Stretcher Bearers at the Double - ElectricCanadian.com

244 GERMANY, ENGLAND & HOME
Wednesday, November 27th - -At Isnes. Still "resting"
-on
drills, parades and kit cleaning. The people of the village were
friendly enough, but their extreme poverty and misery made
them appear almost bovine mentally. They had subsisted on
next-to-nothing for over four years and malnutrition was very
evident in their appearance and actions. The only time we saw
any of them break through their mental fog was when Andy
Patterson opened a Christmas parcel he had received from
Canada. The parcel contained cakes, cigars, candy, tobacco, socks,
etc., and when the poor people where he was billeted saw the
contents, they behaved like starving children. Pat gave the old
man some cigars and tabac, and the old lady and daughter some
cake and candy. It had been four years since these poor unfor
tunates last saw anything like this, and they promptly broke
down and sobbed as they clutched the little gifts to their
breasts.
This same fellow Patterson was one of the few Fifth men who
slept in a bed while at Isnes - -and when we say "slept",
we
mean SLEPT ! About the middle of our last night in the village,
Pat was sleeping so soundly he didn t hear the farmer s daughter
enter his bedroom, tiptoe to his bed and kiss him long and pas
sionately on the lips.
He didn t wake even when she made her
way to the kitchen to tend the laundry Pat had confided to her
care the day before. After about a half-hour in the kitchen, the
amorous mademoiselle returned to the bedroom and repeated the
osculatory performance at additional length and with added in
Pat slept blissfully on and didn t awaken until the girl s
tensity.
caresses clogged his breathing apparatus. By the time he got his
eyes opened he saw what he took to be a nightgowned ghost
slipping out through the bedroom door. Early next morning the
unit marched out of Isnes and Pat didn t mention his experience
until many weeks had elapsed. He chose as confidant the identical
sergeant who had been his bedmate during the delectable adven
ture. Pat was dumbfounded when he learned that his bed pal
had been wide awake during the whole performance and had
watched the rather lop-sided love scene through half-closed eyes.
Pat s bedmate had been very much chagrined over the onesidedness
of the whole affair, particularly because Pat had slept
next to the wall and it was necessary for the girl to lean over him
to kiss the lips of the lucky staff-sergeant.