ess, the wife of a French officer, was regimental
headquarters that night. Its barns and outbuildings were the cleanest
in France according to individuals who had slept in so many barns that
they feel qualified to judge.

"Painfully sanitary," said a young lieutenant, who remarked that the
tile floor might make a stable smell sweeter but it hardly offered the
slumbering possibilities of a straw shakedown. While the men arranged
their blankets in those quarters, the horses grazed and rolled in green
paddocks fenced with white painted rails. The cooks got busy with the
evening meal and the men off duty started exploring the two nearby
villages.

For the American soldier, financial deals were always a part of these
explorations. It was seldom more than an hour after his arrival in a
populated village before the stock market and board of trade were in
full operation. These mobile establishments usually were set up in the
village square if headquarters did not happen to be located too close.
There were plenty to play the roles of bulls and bears; there was much
bidding and shouting of quotations.

The dealings were not in bushels of wheat or shares in oils or rails.
Delicacies were the bartered commodities and of these, eggs were the
strongest. The German intelligence service could have found no surer way
to trace the peregrinations of American troops about France, than to
follow up the string of eggless villages they left behind them.

As soon as billets were located, those without extra duty began the egg
canvass of the town. There was success for those who made the earliest
start and struck the section with the most prolific hens. Eggs were
bought at various prices before news of the American arrivals had caused
peasants to set up a new scale of charges. The usual late starter and
the victim of arrangements was the officer's striker who lost valuable
time by having to take care of his officer's luggage and get the latter
established in billets. It was then his duty to procure eggs for the
officer's mess.

By that time, all natural egg sources had been obliterated and the only
available supply was cornered by the soldiers' board of trade. The
desired breakfast food could be obtained in that place only. It was the
last and only resort of the striker, who is euphoniously known as a dog
robber. In the board of trade he would find soldiers with helmets full
of eggs which could be bought at anywhere from two to three times