gave a fello something to think
about. After a while tho you got used to it just like you do to
Niagra Falls or a steam radiator. Then there wasnt anything to do but
get cold an ask about the time. A couple of doboys got tellin each
other what kind of a dinner theyd order if they was some place where
they wasnt. Whenever you get uncomfortable enuff a couple of fellos
like that always show up. I slid down in the bottom of the trench
where it was a little warmer an tried to smoke a cigaret under my
hand. I must have dropped off to sleep cause the next thing I knew I
was all doubled up in the bottom of the trench an half froze. I heard
somebody say "Fifteen minites more." The guns was goin it harder than
ever. If we hadnt won that scrap wed have had to knock off the war for
a couple of months till they got some more amunishun.

Goin over wasnt much. Id read so many things about how you felt just
before an just when an just after that I tried to figger just how I
did feel. I was so cold I couldnt feel anything tho. I was thinkin
about this when somebody says "Snap out of it ahead there. There
goin." An there was the Lootenant boostin the Major out of the trench
an a lot of doboys with their rifles in there hands hurryin along the
top an disappearin in the fog.

[Illustration: "THERE WAS THE LOOTENANT BOOSTIN THE MAJOR OUT OF THE
TRENCH"]

Just as we got out of the trench the worst noise started I ever heard.
It made all the shootin that went before sound like a fello drummin on
the table with a couple of knives. Even the machine guns was in it
this time. They sounded like a rivitin competishun in a ship yard. I
heard somebody say "There goes our machine gun barrage. I hope they
get it over our heads." He struck me as a pretty sensible fello.

Somebody had marked the place up with tape like a tennis court. We
followed along one of these till we came to another tape runnin the
same way as the trenches. There was a lot of doboys lyin down there an
a lot of others comin up thru the fog, half runnin, half walkin an all
of them stooped over like they was carryin something heavy.

In front it was just fog. We could see red flashes runnin thru it like
bubbles in boilin water where the shells from our barrage was bustin.
The fog didnt go very high cause you could make out a little blue sky
once in a while. Then right thru the top of it came tearin out a
regular fourth of July celebrashun of Fritz fireworks. They were just
lik