ever saw child's
play. So they asked for candy and chocolate, instead of rum.

Some people have said that Tommy has no patriotism. He fights
because he is paid and it is his business. That is an insinuation.
Tommy doesn't care for the "hero stuff," or for waving flags and
speechmaking. Possibly he knows how few Germans that sort of
thing kills. His weapons are bullets. To put it cogently, he is fighting
because he doesn't want any Kaiser "in his."

Is not that what all the speeches in Parliament are about and all the
editorials and the recruiting campaign? Is not that what England and
France are fighting for? It seems to me that Tommy's is a very
practical patriotism, free from cant; and the way that he refuses to
hate or to get excited, but sticks to it, must be very irritating to the
Germans.

"Would you like a Boche helmet for a souvenir, sir?" asked a soldier
who appeared on the outer edge of the group. He was the small,
active type, a British soldier with the elan of the Frenchman. "There
are lots of them out among the German dead "--the unburied German
dead who fell like grass before the mower in a desperate and futile
counter-attack to recover Neuve Chapelle. "I'll have one for you on
your way back."

There was no stopping him; he had gone.

"Matty's a devil!" said the big man. "He'll get it, all right. He's equal
to reaching over the Boches' parapet and picking one off a Boche's
head!"

As we proceeded on our way, officers came out of the little houses to
meet Captain P------and the stranger civilian. They had to come out,
as there was no room to take us inside; and sometimes they talked
shop together after I had answered the usual question, "Is America
against us?" There seemed to be an idea that we were, possibly
because of the prodigious advertising tactics of a minority. But any
feeling that we might be did not interfere with their simple courtesy, or
lead them to express any bitterness or break into argument.

"How are things going on over your side?"

"Nicely."

"Any shelling?"

"A little this morning. No harm done."

"We cleaned out one bad sniper to-day."

"Ought to have some sandbags up to-night."

"It's a bad place there. They've got a machine-gun trained which has
quite a sweep. I asked if the artillery shouldn't put in a word, but the
general didn't think it worth while."

"You must run across that break. Three or four shots at you every
time. We're gradually getting shipshape, t