e. One was a schoolmaster and the
other an architect. They were "bunkies," pals, chums.

"When did you enlist?" I asked.

"In early September, after the Marne retreat. We thought that it was
our duty, then; but we've been a long time arriving."

"How do you like it?"

"We are not yet masters of the language, we find," said the
schoolmaster, "though I had a pretty good book knowledge of it."

"I'm learning the gestures fast, though," said the architect.

"The French are glad to see us," said the schoolmaster. "They call us
the Keetcheenaires. I fancy they thought we were a long time coming.
But now we are here, I think they will find that we can keep up our
end."

They had the fresh complexions which come from healthy, outdoor
work. There was something engaging in their boyishness and their
views. For they had a wider range of interests than that professional
soldier, Mr. Atkins, these citizens who had taken up arms. They knew
what trench-fighting meant by work in practice trenches at home.

"Of course it will not be quite the same; theory and practice never
are," said the schoolmaster.

"We ought to be well grounded in the principles," said the architect
thoughtfully, "and they say that in a week or two of actual experience
you will have mastered the details that could not be taught in
England. Then, too, having shells burst around you will be strange at
first. But I think our battalion will give a good account of itself, sir.
All the Bucks men have!" There crept in the pride of regiment, of
locality, which is so characteristically Anglo-Saxon.

They change life at the front, these new army men. If a carpenter, a
lawyer, a sign-painter, an accountant, is wanted, you have only to
speak to a new army battalion commander and one is forthcoming--a
millionaire, too, for that matter, who gets his shilling a day for serving
his country. Their intelligence permitted the architect and the
schoolmaster to have no illusions about the character of the war they
had to face. The pity was that such a fine force as the new army,
which had not become trench stale, could not have a free space in
which to make a great turning movement, instead of having to go
against that solid battle front from Switzerland to the North Sea.

We have heard enough--quite enough for most of us?--about the
German Crown Prince. But there is also a prince with the British army
in France. No lieutenant looks younger for his years than this one in