willow."

"I dunno as I'd prefer that to bird-scaring or suchlike," murmured
John.

Goaded by such beast-like placidity, Randle would forget all restraint
in trying to lash John into a worthy ambition.

It was for talking after "Lights out" that Randle and John were given
a punishment of three days' confinement to barracks. Randle, pouring
out a devastating torrent of words in the manner of a public orator,
bitterly denounced the punishment; John, who had merely snored (the
Captain said it took two to make a conversation), bore it with the
stoicism of ignorance.

Randle used to dream of Peace Day. He heard Sir DOUGLAS HAIG order his
Chief-of-Staff to summon Private Randle Janvers Binderbeck. "Release
him at once," said HAIG, in Randle's dream, "to resume his colossal
mission as leader and director of public opinion."

If John dreamed, it was of messy farmyards and draughty fields; but it
is improbable that he dreamed at all.

They both went to the War and faced the Hun. Randle thought of the
Hun only as a possible wrecker of his career, therefore as a foe of
mankind. John hardly thought of the Hun except in the course of coming
into contact with him, and then he used his bayonet with careless
zeal.

Randle steeled himself against the rough edges of soldiering. He