their garden. Madame sent US home,
however, laden with her beautiful
roses, and bursting with pride at the
complimentary things she had said of
our boys.
Not far from our town, the Germans
came over the hills one night on one
of their humane air-plane parties:
they bombed tempting looking hos
pital, killing numbers of its inmates:
but as it happened they were all
Boche wounded.
One Sunday afternoon we climbed
the steep road of the mountain of st.
German. A captain and young
lieutenant were our pilots, but as us
ual, our party grew as we progressed.
On the summit was an enormous farm
house, and from behind we heard the
festive sound of an accordion. We
looked through the gate, and felt al
most as though we must be dreaming,
for the picture which we saw was so
unreal. At one side of the paved
barn yard was the family's most val
liable possession, huge manure heap,
and round and round in its protecting
shade the peasants were dancing. The
men all had their coats off, the girls
short black petticoats were flying, sol
diers were sitting at small tables
drinking the harmless red wine, and
everybody was happy: the dancing
was the only real serious matter in
hand!
Can you imagine, we wonder, what
,ur evenings were, after we had sung |
md were sitting around the table in
Thierry's hospitable "bu- ,
eau" There were of course no other ,
women than the three of the family !
md ourselves, and the absorbing !
hings that the officers would tell US !
we're the stories Of heroes. They were {
iot tales of what they themselves had t
one, but always something Of what a
hey had seen. v
These following incidents may have a
een published in the papers, but they n
'ere especially thrilling to US, as they :
yere told just after they had happen +
d. a
At the battle of Chateau Thierry N
here was a time when our boys were q
eing moved down in heart-breaking
by machine gun which no
nc had been able TO locate. Three