preserved by Barque, that a skillful rifle-shot with a blank cartridge
has stretched to the capacity of two and a half liters; and Bertrand's
famous great knife with the horn handle.

Among the heaving swarm there are sidelong glances that skim these
curiosities, and then each man resumes "eyes right," devotes himself to
his belongings, and concentrates upon getting it in order.

They are mournful belongings, indeed. Everything made for the soldier
is commonplace, ugly, and of bad quality; from his cardboard boots,
attached to the uppers by a criss-cross of worthless thread, to his
badly cut, badly shaped, and badly sewn clothes, made of shoddy and
transparent cloth--blotting-paper--that one day of sunshine fades and
an hour of rain wets through, to his emaciated leathers, brittle as
shavings and torn by the buckle spikes, to his flannel underwear that
is thinner than cotton, to his straw-like tobacco.

Marthereau is beside me, and he points to our comrades: "Look at them,
these poor chaps gaping into their bags o' tricks. You'd say it was a
mothers' meeting, ogling their kids. Hark to 'em. They're calling for
their knick-knacks. Tiens, that one, the times he says 'My knife!' same
as if he was calling 'Lon,' or 'Charles,' or 'Dolphus.' And you know
it's impossible for them to make their load any less. Can't be did. It
isn't that they don't want--our job isn't one that makes us any
stronger, eh? But they can't. Too proud of 'em."

The burdens to be borne are formidable, and one knows well enough,
parbleu, that every item makes them more severe, each little addition
is one bruise more.

For it is not merely a matter of what one buries in his pockets and
pouches. To complete the burden there is what one carries on his back.
The knapsack is the trunk and even the cupboard; and the old soldier is
familiar with the art of enlarging it almost miraculously by the
judicious disposal of his household goods and provisions. Besides the
regulation and obligatory contents--two tins of pressed beef, a dozen
biscuits, two tablets of coffee and two packets of dried soup, the bag
of sugar, fatigue smock, and spare boots--we find a way of getting in
some pots of jam, tobacco, chocolate, candles, soft-soled shoes; and
even soap, a spirit lamp, some solidified spirit, and some woolen
things. With the blanket, sheet, tentcloth, trenching-tool,
water-bottle, and an item of the field-cooking kit, [note 1] the burden
gets heavier and tal