Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) WHAT OUTFIT, BUDDY? [Illustration: SHE KISSED ME SMACK ON THE CHEEK AND SAID HER NAME WAS LOUISE] What Outfit Buddy? BY T. HOWARD KELLY FORMERLY PRIVATE IN THE 26TH DIVISION A.E.F. Illustrated Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London What Outfit Buddy? Copyright 1920, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America Published February, 1920 TO PEG CONTENTS I. “What Outfit, Buddy?” II. “Avey Vous de Chambre?” III. “That Mule Was a Slacker” IV. “Sunny France!” V. We Was Off for the Front! VI. American Joans of Arc VII. The First Big Battle of the Guerre VIII. “Guess I Didn’t Have the Guts” IX. “The Old Van Seezeum on Its Way” X. Château-Thierry XI. A Craw de Guerre XII. O. D. Meets Jimmy’s Gang XIII. “We’re Goin’ to Take Metz” XIV. “Well, We’re Here” XV. Pinching Off the St.-Mihiel Salient XVI. Beyond Verdun XVII. “Finee! La Guerre Finee!” ILLUSTRATIONS She Kissed Me Smack on the Cheek and Said Her Name Was Louise “‘Take That Hat Off. It Isn’t Regulation,’ Says the Second Looey to Me” “Make Friends with the Cooties. Then You’re All Set” “I Want to Get a Picture of O. D.’s Grave” “A Bearded Poilu Came Tearing Out of a Ruined House, Waving a Bottle Over His Head” A great many impressionable young men who become soldiers overnight and go to war feel strongly inspired to write books about their adventures. I felt the same way before the newness of the life on the western front had been rubbed away by constant friction with some of the more monotonous things of war, such as hunger, cold, mud, cooties, and other romance-destroying agents. I buried the idea of writing a book just before my division was called upon to stand between the Boches and Paris during the trying days of July and August of 1918. It is very good for me that I detached myself from the desire to write a war book about that time. Experience proved that it was necessary to give all my available time to the business of fighting the _guerre_.