as a horse--was
explaining to an admiring group how he came to be alive at all. A bullet
had passed through the rim of his helmet, entered his left temple,
passed behind his nose, through the roof of his mouth, and out through
the lower part of his right cheek. First he would show us the dent in
his temple; then describe, with many strange words, the inward passage
of the bullet; and then, emerging into the sphere of common things, wind
up with, "and came out of my blooming cheek." Then he would show the
dent in his cheek, and pass his helmet round for all to see, as a
conjurer does. I moved round with this man and heard him recite his tale
three times, and every time he used just the same form of words, which
he repeated pat like a lesson. His corruption of "cerebral" was amusing.
"Nearly scattered the cerveral nerve, so help me!" he said. One could
have understood it if he had been in the Spanish-American war. Another
soldier used a word which I cannot explain. He was showing a mate how a
bullet had entered his shoulder, "and," said he, "it penetrated me
agamemnon." What is an agamemnon? It has been puzzling me ever since.

Only a few of the more robust men were going on in this way, and there
was enough of the pathetic even in the man with the "cerveral" nerve and
him with the "agamemnon." The men looked tired and serious, and seemed
to lack interest in anything but their own afflictions. It is almost a
pity that the public will not witness such scenes as this, for I fear
that it is still sadly in need of having even the most elementary fruits
of war brought home to it. One might, of course, easily overdraw the
picture of the men's condition; it is difficult to describe it
faithfully. Many of them seemed happy and contented to be home again,
and forgot past pains in present joy. As I turned away from the carriage
window I heard a confused drone of conversation, in which such terms as
"ligature," "suppuration," "cavity of the hear'ole," "styptic," and
"prelatic" were prominent. The last thing I heard was--"He hadn't got no
fraxur at all, leastways only a simple un. Mine was a compound fraxur."
One can understand these things. But what is an "agamemnon"?

It was dark when the train went away, and there was nothing more for me
to see on that day, but I had another sensation and a memorable one.
After dinner a little group, composed mainly of naval and military
officers on embarkation duty, was established round the smok