e of Agriculture (that's what they called it--I dunno why), but
say! the heat comin' up from Tientsin was fryin'! It was jus' boilin',
bakin', an' bubblin'--worse a heap than anythin' we'd had in the
islands. We chucked away mos' every last thing on that hike but canteens
an' rifles. It was a darn fool thing ter do--the chuckin' was, o'
course--but it come out all right, 'cause extree supplies follered us up
on the Pie-ho in junks. Ain't that a funny name fer a river? Pie-ho?
Every time I got homesick I'd say that river, an' then I'd see Hogan's
Dairy Lunch fer Ladies an' Gents on the ol' Bowery an' hear the kid Mick
Hogan yellin': 'Draw one in the dark! White wings--let her flop!
Pie-ho!' an' it helped me a heap." Bill settled himself and stretched.

"But what I really wanted to tell youse about," said he, "was somepin'
that happened one o' these here cold nights. It gits almighty cold there
in September, an' it was sure the spookiest show I ever seen. Even Marm
Haggerty's table rappin's in Hester Street never come up to it.

"There was three of us fellers who ran in a bunch them days: me an' Buck
Dugan, my bunkie, from the Bowery like me (he was a corporal), an' Ranch
Fields--we called him that 'cause he always woiked on a ranch before he
come into the Fourteenth. They was great fellers, Buck an' Ranch was.
Buck, now--yer couldn't phase him, yer couldn't never phase him, no
matter what sort o' job yer put him up against he'd slide through slick
as a greased rat. The Cap'n, he knew it, too. Onct when we was fightin'
an' hadn't no men to spare, he lef' Buck on guard over about
twenty-five Boxer prisoners in a courtyard an' tells him he dassent let
one escape. But Buck wants ter git into the fight with the rest of the
boys, an' when he finds that if he leaves them Chinos loose in the yard
alone they'll git out plenty quick, what does he do but tie 'em tight up
by their pigtails to some posts. He knows they can't undo them tight
knots backwards, an' no Chink would cut his pigtail if he _did_ have a
knife--he'd die foist--an' so Buck skidoos off to the fight, an', sure
enough, when the Cap'n wants them Boxers, they're ready, tied up an'
waitin'. That was his sort, an', gee, but he was smart!

"We was all right int'rested in them Allies, o' course, an' watched 'em
clost; but, 'Bill,' says Buck ter me one night, 'its been woikin in me
nut that these here fellers ain't so different from what we know
a'ready. Excep' fer their