plugged.

The whole long day passes quietly. We are almost content with our lot. We
laugh a good deal, we joke, we play the eternal penny ante, and possibly
the letters come.

Just before stand-to at sundown the quiet will be broken. The artillery
behind our lines will open up with great activity. We notice that the big
shells only are being used and we notice that they are concentrating
entirely on the German front line, immediately ahead and to the right and
left of where we have our position. We are more than a little interested.
There is decidedly something in the wind. We wait, but nothing happens. We
have stand-to and get our reliefs for guard.

Every man has his bayonet fixed for the night. We give it a little extra
polish. It may be needed soon. There is no outward show of nervousness. No
man speaks to his neighbor of his immediate thoughts. We begin to smoke a
little more rapidly, perhaps. We might have had a cigarette an hour during
the heavy shelling of the day. During the night we will increase to one
every half-hour, every twenty minutes. We light a fag, take a few puffs and
throw it away. That is the only evidence of nerves.

We are in a state of complete ignorance as to what the outcome of this
shelling may be. We have seen it just as severe before and nothing but a
skirmish result. Some of us have seen shelling of the same intensity and
have gone over the top and into a terrible mélange. We are always kept in
ignorance; no commands and no orders are given. Did we know for hours
ahead that at such and such a time we would go over the top, our nerves
could hardly stand the strain. The noise, the terrific noise of our
artillery bombarding the German trenches is hard enough on our nerves; what