. Real Russians . When the signalwas given for starting, bright faces smiled a farewell,and the refreshed and contented men departed in theiruncomfortable cattle-trucks. There is, however, good reason for not letting the menoutside the station, for many men have thereby beenseparated from their units. It was pathetic to see thedistress of a young soldier to whom this had happened ;he was so bitterly unhappy. I only went out to buy myself some food, hesaid, and when I returned the train had gone. Iwas trusted. I was sent in charge of some have the papers here in my pocket, and now thetra
. Real Russians . When the signalwas given for starting, bright faces smiled a farewell,and the refreshed and contented men departed in theiruncomfortable cattle-trucks. There is, however, good reason for not letting the menoutside the station, for many men have thereby beenseparated from their units. It was pathetic to see thedistress of a young soldier to whom this had happened ;he was so bitterly unhappy. I only went out to buy myself some food, hesaid, and when I returned the train had gone. Iwas trusted. I was sent in charge of some have the papers here in my pocket, and now thetrain has gone and I cannot catch it up. Is there no passenger train which would enableyou to overtake it ? I said. No, there is not, he replied sadly, and I wonderwhat will now happen. To think that they have trustedme and I have failed them I I felt intensely sorry for him, especially as no fearof punishment seemed to trouble him, but only the factthat he had not lived up to the trust placed in him byhis Wounded Soldiers Travelling. Face p. 178. LMPRESSIONS OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS. 179 On another occasion I again watched a troop trainstop at the station. In this case also the men wantedto go out of the station grounds. A very determined-looking soldier walked up to the gendarme officer,and asked leave to go into the town. Not allowed, was the disappointing reply. We are sick of our food/ remarked the man. We have been twenty days on our journey, and wewant a change. Its hot weather, too, and theyvegiven us bad meat. Buy your food at the station canteen, suggestedthe officer. Poor chaps, there was no leave granted them to gointo the town, although they declared they had threehours to spare. Suddenly, however, orders weregiven for the train to start. All the soldiers could dowas to quickly buy some bread and sausages at thestation canteens and scramble into the trucks. One day our train was drawn up at the station, butmy carriage was right outside the On thenext l
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