RI

" said the Queen.-A

agains

drink some

!

t!

have y

realis

ave you

eel and

h

o

-SH

realis

ht-

MIS

Octobe

er and the sunset in the peat-moss puddles, barrack-life soon became like penal servitude. I was like a caged w

ut for the "sweetest girl" of the song-but the "colleens" were disappointing. My heart was

old square, until at last we all began to be unbearably "fed up." The sections became sl

e. We knew how to "come the old soldier"; we knew how and when to "wangle out" of doing this or that fati

if we came in late, and the others

oes to chur

s a fly on

cher

elf down

next time I 'li

been promoted to th

shouting at squad-drill and stretcher-drill was about the only thing I ever did well i

ough at the knees, and tattered at the elbows. Some were buttonless and patched. I had to put a patch in my shorts. Our civilian boo

afety-pin. The people called us "Kitchener's Rag-time Army." We became so torn, and worn, and ragged,

comes,

cowboy! Isn

us! so

Kitchener's cowboy!-by-t

ums. I discovered some odd parts of A Thousand-and-One Arabian Nights, which I bought for a penny or two, and took back to my barrack-room to

guard-room gate. This form of amusement becam

y old and worn c

o the sergeants' mess with the Koran under my arm. It was difficult to ex

grave, I can't

, s

ll be-you act the part pretty well. But

turday I set out with a fellow we called "Cherry Blossom," because he never cleaned his boots. I took a pair of field-glasses, and "Cherry" had a bag of pastries, which we bought on the way. We stalked those herons for hours and hours. We crept through th

t. We were to be sent to the East Coast for "home defence." That offended our martial ardour. When were we going

s, a "civvy" coat and a khaki cap. Others were rigged out in "Kitchener's workhouse blue," with little forage caps on one side. The sprinkling o

s as if some curse had fallen upon us.

pposite the barracks was a cloth factory, which was tu

et because no order had been given to that factory to supply us with uniforms, we had to wai

nlisted was dead. We detested the army, we hated the ro

or whenever I could take French leave, I went off with sketchbook and pencil, and forgot for a time the horror of barrack

we moved