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A FINAL DAY ON THE WESTERN FRONT 375
I remained at Barbas for another four hours and took the
last photographs destined to appear in this book. Wherever
I turned, I found picturesque and warhke subjects for my
camera. In the open space referred to, officers with maps in
hand stood gathered in httle groups. Outside a house, several
horses stood ready for the orderlies. In the next street, which
was part of the great main road, an ammunition column had
halted. It extended from one end of the village to the other
and a bit beyond as well. The wagons were crowded with
artillerymen, full of life and in good spirits as usual, and they
usually asked for a photograph when I came along with my
camera. On the fore-carriage of a gun sat a man fast asleep.
In the outskirts of the village two companies of reserves had
halted and were evidently waiting to take their place in the
firing line.
" How are you, boys ? " I asked.
" Oh, first-rate, but it’s a nuisance to have to lie and wait
like this."
" What are you waiting for ?
"
" Why to go ahead and fight, of course."
Here I found a chaplain, a strikingly humorous and amusing
man, who knew thoroughly how to get on with the soldiers ;
but then he had been in war before, in Pekin and German
South-West Africa. As we stood chatting on the road, we
were gradually surrounded by a narrowing circle of grey
jackets, who listened intently to what we had to say. In the
end they must have numbered fully 150, and there, in the
centre, stood the pastor throwing out jests and calling them
his grey field-mice, and they all laughed gaily at his whimsical
ideas.
" What do they do for a living in peace time, I wonder, all
these soldiers ? " I asked.
" Oh," said the pastor, " there are all sorts, loafers and
county councillors, blacksmiths and professors, all jumbled
together.
" What is your occupation, my lad ? " he asked of one who
stood near, as he seized him by the collar.
" Lecturer," he answered.
" What subject ?
"
" Comparative philology of modern European languages."
" Excellent ! There you see, doctor, what use the philology
of modern European languages can be put to !
"
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