As showing the dogged, determined character of these men, Mr. Bazin relates the following incident:
Lately, when both wind and rain were raging, an officer told me of going up to two lookout men, immovable at their posts in the first line trench, and joking with them, he said:
“Let’s see, what do you need?”
“Less mud.”
“I am in the same boat. What else?”
“This and that—”
“You shall have it, I promise you. Tired?”
“A little.”
“Discouraged?”
They made a terrible face, looked at him, and together replied: “If you have come to say such things as that, sir, you better not have come at all. Discouraged? No, indeed! We’re not the kind who get discouraged!”