[note 1] There is a complete set for each squad—stoves, canvas buckets, coffee-mill, pan, etc—and each man carries some item on march.—Tr.
[note 2] Cantine vivres, chest containing two days' rations and cooking utensils for four or five officers.—Tr.
XV
The Egg
WE were badly off, hungry and thirsty; and in these wretched quarters there was nothing!
Something had gone wrong with the revictualing department and our wants were becoming acute. Where the sorry place surrounded them, with its empty doors, its bones of houses, and its bald-headed telegraph posts, a crowd of hungry men were grinding their teeth and confirming the absence of everything:—"The juice has sloped and the wine's up the spout, and the bully's zero. Cheese? Nix. Napoo jam, napoo butter on skewers."
"We've nothing, and no error, nothing; and play hell as you like, it doesn't help."
"Talk about rotten quarters! Three houses with nothing inside but draughts and damp."