`````complex life ````To be led with a highly sensitised `````wife ````In a slightly rarefied air! |YET it's good to be back with `````the old platoon-- ````"A man in a world of men"! ````Each cheery dog is a henchman `````boon-- ````Especially Sergeant Wren! ````Ermyntrude couldn't endure his `````name-- ````Considered bad language no lien `````on fame, ````Yet it's good to--hear it `````again! |BETTER to feel the Ser- `````geant's grip, ````Though your fingers ache to `````the bone! ````Better to take the Sergeant's tip ````Than to make up your mind `````alone. ````They can do things together, can ````Wren and Joy-- ````The bristly bear and the beard- `````less boy-- ````That neither could do on his `````own. |BUT there's never a word `````about Old Man Wren ````In the screeds he scribbles `````to-day-- ````Though he praises his N.C.O.'s `````and men ````In rather a pointed way. ````And he rubs it in (with a knitted `````brow) ````That the war's as good as a pic- `````nic now, ````And better than any play! |HIS booby-hutch is "as safe `````as the Throne," ````And he fares "like the C.-in- ````Chief," ````But has purchased "a top-hole `````gramophone ````By way of comic relief." ````(And he sighs as he hears the `````men applaud, ````While the Woodbine spices are `````wafted abroad ````With the odour of bully-beef.) |HE may touch on the latest `````type of bomb, ````But Ermyntrude needn't `````blench, ````For he never says where you hurl `````it from, ````And it might be from your `````trench. ````He never might lead a stealthy `````band, ````Or toe the horrors of No Man's ````Land, ````Or swim at the sickly stench. . . . |HER letters came up by `````ration-cart ````As the men stood-to before `````dawn: ````He followed the chart of her `````soaring heart ````With face transfigured yet `````drawn: ````It filled him with pride, touched `````with chivalrous shame. ````But--it spoilt the war, as a first- `````class game, ````For this particular pawn. |THE Sergeant sees it, and `````damns the cause ````In a truly terrible flow; ````But turns and trounces, without `````a pause, ````A junior N. C. O. ````For the crime of agreeing that ````Ensign Joy ````Isn't altogether the officer boy ````That he was four months ago! |AT length he's dumfounded `````(the month being May) ````By a sample of Ermyntrude's `````fun! ````"You will kindly get leave _over ````Christmas Day_, ````Or make haste and finish the ````But Christmas means presents, `````she bids him beware: ````"So what do you say to a son and `````heir? ````I'm thinking of giving you ````Hun!" |WHAT, indeed, does the ````Ensign say? ````What does he sit and write? ````What do his heart-strings drone all day? ````What do they throb all night? ````What does he add to his piteous `````prayers?-- ````"Not for my own sake, Lord, but `````--_theirs_,