Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 6]
We tramped along in the misty wet moonlight, halting for spells every 25 minutes or half hour, but we had not covered half our joruney before there were dozens who had fallen out by the wayside, exhausted. These arrived late next day. Now was the test of my endurance! I knew my strong legs would never fail me, they never did, but my poor small shoulders, would they and my back hang out? It did, and I never fell out on any march though big powerful men have, but you see even now, I am not satisfied if it was my toughness or my determination to endure that pulled me through.
Oh! the relief of a rest for 5 or 10 minutes even in the mud of the roadside. I generally chose the road when I could, as it was usually harder, taking care to sit on my entrenching tool, or inverting my steel hat, place it on the ground and sit on it. Quite a good stool - then leaning back until my pack touches the ground, place my clasped hands behind my head shut my eyes and snooze. Several times I was fast asleep immediately and came to with a jerk when the order to advance was given. Oh! the strain of these cruel braces, the shoulder muscles feel galled and finally in numbness one begins to count his paces towards definite objects, wearily judging how many more there must be.
We arrived at our billets in broad daylight. Ours was a large farm house once apparently of some opulence, but now, as usual with French villages, in a sad state of disrepair. Our billet was in a barn containing dirty straw "absolutely chatty". I thought it was rotten (O Youth!). Experience taught me later such a place with its semi-dry roof was a place of bliss, a haven of refuge. The Farm owner was actively hostile, and particularly his virago of a wife. They were described to us by others of the inhabitants as "No bon Allemands", so we understood they were of German extraction. They were very old, but we could do nothing or go nowhere, except they were screaming at us "No bon, no bon", meaning no good. The billets of course are commandeered by the Military and the inhabitants are well paid for the use of the miserable hovels the troops are stored in, but they profer
(6)