ills, equally brave and more eager
because it was denied them, never heard the sound of guns except on
the target range.

This is not a treatise on International Relations. It is not a
chronology of battles. It is not a memorial of brave deeds. It is
merely a few impressions of Pvt. William Smith, Buck, placed in a
situation so new, so incomparable, that it had wiser men than he
guessing. He was one of those who left their reasons for being "there"
to be analyzed by men not so occupied in the business of keeping
alive. He would have been bored to death if you had tried to explain
them to him anyway. His loyalty and patriotism were so unquestioned
that its discussion was absurd. Sentimental, yet so sensitive to
obvious sentimentality that he died many times making fun of the
things that he was dying for.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Marched till my pack gained a hundred an fifty pounds"

"Everybody had a beard on both sides of his face"

"Beat the buttons off them with a big board"

"Everyone tucks there napkins under there chins"

"They just ishued us overseers caps an rapped leggins"

"Will have to lean them up agenst something"

"Tyin it under your chin like a bib"

"Mike Whozis, the Captins orderly"

"Ive found the first real use for my tin derby"

"Another boiler blew up right in front of us"

"Lem Wattles what never had his name in the paper"

"Were livin right up in the trenches now"

"It doesnt look as if it had ever exploded"

"There was the Lootenant boostin the Major out of the trench"

"I stuck my head around the bush"

"You ought to have seen those two Lootenants come down"

"'Do you happen to have any lemonade?'"

"Tried to make a blanket roll in six inches of mud"

"All I do is scratch, scratch, scratch"

"The people here wear wooden shoes an have no shapes"

"A German bed is like a loaf of bread thats rose to much"

"They take off there hats to us"

"Levels it off with a piece of bread"

"They lined us all up"

"That little snub nosed thing across the street"

"Im going to be just plain Mr. Bill Smith"

_"Same Old Bill, Eh Mable!"_

_Dere Mable:_

Were in sunny France at last. I cant tell you much about it yet on
account of its avin been so foggy since we got here. We didnt deboat
in Paris as I was expectin. We sailed up a river to a town with a wall
around it and got off there. I dont know what the wall was for unless
to keep people in. They certinly w