lad.”
“Thank God. May I come back tonight?”
“Sure thing. What’s to stop you? My God, this hut stinks!”
He told Pinnegar about Clewlee.
“I suppose you’ve got the wind up! Now don’t you worry! You’ll be all right! I’ve got more good news. Jack’s coming back to the company when he’s better. I had it from the Colonel himself!”
*
No more was heard of the adverse report. The S.S.O. kept away now that the company was established. Practice made the drivers less unsure of themselves, the mules less fearful. He noticed that the ears of most of the mules were upright as they pulled their limbers around the park. The “donks”, as the men called them, felt at home; they were interested. He came to know some of them as beasts of character. There was Jimmy, grey and hairy, with a mild Sunday-school expression, almost wooden in its simplicity. Others revealed the same slow and gentle temperaments as they stepped delicately, thoughtfully picking their way, while the light draught horses, which had arrived after the mules, plodded forward cheerfully, un-selfconscious. They seemed to leave things to their drivers, of which there was one to each pair, riding the near-side, and guiding the off-side animal with touch of whip-handle and rein; while the mules, though trusting, seemedprimly to decide for themselves how they would step. There were two kinds of mules: the donks proper, whose dams were mares; and the jennets who took after their stallion sires, more horse than ass. The jennets were silent; the donks brayed.
“Jerusalem cuckoos, we call them,” said a driver who had served in Palestine.
The more Phillip saw of the drivers, the more he liked them.
“I’m sorry to have to ask you chaps to do so much, but things will be easier in France. I’ve managed to get some dilute sulphuric acid for your chains, that will get the rust off, but remember , vitriol burns! Rust is tri-ferrus tetra-oxide, oxide of ferrus, Latin for iron. The acid will change the iron oxide into sulphate, leaving the bright iron. Wash off the acid thoroughly, then dry and oil. This will save all that boring shaking to and fro in chaff. Ask me if you want anything, won’t you? That’s what I’m here for—to look after you chaps.”
“Will there be any leaf, sir?”
“Yes, when we come back from trekking. When Captain Hobart returns we’re going on the road for a week, and then there’ll be leave, half the company at a time. Four days. That’s what the other companies got, before going out.” As he spoke, he leaned against Jimmy, inoffensive as grey ash, and as soft in temperament, with its large brown eyes and tall hairy ears.
Splendid news came one evening. Hobart was coming back to the company.
Under Jack Hobart the company was made up to strength, with seven officers, and an attached transport officer for training. One morning they set out for a week’s trek. A cold north-west wind brought an occasional touch of sleet on Phillip’s cheek and eyeball as he sat Black Prince at the rear of the column. Leading the company he could see the figure of All Weather Jack, beside him Pinnegar; then ‘A’ section, led by gunners on foot, Darky Fenwick on the old mare, followed by his section and their limbers; then ‘B’, led by Montfort, who had been an actor; then ‘C’, led by a South African called Lukoff, a Boer who had fought against the British fifteen years before; then ‘D’, led by a small Cambridgeshire potato farmer named Bright, whose trudging grim walk and manner belied his name; and behind the last section rode Sergeant Rivett on a spare hairy light-draught horse, leading cook’s, water, and officers’ mess carts; and at the tail of the column, long legs hanging loose to boot-soles free ofburnished irons, he himself lounged on Black Prince, happy in his new nickname of “Sticks”.
The black gelding had been exchanged for one of the company remounts at the Riding School picket line before dawn that
“Thank God. May I come back tonight?”
“Sure thing. What’s to stop you? My God, this hut stinks!”
He told Pinnegar about Clewlee.
“I suppose you’ve got the wind up! Now don’t you worry! You’ll be all right! I’ve got more good news. Jack’s coming back to the company when he’s better. I had it from the Colonel himself!”
*
No more was heard of the adverse report. The S.S.O. kept away now that the company was established. Practice made the drivers less unsure of themselves, the mules less fearful. He noticed that the ears of most of the mules were upright as they pulled their limbers around the park. The “donks”, as the men called them, felt at home; they were interested. He came to know some of them as beasts of character. There was Jimmy, grey and hairy, with a mild Sunday-school expression, almost wooden in its simplicity. Others revealed the same slow and gentle temperaments as they stepped delicately, thoughtfully picking their way, while the light draught horses, which had arrived after the mules, plodded forward cheerfully, un-selfconscious. They seemed to leave things to their drivers, of which there was one to each pair, riding the near-side, and guiding the off-side animal with touch of whip-handle and rein; while the mules, though trusting, seemedprimly to decide for themselves how they would step. There were two kinds of mules: the donks proper, whose dams were mares; and the jennets who took after their stallion sires, more horse than ass. The jennets were silent; the donks brayed.
“Jerusalem cuckoos, we call them,” said a driver who had served in Palestine.
The more Phillip saw of the drivers, the more he liked them.
“I’m sorry to have to ask you chaps to do so much, but things will be easier in France. I’ve managed to get some dilute sulphuric acid for your chains, that will get the rust off, but remember , vitriol burns! Rust is tri-ferrus tetra-oxide, oxide of ferrus, Latin for iron. The acid will change the iron oxide into sulphate, leaving the bright iron. Wash off the acid thoroughly, then dry and oil. This will save all that boring shaking to and fro in chaff. Ask me if you want anything, won’t you? That’s what I’m here for—to look after you chaps.”
“Will there be any leaf, sir?”
“Yes, when we come back from trekking. When Captain Hobart returns we’re going on the road for a week, and then there’ll be leave, half the company at a time. Four days. That’s what the other companies got, before going out.” As he spoke, he leaned against Jimmy, inoffensive as grey ash, and as soft in temperament, with its large brown eyes and tall hairy ears.
Splendid news came one evening. Hobart was coming back to the company.
Under Jack Hobart the company was made up to strength, with seven officers, and an attached transport officer for training. One morning they set out for a week’s trek. A cold north-west wind brought an occasional touch of sleet on Phillip’s cheek and eyeball as he sat Black Prince at the rear of the column. Leading the company he could see the figure of All Weather Jack, beside him Pinnegar; then ‘A’ section, led by gunners on foot, Darky Fenwick on the old mare, followed by his section and their limbers; then ‘B’, led by Montfort, who had been an actor; then ‘C’, led by a South African called Lukoff, a Boer who had fought against the British fifteen years before; then ‘D’, led by a small Cambridgeshire potato farmer named Bright, whose trudging grim walk and manner belied his name; and behind the last section rode Sergeant Rivett on a spare hairy light-draught horse, leading cook’s, water, and officers’ mess carts; and at the tail of the column, long legs hanging loose to boot-soles free ofburnished irons, he himself lounged on Black Prince, happy in his new nickname of “Sticks”.
The black gelding had been exchanged for one of the company remounts at the Riding School picket line before dawn that
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