"Good idea," said Flanagan.
"What did you fry the taters in?" asked Bubb.
"Oh, I fried them in—vaseline," was Flanagan's reply.
"Git out!"
"Yes, I did."
"Truth?"
"Oh, it's quite true," Flanagan lied, "you should try it."
"So I will," said the simple Bubb, and so he did. He used a whole box of vaseline, frying his taters on a mess-tin lid placed over a little fire at the base of a traverse. He ate his portion with great zest, vowing that he never had had a better repast in all his life. Part of the feed he kept for Bowdy.
Flanagan, delighted with the little joke, told Sergeant Snogger how Spudhole Bubb had used vaseline in frying potatoes. Snogger came up to Bubb as the latter sat smoking a Woodbine in the corner of the dug-out.
"Spudhole Bubb," he said, "what's wrong with ye?"