"Did you sleep in the ditch?" asked Vi.
"Yes," answered Captain Ben, "at times we slept in the trench ditch, and very often we ate in them. I was going to tell you about a funny thing that happened to me when I was getting ready to eat my dinner in a trench one day.
"We had been fighting all morning, but had stopped about noon, and then they brought us soldiers in the trench something to eat. I was very hungry and so were my friends. I got a piece of bread and some meat and made myself a sandwich. I also had a tincup of coffee.
"I laid the sandwich down on a stone for a moment to take a drink of coffee, and when next I reached out my hand for the bread and meat I felt it jump away."
"Oh, was it alive?" asked Russ.
"Well, I thought so, for a moment," answered the captain. "But when I looked, after getting over my first surprise, I saw that I had put my hand on a big, gray rat. He had come out of his hole in the trench and was eating my bread and meat. Of course he moved when I touched him."
"I'm glad I wasn't there," said Rose. "I don't like rats!"
"I wish I could just look at him—but that's all," said Russ.
"Did you make him give you back your sandwich?" questioned Vi.
"Hardly!" laughed Captain Ben. "I didn't want it after the rat had nibbled it. So I shooed him away, and managed to get some more bread and meat. But I'll never forget how funny it seemed when I thought I felt my sandwich moving under my hand."