“I wouldn’t say at all. I take no account of their kilometers,” he replied drily, rubbing away at his skirt as if he had it in a washtub.
“Well, about how long will it take us to walk it?”
“That I couldn’t say. A Scotsman would do it in an hour.”
“I guess a Yankee can do it as quick as a Scotchman, can’t he?” Hicks asked jovially.
“That I couldn’t say. You’ve been four years gettin’ this far, I know verra well.”
Hicks blinked as if he had been hit. “Oh, if that’s the way you talk–”
“That’s the way I do,” said the other sourly.
Claude put out a warning hand. “Come on, Hicks. You’ll get nothing by it.” They went up the road very much disconcerted. Hicks kept thinking of things he might have said. When he was angry, the Sergeant’s forehead puffed up and became dark red, like a young baby’s. “What did you call me off for?” he sputtered.
“I don’t see where you’d have come out in an argument, and you certainly couldn’t have licked him.”
They turned aside at the cemetery to wait until the sun went down. It was unfenced, unsodded, and a wagon trail ran through the middle, bisecting the square. On one side were the French graves, with white crosses; on the other side the German graves, with black crosses. Poppies and cornflowers ran over them. The Americans strolled about, reading the names. Here and there the soldier’s photograph was nailed upon his cross, left by some comrade to perpetuate his memory a little longer.
The birds, that always came to life at dusk and dawn, began to sing, flying home from somewhere. Claude and Hicks sat
