“It’s all right, me lads.  I was only pullin’ yer legs a bit.  Yer needn’t get the wind up, yer ’aven’t got ter put ’em back.  This is what ’as ‘appened.  Yer was supposed ter spend two days on the job an’ yesterday yer did two days’ work in one.  I see the officer about it an’ ’e says yer worked bloody fine an’ says ’e won’t ‘ave yer workin’ ter day although there’s plenty o’ other things ter do.  ’E says yer ter go back ter camp an’ ’ave a good rest.  ’E ain’t ’alf a toff, I tell yer.”

This announcement was followed by loud cheers.  We scrambled back into the lorries.  Everyone was jubilant at the prospect of having a holiday, and there was shouting and singing as the lorries sped along.  We reached the camp and jumped out.  We were dismayed at seeing our Commanding Officer walking about and conversing with the Sergeant-Major.

As we marched into the camp the C.O. said to our Sergeant:  “Where’ve these men come from?” The Sergeant explained.  “They’ve got the day off, have they?  Kit inspection at ten o’clock!”

Our hearts sank and several of the men muttered something between their teeth.  Our Sergeant, however, screwed up a little courage for once and explained that we had worked exceptionally hard the day before and that the officer in charge had promised us a holiday.  The S.M. intervened in the discussion and pleaded on our behalf.  At last the C.O., after walking up and down impatiently, said: 

“Very well, we’ll drop the inspection—­they’ll have to go to the baths though!”

We were elated beyond measure and when we were dismissed we saluted with all the smartness of which we were capable in order to please the Captain, and walked off the parade ground in the strictest regulation manner.  Once they were off the parade ground the men rushed towards their tents, hallooing like schoolboys.

The baths were not unwelcome, although to stand in a tub under a thin drip of hot water in front of a broken window through which a cold gust of wind came and whistled round our shoulders, was no pleasure.  But the ordeal was quickly over and before eleven o’clock in the morning most of us were free to do as we pleased.  The greater part of the day was still before us and the morrow was a long way off.

There was much bustling and shouting and singing.  It was easy to please us for pleasure was such a rarity.  I was scheming how to make the most of this precious holiday.  I decided to go for a solitary walk.  I left the camp and strolled up a hill from where I could get a fine view of the surrounding country.

I gazed in an eastward direction.  All the snow had melted, the fields, the bare trees and hedges, were steeped in warm sunlight.  In the distance there was a gentle slope crowned by a long line of poplars.

Beyond the poplars, about eight miles away, there was something I did not see, although I knew it was there—­a stupid, terrible, and uncouth monster that stretched in a zig-zag winding course from the North Sea to the Alps.  It was strangely silent at that hour, but I was fascinated by it and thought about it harder and harder, in spite of myself.  I became increasingly conscious of it and it grew upon me until it darkened everything and seemed to crush me beneath its intolerable weight.