He said, "Oh, yes, you are!"

I answered. "Oh, no, I'm not!"--But I went.

We lined up outside with rifles and bayonets, 120 rounds of
ammunition, wearing our tin hats, and the march to church began. After
marching about five kilos, we turned off the road into an open field.
At one end of this field the Chaplain was standing in a limber. We
formed a semi-circle around him. Over head there was a black speck
circling round and round in the sky. This was a German Fokker. The
Chaplain had a book in his left hand-left eye on the book-right eye on
the aeroplane. We Tommies were lucky, we had no books, so had both
eyes on the aeroplane.

After church parade we were marched back to our billets, and played
football all afternoon.



CHAPTER IV

"INTO THE TRENCH"

The next morning the draft was inspected by our General, and we were
assigned to different companies. The boys in the Brigade had nicknamed
this general Old Pepper, and he certainly earned the sobriquet. I was
assigned to B Company with another American named Stewart.

For the next ten days we "rested," repairing roads for the Frenchies,