“I’m always delighted to attend to these little things,” he said. “Fine to feel that our boys are comfortable. You haven’t by any chance brought an eiderdown pillow?”
He seemed very regretful when he found we had not thought of one.
“That’s too bad,” he said. “I’ve discovered that there is nothing so comforting as a down pillow after a day of strenuous labor.”
It was rather disappointing to find that the duties of his position kept him closely confined to the office, and that therefore he had not yet had the pleasure of meeting Tish’s nephew, but he said he had no doubt they would meet before long.
“They’re all brought in here sooner or later, for one thing or another,” he said pleasantly.
As Tish observed going out, it was pleasant to think of Charlie Sands’ being in such good hands.
It was, however, rather a shock to find him, when we did find him, lying on his stomach in a mud puddle with a rifle in front of him. We did not recognize him at once, as a lot of men were yelling, and indeed just at first he did not seem particularly glad to see us.
“Suffering cats!” he shouted. “Don’t you see we’re shooting? You’ll be killed. Get behind the line!”
“I guess it won’t defeat the Allies if you stop shooting for two minutes,” Tish observed with her splendid poise. “But if you will take charge of this homemade apple butter, which I didn’t trust your colonel with, we will go to your sitting room, or wherever it is you receive visitors.”
There was quite a crowd of young officers round us by that time and we waited to be introduced. But Charlie Sands did not seem to think of it, so Tish put down the apple butter on the ground and said to one of them: