shower of stick-bombs burst with a formidable crash from one side. A
line of Germans was seen, coming steadily along in single file against
the other end of the trench. A similar shower of crashes descended from
that direction. A machine-gun began to crackle down the trench. Our men
fought till their bombs, and all the German bombs they could find, were
gone. Finally the Germans began to gain on them from both ends, and the
attack here, too, was over. They were driven from the trench.




CHAPTER XXVII

A HARD TIME

_France, November 28th._


He is having a hard time. I do not see that there is any reason to make
light of it. If you do, you rob him of the credit which, if ever man
deserved it, he ought to be getting now--the credit for putting a good
face upon it under conditions which, to him, especially at the
beginning, were sheer undiluted misery. Some people think that to tell
the truth in these matters would hinder recruiting. Well, if it did, it
would only mean that the young Australians who stay at home are guilty
of greater meanness than one has ever thought. For the Australian here
has plunged straight into an existence more like that of a duck in a
farmyard drain than to any other condition known or dreamed of in his
own sunny land. He is resisting it not only passably but well. And if
you want to know the reason--as far as any general reason can be