d died awhile ago and he'd never see her again. When he
started cryin' I was so sorry for him I couldn't stand it any longer,
sir. So I killed the poor blighter."

Our men in the trenches, and out of them, up to the waist in water
sometimes, lying in slimy dugouts, lice--eaten, rat-haunted, on the
edge of mine-craters, under harassing fire, with just the fluke of luck
between life and death, seized upon any kind of joke as an excuse for
laughter, and many a time in ruins and in trenches and in dugouts I have
heard great laughter. It was the protective armor of men's souls. They
knew that if they did not laugh their courage would go and nothing would
stand between them and fear.

"You know, sir," said a sergeant-major, one day, when I walked with him
down a communication trench so waterlogged that my top-boots were full
of slime, "it doesn't do to take this war seriously."

And, as though in answer to him, a soldier without breeches and with
his shirt tied between his legs looked at me and remarked, in a
philosophical way, with just a glint of comedy in his eyes:

"That there Grand Fleet of ours don't seem to be very active, sir. It's
a pity it don't come down these blinkin' trenches and do a bit of work!"

"Having a clean-up, my man?" said a brigadier to a soldier trying to
wash in a basin about the size of a kitchen mug.

"Yes, sir," said the man, "and I wish I was a blasted canary."

One of the most remarkable battles on the front was fought by a
battalion of Worcesters for the benefit of two English members of
Parliament. It was not a very big battle, but most dramatic while it
lasted. The colonel (who had a sense of humor) arranged it after a
telephone message to his dugout telling him that two politicians were
about to visit his battalion in the line, and asking him to show them
something interesting.

"Interesting?" said the colonel. "Do they think this war is a peep-show
for politicians? Do they want me to arrange a massacre to make a London
holiday?" Then his voice changed and he laughed. "Show them something
interesting? Oh, all right; I dare say I can do that."

He did. When the two M. P.'s arrived, apparently at the front-line
trenches, they were informed by the colonel that, much to his regret,
for their sake, the enemy was just attacking, and that his men were
defending their position desperately.

"We hope for the best," he said, "and I think there is just a chance
that you will escape with your