One or two obstreperous animals who objected to the game ran away with
their riders and tried to brush them off on the apple trees. The
contestants were all as hard as nails and could stand any amount of
rough usage such as they received in this gladiator-like contest.
After the games were over we adjourned to the Colonel's billet for
afternoon tea and music. The Colonel was exceedingly fond of his
gramophone, and, being troubled somewhat with insomnia, would
sometimes rise in the middle of the night and put on a few of his
favorite records, much to the annoyance of the rest of the staff
billeted in the same house. Knowing this, one did not think it so
strange as it might otherwise have seemed, that, during the course of
a move of the division, the gramophone fell from a wagon and was run
over by six other wagons. What did seem mysterious was the fact that
none of the drivers had seen the gramophone in the road until it had
been crushed as flat as a board.
When I visited the divisional cavalry a few months later the Colonel
was still carrying forty dollars' worth of records with him but had
not yet ordered a new gramophone.
Gradually the Canadian division moved on. One night we found them in
the neighborhood of Winnizeele and Oudezeele, hamlets near the Belgian
border. In searching for a battalion headquarters we asked one soldier
sitting in front of a barn what village this was and received the not
uncommon answer "I don't know.
Pages:
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94