lying before us, laid waste by rain.

"--orderly in waiting to the Road Department, then at the Bakery,
then cyclist to the Revictualing Department of the Eleventh
Battery."

"--every morning he had a note to take to the Service de
l'Intendance, to the Gunnery School, to the Bridges Department, and
in the evening to the A.D. and the A.T.--that was all."

"--when I was coming back from leave,' said that orderly, 'the
women cheered us at all the level-crossing gates that the train
passed.' 'They took you for soldiers,' I said."

"--'Ah,' I said, 'you're called up, then, are you?' 'Certainly,'
he says to me, 'considering that I've been a round of meetings in
America with a Ministerial deputation. P'raps it's not exactly being
called up, that? Anyway, mon ami,' he says, 'I don't pay any rent,
so I must be called up.' 'And me--'"

"To finish," cries Volpatte, silencing the hum with his authority of
a traveler returned from "down there," "to finish, I saw a whole
legion of 'em all together at a blow-out. For two days I was a sort
of helper in the kitchen of one of the centers of the C.O.A., 'cos
they couldn't let me do nothing while waiting for my reply, which
didn't hurry, seeing they'd sent another inquiry and a super-inquiry
after it, and the reply had too many halts to make in each office,
going and coming.

"In short, I was cook in the shop. Once I waited at table, seeing