VIII

BILLETS

Scene, a village street, deserted.  Rain falls. (It has been falling for about three weeks.) A tucket sounds.  Enter, reluctantly, soldiery.  They grouse.  There appear severally, in doorways, children.  They stare.  And at chamber-windows, serving-maids.  They make eyes.  The soldiery make friendly signs.

Such is the stage setting for our daily morning parade.  We have been here for some weeks now, and the populace is getting used to us.  But when we first burst upon this peaceful township I think we may say, without undue egoism, that we created a profound sensation.  In this sleepy corner of Hampshire His Majesty’s uniform, enclosing a casual soldier or sailor on furlough, is a common enough sight, but a whole regiment on the march is the rarest of spectacles.  As for this tatterdemalion northern horde, which swept down the street a few Sundays ago, with kilts swinging, bonnets cocked, and Pipes skirling, as if they were actually returning from a triumphant campaign instead of only rehearsing for one—­well, as I say, the inhabitants had never seen anything like us in the world before.  We achieved a succes fou.  In fact, we were quite embarrassed by the attention bestowed upon us.  During our first few parades the audience could with difficulty be kept off the stage.  It was impossible to get the children into school, or the maids to come in and make the beds.  Whenever a small boy spied an officer, he stood in his way and saluted him.  Dogs enlisted in large numbers, sitting down with an air of pleased expectancy in the supernumerary rank, and waiting for this new and delightful pastime to take a fresh turn.  When we marched out to our training area, later in the day, infant schools were decanted on to the road under a beaming vicar, to utter what we took to be patriotic sounds and wave handkerchiefs.

Off duty, we fraternised with the inhabitants.  The language was a difficulty, of course; but a great deal can be done by mutual goodwill and a few gestures.  It would have warmed the heart of a philologist to note the success with which a couple of kilted heroes from the banks of Loch Lomond would sidle up to two giggling damosels of Hampshire at the corner of the High Street, by the post office, and invite them to come for a walk.  Though it was obvious that neither party could understand a single word that the other was saying, they never failed to arrive at an understanding; and the quartette, having formed two-deep, would disappear into a gloaming as black as ink, to inhale the evening air and take sweet counsel together—­at a temperature of about twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit.