been flung away by
our boys in the hot weather) and khaki puttees.

The boy came to a stop opposite, laid down his barrow and wiped (p. 225)
the sweat from his brow with a dirty hand.

"Bonjour!" said the boy.

"Bonjour, petit garcon," Stoner replied, proud of his French which is
limited to some twenty words.

The boy asked for a cigarette; a souvenir. We told him to proceed on
his journey, we were weary of souvenir hunters. The barrow moved on,
the wheel creaking rustily and the boy whistled a light-hearted tune.
That his request had not been granted did not seem to trouble him.

Two barges, coupled and laden with coal rounded a corner of the canal.
They were drawn by five persons, a woman with a very white sunbonnet
in front. She was followed by a barefooted youth in khaki tunic, a
hunch-backed man with heavy projecting jowl and a hare-lipped youth of
seventeen or eighteen. Last on the tug rope was an oldish man with a
long white beard parted in the middle and rusty coloured at the tips.
A graceful slip of a girl, lithe as a marsh sapling, worked the tiller
of the rear barge and she took no notice of the soldiers on the shore
or in the water.

"Going to bathe, Stoner?" I asked. (p. 226)

"When the barges go by," he answered and I twitted him on his modesty.

Goliath, six foot three of magnificent bone and muscle was in the
canal. Swanking his trudgeon stroke he surged through the dirty water
like an excited whale, puffing and blowing. Bill, losing in every
stroke, tried to race him, but retired beaten and very happy. The cold
water rectified his temper, he was now in a most amiable humour. Pryor
was away down the canal on the barge, when he came to the bridge he
would dive off and race some of Section 4 boys back to the spot where
I was sitting. There is an eternal and friendly rivalry between
Sections 3 and 4.

"Stoner, going in?" I asked my comrade, who was standing stark on the
bank.

"In a minute," he answered.

"Now," I said.

"Get in yourself ----"

"Presently," I replied, "but you go in now, unless you want to get
shoved in."

He dived gracefully and came up near the other bank spluttering and
shaking the water off his hair. Bill challenged him to a race and both
struck off down the stream, as they swam passing jokes with their (p. 227)
comrades on the bank. In the course of ten minutes they returned,
perched proudly on the stern of a barge and making read