Ian Hay

“ She acts as adjutant to madame, and rivals her mother as a deliverer of sustained and rapid recitative. She milks the cows, feeds the pigs, and dragoons her young brothers and sisters. But though she works from morning till night, she has always time for a smiling salutation to all ranks. ”

“ Over four million British soldiers have crossed the Straits of Dover during the past four years, and of those who come back there will be few who will not cherish some pleasant memory of life behind the line, in rest billets among people—poor people; chiefly women, children, and old men—whose amazing faculty for cheerful companionship no anxiety could depress, and no suffering abate. ”

“ Yet she is seldom cross—except possibly when the soldats collect her fallen apples and pelt the pigs with the cores—and no accumulations of labour can sap her energy. She is up by half-past 4 every morning yet she never appears anxious to go to bed at night. The last sound which sleepy subalterns hear is Madame's voice, uplifted in steady discourse to the circle round the stove. She has been doing this day in, day out, since the combatants settled down to trench warfare. Every few weeks brings a fresh crop of tenants, with fresh peculiarities and unknown proclivities ”

“ All day long he is at work, bullying very large horses, digging, hoeing, even ploughing. He is very much a boy, for all that, whistles excruciatingly—usually English music-hall melodies—grins sheepishly at the officers, and is prepared at any moment to abandon the most important tasks in order to watch a man cleaning a rifle or oiling a machine-gun. ”

“ A farmhouse, accommodating some 200 British soldiers and their officers. The men sleep in the barn, their meals being prepared for them upon the company cooker, which stands in the muddy road outside. The officers occupy any room which may be available within the farmhouse itself. ”