"Yarns" like this are spun by those who have to watch or who have nothing to do but wait and see. There is always a funny man to raise a laugh, and not infrequently rival jesters enter into competition. There are rhymesters, too, and they try to put into crude verse and apply to a well-known air something that has happened on the previous day. If a private has lost the photograph of the girl he left behind him, he cannot get consolation from his best friend, for the whole company would hear of it and sing about it.
Sometimes their work led the troops to a little bit of sport. "We billeted for two days at a place two days' march from Belgium and had a pretty good time bathing and—what was most amusing—fishing in a small pond for 'tiddlers.' I and a chum went to a woman at a house and, making her understand the best way we could, begged some cotton and a couple of pins. We had a couple of hours fishing and captured quite two dozen, although before long lots of our chaps caught the complaint and did the same as we did, causing much amusement. I suppose that French woman had to buy a new stock of cotton, but she was a good sort and was as much amused as the soldiers."
[CHAPTER XIX]
War as a Game
It has been said that war is a game at which kings would not play if their subjects were wise, and the German nation was certainly not wise when it allowed its Emperor to make war against the world. Germans, however, do not think of war as a game at all, but as a most serious, even moral thing, and they are indignant with our soldiers for applying to its grim experiences the common terms of sport, and especially of football.
It is this sporting spirit of our soldiers that enables them to fight gamely and to die gamely. Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) said of the House of Commons that it was "dull with some great moments." The same may be said of war, and our men forgive its dangers and dullness for the sake of its great moments.
In one engagement the Royal Highlanders jumped out of the trenches and charged "as if they were kicking off in a Cup-tie final." They commenced to shout, "On the ball, Highlanders!" and "Mark your men!" They continued yelling to one another until they had driven the Germans back. Who can say that "Mark your men!" did not have a stimulating effect upon the Highlanders?