?" They are so happy and
cheerful, so grateful for every little service, so eager to return to
the firing line in order to "get the war over and done with." "We've
promised to be home by Christmas," they say, "and that turkey and
plum-pudding will be spoilt if we don't turn up."

Home by Christmas! That is Tommy Atkins' idea of a "Non-stop run to
Berlin"--the facetious notice he printed in chalk on the troop trains at
Boulogne as, singing "It's a long way to Tipperary," he rolled away to
the greatest battles that have ever seared the face of Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Extract from _The Times_ report of the German Emperor's
Army Orders, dated Headquarters, Aix-la-Chapelle, August 19th, 1914.]

[Footnote B: Copyright Chappell & Co., Ltd., 41 East 34th St., New
York.]

[Footnote C: _Daily Express_, Sept. 25th, 1914.]

[Footnote D: The Irish Guards were created entirely on the initiative of
Queen Victoria, and as a recognition of the fine achievements of "Her
brave Irish" in the South African War.]

[Footnote E: Gunner Batey, Royal Garrison Artillery, writes of a
comrade, Gunner Spencer Mann: "He seems in his glory during the
fighting. He fears nothing, and is always shouting, 'Into them, lads:
the sooner we get through, the sooner we'll get home.'"]

[Footnote F: "The German officers are a rum lot," writes Sergeant W.
Holmes; "they lead from the rear all the time."]

[Footnote G: "When they are working hardest their rations would not do
for a tom-tit," says Sergeant J. Baker.]

[Footnote H: This letter was written to the son of a London vicar, and
published in _The Times_, Sept. 12th, 1914.]

Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton and New York

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOMMY ATKINS AT WAR***

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