performing sundry tasks which the villagers, owing to the absence of their young men, could not carry out. So one annoyance was removed, but rain and foot-drill continued and we had yet to discover a more uncongenial occupation than doing "squads right" in deep mud.

                Monotony was broken from time to time by such amusements as a Brigade review which gave rise to a horde of rumors of all sorts and descriptions, a hike to the Tronville gun park where we indulged in a frenzied harness cleaning bee, and practice reviews and guard-mounts. Despite all these inspiring performances, time hung heavily on our hands, and bad rumors, oozing in from all quarters, lowered our spirits till we simply moped from day to day, ploughing indifferently through the all-pervading mud to meals, to drill, to bed. Squads right, squads left, on right into line, O'Grady says "left face", O'Grady says "about face", and so it went.

                Orders to move came unexpectedly, so unexpectedly that many refused to believe their authenticity, asserting that this was merely a new form of spreading rumors. Most of us merely waited, the general attitude being "Don't believe a damn thing till you see it happen." Moving to the railhead seemed too good to be true after all these weeks of hiking and waiting and hiking. Just to reassure us that we were still in the army, orders were changed at the last moment, and instead of entraining at Tronville, we were to go to Ligny-en-Barrois, four kilometers farther on, making a hike of ten kilometers instead of six.

                Guerpont with all its pleasant memories behind

CONTENTS
INDEX