ked.

"Yes," I replied. "Pryor said that her ankles were abnormally thick."

"Pryor's a fool," Bill exclaimed.

"But they really looked thick----"

"You're a bigger fool than 'im!"

"I didn't know you had fallen in love with the girl," I said "How did
it happen?"

"Blimey, I'm not in love," said my mate, "but I like a girl with a
good 'eart. Twas out in the horchard in the farm I first met 'er. (p. 288)
I was out pullin' apples, pinchin' them if you like to say so, and I
was shakin' the apples from the branches. I had to keep my eyes on the
farm to see that nobody seen me while I shook. It takes a devil of a
lot of strength to rumble apples off a tree when you're shakin' a
trunk that's stouter than the bread basket of a Bow butcher. All at
once I saw the girl of the farm comin' runnin' at me with a stick.
Round to the other side of the tree I ran like lightnin', and after me
she comes. Then round to the other side went I----"

"Which side?" I asked.

"The side she wasn't on," said Bill. "After me she came and round to
her side I 'opped----"

"Who was on the other side now?" I inquired.

"I took good care that she was always on the other side until I saw
what she was up to with the stick," said Bill. "But d'yer know what
the stick was for? 'Twas to help me to bring down the apples. Savve.
They're great women, the women of France," concluded my mate.

The women of France! what heroism and fortitude animates them in every
shell-shattered village from Souchez to the sea! What labours (p. 289)
they do in the fields between the foothills of the Pyrenees and the
Church of ----, where the woman nearest the German lines sells rum
under the ruined altar! The plough and sickle are symbols of peace and
power in the hands of the women of France in a land where men destroy
and women build. The young girls of the hundred and one villages which
fringe the line of destruction, proceed with their day's work under
shell fire, calm as if death did not wait ready to pounce on them at
every corner.

I have seen a woman in one place take her white horse from the pasture
when shells were falling in the field and lead the animal out again
when the row was over; two of her neighbours were killed in the same
field the day before. One of our men spoke to her and pointed out that
the action was fraught with danger. "I am convinced of that," she
replied. "It is madness to remain here," she was told, and she asked
"Where can I g