"And a pair of gloves and a stocking cap to go on top of the soldiers.
"And a baseball and a bat to go on top of the gloves.
"And all the chinks to be filled up with nuts and figs, and sweets. Voilà, Pierre," and with these words, he had poured the sweetmeats in overflowing measure into the biggest hip boot in the regiment.
Amid the cheers of the men, led by big Moriarity, Pierre started toward his seat, struggling with the seven league boot and the wholesale booty, and satisfied with the realisation that in one haul he had obtained more than his companions in five.
Company B quartet sang "Down in a Coal Hole," and then, as the band struck up outside the church, all moved to the street. The sun had gone down, the early winter night had set in, and the sky was almost dark.
"Signal for the barrage," came the command in the darkness.
There were four simultaneous hisses of fire and four comets of flame sprang up from the ground. They broke far overhead in lurid green.
"Signal for enemy planes overhead," was the next command, and four more rockets mounted and ended their flights in balls of luminous red. Other commands, other signals, other rockets, other lights and flares and pistol star shells, enriched a pyrotechnical display which was economically combined with signal practice.
The red glare illuminated the upturned happy faces of American and French together. Our men learned to love the French people. The French people learned to love us.