The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1919-01-03

sitting on the straw in the corner of
our billet, far from the rest of the sec
ton. The previous night we had been
relieved from the fire trench, and were
resting in rest billets. Our "day's
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 a huge loaf of bread, while on his
knee he was balancing piece of Els
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 a tanner, Yank, that he
eats the cheese before he finishes slic-
ing that 'rooty.'"
whispered back:
Nothing doing, Curly, you are
Scotch, and did you ever see Scots
man bet on anything unless it was
sure winnerW
He answered in an undertone:
"Well, let's make it pack of flags.
How about it. Yank?"
l 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 tail would wag faster.
Hungry, noting this look, bit off a
small piece of the cheese and tipped
it in Jim's direction. Jim deftly caught
| it in his mouth and then the fun be-
gan. Our mascot hated cheese. 1t was
fun to see him spit it out and sneeze.
key Honey reached over, took the
candle, and started searching in his
pack, amidst a chorus of growls from
us at his rudeness in thus depriving us
of light. / was watching him closely
and suspected what was coming. Sure
enough. out came that harmonica and
I knew it 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-ninen shellburst would stop
him. So l 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 it was your opinion that
darn few medals were really won; that
1t was more or less an accident. Now
just because your ID. @. M. came uI
with the rations, and, as you say, il
was wished on you, there is no reason
in my mind to class every winner OF
medal as being accidentally lucky
This medal business was a sore point
with Sailor Bill, and he came right
back at me with:
'Well, if any of you lubbers can tel
me where d. @. M. truly came aboard
in a shipshape manner-that is, VI
the after gangplank-then will strikt
my colors and lay up ON lee shore TO
drydock."
key Honey had just taken long
indrawn breath, and his cheeks wer'
pulled out like a balloon, preparation.
to blowing it 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 VIII,
! won D. @. NJ, and it wasn't acci
! dental or lucky, either. was RICH
! out in front with him. Blime me,
sure had the wind up, but with Frencl
) it was business as usual He jus
| carried on"
: We all chirped in, "Come on, key
, let's have the story"
!. Il will if you'll just let me play thi
: one tune first" answered key.
: He started in and was accompanie
q by dismal, moaning howl from jim
r key had been playing about minute
t when the orderly sergeant poked hi
q head in the door of the billet, saying
}. "The captain says to stop that infel
4 nal noise"
l. Highly insulted, key stopped, with
e "Some people ave no idea of NIL
e sic"
d We agreed with him.
Somewhat Modified, he started:
Corporal French is the same biloxi
who Just returned from Blighty an
. Joined the Third section yesterday"
y authors Note-The incident here r.
e lated is a true happening Corpor
\ French won the ID. G. M in the mann'
described by Honey. / win not atteml
II to give it in the cockney dialect)
ave were holding part of the lin
q up Fromelles az, and were sol
: two hundred yards from the German
! This sure was a hot section of tn
! line. We were against the Prussian
4 and it was case, at night, of keepin
your ears and eyes open. No Man
land was full of their patrols and our