AT THE GATE.
226
The Ypres Times.
When it was all over, the ghosts met!
What's all the fuss been about? demanded a private of the Oxford and Bucks-.
Who were all those people I am sure I remember that face over by the first barrier
across the road. Ah, yes! and the face saw me too, and remembered."
Have you been here long? enquired a sapper whose form was smothered with.
the bluish yellow of Hill 6o's subsoil. You seemWhy, where's your gas helmet
Gas helmet! replied the Light Infantryman. What's that We had our rifles
and packs, bottles and pouches, and a hell of a lot of other things thrown at us when we
got up to Nonneboschen on the nth, but gas helmets! Never heard of 'em."
Lucky devil! You got out before that lot then," remarked a Canadian, his voice
sounding fiercely hoarse to the listeners grouped around. You should have been with
us in front of Langemarck. Gawd! it was awful."
Perhaps it was," muttered a Royal Artilleryman, but the Steenbeck,—oh, that
stinking, slushy, bloody Steenbeck,-it couldn't have been any worse than that. We
couldn't send our staff over without wearing our masks, and we couldn't shoot properly
with them. It was hell!
I always said they could never fill up that hole in the Baron de Yinck's front garden,"
said a tattered and torn Highlander. I remember the first time at Hooge well. Fritz
could neither clear his way by blowing us up, pushing us down, or burning us. How he
detested us Scotsmen."
"Do you remember that last stunt for Passchendaele, Jock?" added a burly
Australian infantryman. We were generalij' not far from one another, were we Those
machine guns did us we practically had to swim round them to bomb them out. What
a life! Seafarirg infantrymen, what oh!
That reminds me," interposed a machine gunner. They raided our front near
Lancashire Farm, about two one morning. Those plucky little Welshmen! How they
hung on while Jerry was throwing his very substantial weight about. Hey, you Taffy r
do you remember that lot
Indeed, yes," replied one of the Principality's finest sons. That was just before
the 31st, wasn't it How ever he expected us to live on that canal bank I don't know.
Man, it was terrible!
Anyway, you did have something to throw back at him," said a stalwart Guards
man. What a hope we had at first herenothing to retaliate with. Things did get
better later but it was souls instead of shells then, matey."
I seem to recollect this place somehow, fellers," interjected an. A.S.C. driver. Yes,
this very spot. What a hell of a job it was to pass over the moat here. Something
always being delivered by Jerry roundabout. A jolly good piece of luck, thought we, if
we could manage to bring our loads past without encountering H.E."
What about you R.F.C. chaps," chorussed some of the deathless army. Never
did talk much about yourselves, anyway. What think you of our meeting place?
"At the gate of Ypres town we gather, class and creed all one
No song of grand heroics, just a tale of duty done.
No settled resting place have we, no carefully tended plot
But in God's good earth we rest awhile, just content with our lot.
Oil, ye who live, who returned from hell, forget us not we ask.
Just spare a thought, a word, a deed, 'tis just a trifling task
We did our best in duty's name, maybe in humble style,.
Will you do the same, in our name You will! Then 'twas worth while."
E. F. WILLIAMS..
