g them in the soup, but the little round ones were
quite a delicacy, light and appetizing; the only trouble was that they
left an intolerable thirst behind them. Pache sang a hymn, being invited
thereto, the squad joining in the chorus. Jean smiled good-naturedly
without attempting to check them in their amusement, while Maurice, at
sight of the universal cheerfulness and the good order with which their
first day's march was conducted, felt a revival of confidence. The
remainder of the allotted task of the day was performed with the
same light-hearted alacrity, although the last five miles tried their
endurance. They had abandoned the high road, leaving the village of
Prosnes to their right, in order to avail themselves of a short cut
across a sandy heath diversified by an occasional thin pine wood, and
the entire division, with its interminable train at its heels, turned
and twisted in and out among the trees, sinking ankle deep in the
yielding sand at every step. It seemed as if the cheerless waste would
never end; all that they met was a flock of very lean sheep, guarded by
a big black dog.

It was about four o'clock when at last the 106th halted for the night at
Dontrien, a small village on the banks of the Suippe. The little stream
winds among some pretty groves of trees; the old church stands in the
middle of the graveyard, which is shaded in its entire extent by a
magnificent chestnut. The regiment pitched its tents on the left bank,
in a meadow that sloped gently down to the margin of the river. The
officers said that all the four corps would bivouac that evening on the
line of the Suippe between Auberive and Hentregiville, occupying the
intervening villages of Dontrien, Betheniville and Pont-Faverger, making
a line of battle nearly five leagues long.

Gaude immediately gave the call for "distribution," and Jean had to run
for it, for the corporal was steward-in-chief, and it behooved him to
be on the lookout to protect his men's interests. He had taken Lapoulle
with him, and in a quarter of an hour they returned with some ribs of
beef and a bundle of firewood. In the short space of time succeeding
their arrival three steers of the herd that followed the column had
been knocked in the head under a great oak-tree, skinned, and cut up.
Lapoulle had to return for bread, which the villagers of Dontrien had
been baking all that afternoon in their ovens. There was really no lack
of anything on that first day, setting