"Hello! Sky-pilot!"




CHAPTER XI

VIVE LA FRANCE ET AL BELGE!


We had only been about ten weeks in France when we were moved out of the
trenches and placed in Ypres in billets. Some of us were actually billeted
in the city itself, and others of us had a domicil in the environs.

Ypres, or Wipers, as Tommy Atkins called it, was then considered a "hot"
spot. The Germans say no one ever comes back from Ypres without a hole in
him. Tommy says, when he curses, "Oh, go to ----; you can't last any longer
than a snow ball in Ypres!"

At this time Ypres was not yet destroyed by the enemy. I have seen many
cities of the world. I have seen the beauties of Westminster Abbey, the Law
Courts; I have seen the tropical wonders of the West Indies; I have seen
the marvels of the Canadian Rockies, but I have never seen greater beauty
of architecture and form than in the city of Ypres. There was the Cloth
Hall, La Salle des Draperies with its massive pillars, its delicate
traceries, its Gothic windows and its air of age-long gray-toned serenity.

There was Ypres Cathedral! A place of silence that breathed of Heaven
itself. There was its superb bell tower, and its peal of silver-tongued
chimes. There were wonderful Old World houses, quaint steps and turns and