Pagina 401 de 3800

"Where the devil have the leg bands been shoved to?" said an

orderly, running behind the cart and fumbling in the back of it.

And he also passed on with the wagon. Then came some merry

soldiers who had evidently been drinking.

"And then, old fellow, he gives him one in the teeth with the

butt end of his gun..." a soldier whose greatcoat was well tucked

up said gaily, with a wide swing of his arm.

"Yes, the ham was just delicious..." answered another with a loud

laugh. And they, too, passed on, so that Nesvitski did not learn

who had been struck on the teeth, or what the ham had to do with

it.

"Bah! How they scurry. He just sends a ball and they think

they'll all be killed," a sergeant was saying angrily and

reproachfully.

"As it flies past me, Daddy, the ball I mean," said a young

soldier with an enormous mouth, hardly refraining from laughing,

"I felt like dying of fright. I did, 'pon my word, I got that

frightened!" said he, as if bragging of having been frightened.