There they attend devoutly on the wisdom of their
seniors, who treat them, so it seemed, with affectionate
confidence.
FRONT THAT NEVER SLEEPS
When the day's reports are in, all along the front, there is a
man, expert in the meaning of things, who boils them down for
that cold official digest which tells us that "There was the
usual grenade fighting at------. We made appreciable advance
at------," &c. The original material comes in sheaves and
sheaves, where individual character and temperament have full
and amusing play. It is reduced for domestic consumption like
an overwhelming electric current. Otherwise we could not take
it in. But at closer range one realizes that the Front never
sleeps; never ceases from trying new ideas and weapons which,
so soon as the Boche thinks he has mastered them, are
discarded for newer annoyances and bewilderments.
"The Boche is above all things observant and imitative," said
one who counted quite a few Boches dead on the front of his
sector. "When you present him with a new idea, he thinks it
over for a day or two. Then he presents his riposte."
"Yes, my General. That was exactly what he did to me when I
--did so and so. He was quite silent for a day. Then--he stole
my patent."
"And you?"
"I had a notion that he'd do that, so I had changed the
specification.
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