. A green tent in Flanders. The nurse hasstolen away through the hushed and nowsleeping ward to call the stretcher stand beside you, becoming compassion-ately more and more aware of the well-drawnlines of your body. Then suddenly I glanceup and see the card over your bed: Eu-gene Sureau, 79th Territorials. What areyou to me but a name, a fine line, a thrillat one more turn of the screw among somany others heroically borne? Yet from that moment you live for some sunny countryside in France areyour mother, your wife, your ^gosses— A GREEN TENT IN FLANDERS 119 playing at soldiers,
. A green tent in Flanders. The nurse hasstolen away through the hushed and nowsleeping ward to call the stretcher stand beside you, becoming compassion-ately more and more aware of the well-drawnlines of your body. Then suddenly I glanceup and see the card over your bed: Eu-gene Sureau, 79th Territorials. What areyou to me but a name, a fine line, a thrillat one more turn of the screw among somany others heroically borne? Yet from that moment you live for some sunny countryside in France areyour mother, your wife, your ^gosses— A GREEN TENT IN FLANDERS 119 playing at soldiers, perhaps, and talking ofyour home-coming. All unconscious arethey that you lie here shrapnel-torn in thisdarkened sleeping ward, still warm butdead, while I, stooping down, give you, intheir place, the kiss of peace which in theEast the living give the dead. You have been dead since the beginningof the world, yet you are still warm, EugeneSureau. Why does your name so echo inmy memory .f^ What were you, EugeneSureau .f^. THE DAILY ROUND December 28. There is a movement of troops in the villagethis morning. Beyond our hedge and behindthe high windmill dark patches of littlemen, like ninepins, are hurrying to and lines of them gyrate and are exor-cised into rectangular shapes. The wordcomes up that General Joffre is there deco-rating a battalion of joyeux from the frontand another on its way to take their would have been interesting to see the oldlion, generalissimo of us all, but we did notknow of it in time to get the necessary per-mits. So we strain our eyes to catch whatwe can of the ceremony from our own trot-toirs. Moral Influence, La Basine, the ChicType, the old Medecin-chef, and the doctorin charge of the radiographic cabinet are 120 A GREEN TENT IN FLANDERS 121 fast friends and almost form a little cliqueto themselves. Any two of them may oftenbe seen walking up and down the narrowplank-walks, taking their exercise together. Moral Influence has a s
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
