THE YPRES TIMES
21
"Yes. Come out with a rush."
"Aye. Thah nahs ard Billy Kelly ye used ter knock aboot wi'? He's jist ketched
a nice blighty. 'E went down the dinkie lasst neet."
'E always was jammy."
"Ahl see ye w'en ye cum oot kidder. Ahve got ter find the skipporr."
"Righto 'Arry. 'E's up the end there. I'll see you when we come out."
"W'y aye mun." And he gropes his way along with his companion runner
following.
There are muffled sounds of voices in the rearthe relief party has arrived. We
stamp on our cigarettes.
We file out, and on top, in the black starless night, pass the sweating reliefs
who trudge into the trench with bowed heads, in silence.What a place on Christmas
EveSome of our lads looking back call out, "Good luck, Yorks
One voice from the doomed-looking reliefsas though it were the quintessence
of the universal human spirit attenuated and dwindled by weariness in the war until
it is extant only in one human soulas though preserving itself from extinction by
proclaiming itself into vigorous lifereplies into the silent dark vast void, with
an only word seeming lone in the universe, "Cheero
Sidney G. Knott.
47, Corona Avenue,
Hollins, Oldham.
17th November, 1933.
To the Secretary, Ypres League.
Dear Sir,
I am interested in the Ypres Salient. I am now sixteen years of age, and was but
four months old when my father was killed in that horrible calamity of 1914-18.
He was Gunner Charles Goble of the R.G.A. and fell in action at Ypres in 1917.
I shall be glad to receive particulars of the League.
Yours truly,
Harry G. Goble.
