He was a strikingly handsome figure in his uniform as he started out upon his round of farewell calls.
“And you’ll think of me every single minute when you’re in those stupid old trenches?” questioned the sweet young thing upon whom he first called.
“And you’ll kiss my picture every night?”
“Twice a night,” he vowed rashly, patting the pretty head on his shoulder.
“And write me long, long letters?” she insisted.
“Every spare minute I have,” he reassured her, and hurried away to the next name on his list.
There were ten in all who received his promises.
When it was over he sighed. “I hope,” he murmured wearily, “there won’t be much fighting to do ‘over there.’ I’m going to be so tremendously busy.”
The adjutant was lecturing to the subalterns of the battalion.
“In the field,” he said, “it is now incumbent upon an officer to make himself look as much like a man as possible.”
“That is, I mean,” he explained, “as much like a soldier as possible.”
One of the brightest young business men of Pittsburgh enrolled as a volunteer and by his quick intelligence soon won an officer’s commission. He led his troops in the attack on Bouresches, and so hot was the fight that a major was sent from headquarters to learn the worst. He met the young officer coming out of the town with part of his company. The major happened to be a pompous gentleman, well known for his egotism. Having no faith in anyone to “finish a job,” he asked the young officer:
“In our hands, sir. I left a detachment to guard the town,” replied the young officer.
“Any boches left?” was the next question.
The young officer hesitated and then said:
A lurid interlude followed. “Did not your orders from me say that no Germans were to be left there?”
“Then why in hell have you disobeyed my orders, hey?” asked the irate major.
The young Pittsburgher looked the major in the eye and replied: “The burying patrol has not arrived yet, sir.”
The recruiting had been good and the orator of the occasion felt well satisfied with himself. It would be graceful, he thought, to speak a few concluding words to the crowd of men who had dedicated themselves to “king and country.”
“And what will you think when you see the flag of the empire standing out from its staff above the field of battle?” the speaker demanded, his face alight with patriotic fervor.