call out,
"Well, Bob, how do you like your scenery now?" Bob was silent, perhaps
because he needed all his breath for walking, like the small steamboat
that put on such a big whistle that it hadn't power enough to navigate
and blow its whistle at the same time. But we did enjoy being sent on
ahead as scouts to find out the lay of the country. We would travel
till we came across some out-of-the-way "pub" or village inn, and there
we would stay till it was time to go back to camp; then we would rejoin
the battalion and give a lot of information that we had made up between
us.

CHAPTER II

There was one big event that we will remember for the rest of our
lives, and that was our review by the King and Lord Kitchener. We were
reviewed on Sir John Moore's Plain, and the entire Second Division of
Infantry as well as the Artillery was out that day; all the roads
leading to the Plain were packed with troops, and as we all marched
down and lined up in review order, it was the biggest bunch of soldiers
I have ever seen together. There were somewhere between fifteen and
sixteen thousand men, and when they were marching with fixed bayonets
it looked like a sea of steel.

After lining up we had a long wait, and all at once a thunderstorm came
up. The rain came down in pailfuls, and soon all the boys were singing
"Throw out the life line, some one is sinking today." One of the boys
near me said, "I don't see why the devil no one has ever thought of
putting a roof over this blamed island." Well, just when we were in
the middle of our song and the whole fifteen thousand men were roaring
it out at the top of their voices, the King's automobile went by. We
were soon put into marching order and the march past the King and Lord
Kitchener commenced. When we got the order "Eyes right!" we looked at
them both--the King was a smaller man than we expected to see, and
Kitchener looked older than we thought he would be. But oh, what eyes
Kitchener had! they seemed to be looking every man straight in the
face--the boys all noticed the same thing, and spoke of it afterwards.
After the march past the officers were called up and congratulated on
the showing the men had made, and they passed it on to us. Well, away
we went back to camp, wet and tired, but delighted over the events of
the day and we all felt proud of being "Britishers." When we got back
to camp and were talking things over, we all agreed that our inspection
was a