were no welfare workers at any
point, and if "Cafes" were numerous, we always paid well for our wine,
bread and "cafe au lait."

Coming from our own beloved America, where welfare workers greeted and
feted us at every station, this apparent lack of hospitality more
noticeable was difficult to understand. Possibly their impoverished
condition forbade the refreshment part; but cheers and vives are
possible, even to the poorest!

Tuesday morning, August 19th, found us paralleling the picturesque river
Yonne, which waters the vine-clad valleys of Burgundy. The sound of big
gun firing had reached us in the early dawn, and we were all a-thrill
at the thought of mighty things impending. Vaguely the words "Toul,"
"St. Mihiel," "Verdun," and "Metz," had filtered back from the flaming
front; and, like hounds tugging at the leash, we were eager for the fray.

At high noon we reached the quaint old town of Ancey-le-Franc,
Department of Yonne. Here we left the train and drew up in formation
along the roads and back through the lanes and fields. On the platform
of the "gare" our gallant Division Commander, Brigadier General Baarth,
attended by his staff, who had come on ahead of us by way of Paris,
greeted us warmly and reviewed the troops. We were the first American
soldiers to enter this area, and the village folks of Ancey-le-Franc,
Shacenyelles, Fontenoy, and Nuites sur Yonne, welcomed us to their
humble homes, barns and fields where we were to be billeted, with simple
and cordial hospitality.

CHAPTER V

IN BILLETS--DEPARTURE FOR FRONT

Stepping from the train into the streets of Ancey-le-Franc was verily
performing a miracle--with a single stride we were out of the twentieth
century and into the eighteenth! We were among our contemporary
ancestors, far on the road to yester century. Not a building under at
least one hundred years of age--not a street but trodden by the
Crusaders of St. Louis--the church of St. Sebastian dated 1673; and the
Chateau, founded in 1275, by that hardy old Knight of Malta, Duke de
Clermont Tonnere.

With characteristic good humor, ingenuity and tact, officers and men
adjusted themselves to their unusual surroundings, merging into the
various billets allotted to them, along lines of least resistance. By
nightfall Buddie owned the town! Meriting it by sheer force of good
nature, gentlemanly deportment, and a willingness to follow the adage of
the ancient poet: "Si fueris Romae Romano vi