t 45, though looking more like 55, quite grizzled,
furrowed face, and a stubby mustache, thickly stained with tobacco
juice, decorated his upper lip. He was chewing tobacco as if his life
depended on the quantity of juice he could extract from each mouthful,
and dried tricklings of the liquid ornamented his chin. As he came
toward us his face was turned upward, taking in the scrimmage in the
sky. "What's them bloody things?" he asked, indicating the air sausages.
He had evidently just come up the line fresh from England. I told him
and he jerked out an indelible pencil and made a note, sucking the lead
of the pencil two or three times before he finished, and this habit,
continuous with him, kept his lip constantly stained with the indelible
lead.

Just then a mighty roar of delight went up from the entire crowd, as our
bird gobbled the last remaining sausage, but our indelible friend paid
no attention to the uproar,--he simply took out his little book and made
another note.

The "Fall-in!" whistle was blown and we were a bit surprised as well as
amazed to see our strange friend fall in in front, still chewing
vigorously; he evidently didn't know or didn't care a damn whether it
was against the rules to chew tobacco when parading. The Sergeant-Major
eyed him curiously and then stepping to his side whispered something; we
knew he was explaining to him that he was infringing orders, but a
non-commissioned officer is not permitted to bawl out another non-com in
the presence of the men. Hastily bestowing the quid in his hand he
stood to attention. Roll call finished and we retired to our bunks.

Early next morning when we emerged from our quarters the first person we
saw was the odd-appearing individual that had joined up with us the
night before, with his inevitable note book in his hand. He was still
busily sucking his indelible pencil in the corner of his mouth, and, in
the light of the morning sun, there was nothing about his mug that was
any more prepossessing than appeared in the twilight of the previous
night. He also had on the sleeve of his coat a crown, indicating that he
was to be our acting Sergeant-Major in the absence of the regular
officer, and when not so acting, he was to be the First Sergeant of the
section.

The official activity of our new friend commenced to be evidenced in a
number of ways; he lost no time in making us understand that he was
First Sergeant. "Sergeant Grant, detail two men for the co