Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1919-01-17

Our guns crew, as was it's wont, was
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 "days
rest" had been occupied in digging
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 a piece of "is-
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 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 a
sure winner?"
He answered In an undertone:
swell, 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 it's
paws. Jim was wagging his stump of
q tail and was intently watching Hun
grys 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
1T in Jim's direction. Jim deftly caught
1T 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 q chorus of growls from
us at his rudeneSS in thus depriving US
of light. / was watching him closely
enough, out came that harmonica and
1 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 Ger
man "five-nine" shellburst would stop
him. Sol slyly kicked Sailor Bill, who
Immediately got wise, and then
broke the ice with:
"Sailor, / 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
it was more or less an accident. Now,
just because your D. G. M. 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
a 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 tell
me where d. G. M. truly came aboard
in a shipshape manner-that is, up
the after gangplank-then / will strike
my colors and lay up on lee shore for
drydock."
key Honey had just taken long,
indrawn breath, and his cheeks were
puffed out like a balloon, preparatory
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, 1 know of bloke who
won ID. c. NJ, and it 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
it was business as usual He just
carried on"
We all chirped in. "Come on. key,
let's have the story"
'I will if you'll just let me play this
one tune first" answered key.
y He started i'm and was accompanied
by 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 md
sic"
We agreed with him.
Somewhat Modified, he started:
CORPORAL French is the same bloke
who Just returned from Blighty and
Joined the Third section yesterday"
Authors Note-The incident here re-
lated is true happening. Corporal
French won the ID. c. Nj. in the manner
described by Honey. l viii not attempt
to give it. In the cockney dialect)
"We were holding part OF the line
M Fromelles way, and were about
two hundred yards from the Germans.
This sure was hot section OF the
lire. We were against the Prussians.
and it was case, at night, of keeping
your ears and eyes open. No Mans
lanl was full of their patrols and ours.