What could Napoleon himself have
done under the circumstances? One is inclined to suspect that that
volcanic megalomaniac would have perished of spontaneous combustion of
the brain.
However, trench life has its alleviations. There is The Day's Work,
for instance. Each of us has his own particular "stunt," in which he
takes that personal and rather egotistical pride which only increasing
proficiency can bestow.
The happiest--or at least, the busiest--people just now are the
"Specialists." If you are engaged in ordinary Company work, your
energies are limited to keeping watch, dodging shells, and improving
trenches. But if you are what is invidiously termed an "employed" man,
life is full of variety.
Do you observe that young officer sitting on a ration-box at his
dug-out door, with his head tied up in a bandage? That is Second
Lieutenant Lochgair, whom I hope to make better known to you in time.
He is a chieftain of high renown in his own inaccessible but extensive
fastness; but out here, where every man stands on his own legs, and
not his grandfather's, he is known simply as "Othello." This is due to
the fact that Major Kemp once likened him to the earnest young actor
of tradition, who blacked himself all over to ensure proficiency in
the playing of that part. For he is above all things an enthusiast in
his profession. Last night he volunteered to go out and "listen" for a
suspected mine some fifty yards from the German trenches.
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