deference to the poets), and the cricket which, in defiance of the
fable, sings with no humility and fills Space by himself.

Over yonder, there falls eddying from a poplar's peak a magpie--half
white, half black, like a shred of partly-burned paper.

The soldiers outstretch themselves luxuriously on the stone bench,
their eyes half closed, and bask in the sunshine that warms the
basin of the big yard till it is like a bath.

"That's seventeen days we've been here! After thinking we were going
away day after day!"

"One never knows," said Paradis, wagging his head and smacking his
lips.

Through the yard gate that opens on to the road we see a group of
poilus strolling, nose in air, devouring the sunshine; and then, all
alone, Tellurure. In the middle of the street he oscillates the
prosperous abdomen of which he is proprietor, and rocking on legs
arched like basket-handles, he expectorates in wide abundance all
around him.

"We thought, too, that we should be as badly off here as in the
other quarters. But this time it's real rest, both in the time it
lasts and the kind it is."

"You're not given too many exercises and fatigues."

"And between whiles you come in here to loll about."