. A green tent in Flanders. wo young joyeux arebrought in. One of them is so clever withhis hands. His pockets are full of long,intricate chains, bags, purses, and medallionframes made—in the boring lulls of thetrenches—out of horsehair strung with steelbeads. His friend, to whom he seems devoted, isin a desperate Condition. He is a southern-looking boy with a high colour under asmooth brown skin, and the large, almond-shaped dark eyes of an adolescent in aPersian miniature. It is a bad case of gasgangrene, and the doctors pass the fatalverdict: Faut te couper la jamheJ^ Herefuses at first, th
. A green tent in Flanders. wo young joyeux arebrought in. One of them is so clever withhis hands. His pockets are full of long,intricate chains, bags, purses, and medallionframes made—in the boring lulls of thetrenches—out of horsehair strung with steelbeads. His friend, to whom he seems devoted, isin a desperate Condition. He is a southern-looking boy with a high colour under asmooth brown skin, and the large, almond-shaped dark eyes of an adolescent in aPersian miniature. It is a bad case of gasgangrene, and the doctors pass the fatalverdict: Faut te couper la jamheJ^ Herefuses at first, then consents; it is his only A GREEN TENT IN FLANDERS 145 thread of chance. De Precy amputates theleg at the hip joint, a staggering beauty of the mutilated body lying onthe table and the severed leg carried awayto be dissected is almost intolerable. Later, He is still alive but very restless. Imeet Pere Corneiller coming from the wardand ask for news. He shakes his head: *We were too late. THE LIGHT BREEZE. January 20. When I arrived he wasalready one of the pets ofthe hospital and the prideof the doctors—not becauseof any show of health hemade, poor lamb, butbecause he was still aliveafter all they had been allowed to do tohim, and out of gratitude to him for all theythought they had learned to do againstanother time. As a little boy he had been an acrobat,and his delicate grown-up boniness stillgave one some idea of what that reedy child-hood must have been. Then, weary of thathard life, or kicked out of the company forsome slip, he became a waiter in a very communicative, he was as silent 146 A GREEN TENT IN FLANDERS 147 on that score as on others. We can onlyinfer that something learned there or beforeled him to commit le crime—ever so little aone perhaps, such as many we know mayhave committed. Only, you see, he was sothin in body and environment, there wasnothing with which to cover it up; whileothers less exposed, well padded with for-tun
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
