aside wine and tobacco, with
which the troops were to be obliged to dispense during the remainder of
the campaign.

Upon Jean's return he found Chouteau engaged in raising the tent,
assisted by Pache; he looked at them for a moment with the critical eye
of an old soldier who had no great opinion of their abilities.

"It will do very well if the weather is fine to-night," he said at last,
"but if it should come on to blow we would like enough wake up and find
ourselves in the river. Let me show you."

And he was about to send Maurice with the large pail for water, but
the young man had sat down on the ground, taken off his shoe, and was
examining his right foot.

"Hallo, there! what's the matter with you?"

"My shoe has chafed my foot and raised a blister. My other shoes were
worn out, and when we were at Rheims I bought these, like a big fool,
because they were a good fit. I should have selected gunboats."

Jean kneeled and took the foot in his hand, turning it over as carefully
as if it had been a little child's, with a disapproving shake of his
head.

"You must be careful; it is no laughing matter, a thing like that. A
soldier without the use of his feet is of no good to himself or anyone
else. When we were in Italy my captain used always to say that it is the
men's legs that win battles."

He bade Pache go for the water, no very hard task, as the river was
but a few yards away, and Loubet, having in the meantime dug a shallow
trench and lit his fire, was enabled to commence operations on his
_pot-au-feu_, which he did by putting on the big kettle full of water
and plunging into it the meat that he had previously corded together
with a bit of twine, _secundum artem_. Then it was solid comfort for
them to watch the boiling of the soup; the whole squad, their chores
done up and their day's labor ended, stretched themselves on the grass
around the fire in a family group, full of tender anxiety for the
simmering meat, while Loubet occasionally stirred the pot with a gravity
fitted to the importance of his position. Like children and savages,
their sole instinct was to eat and sleep, careless of the morrow, while
advancing to face unknown risks and dangers.

But Maurice had unpacked his knapsack and come across a newspaper that
he had bought at Rheims, and Chouteau asked:

"Is there anything about the Prussians in it? Read us the news!"

They were a happy family under Jean's mild despotism. Maurice
good-natu