“Time we got opposite the bridge that had been knocked into the river by American artillery we got treated to a warm bombardment. Mashed up some of the lads pretty badly. That bombardment wasn’t a trifle compared to the smell that came from unburied men. Whew! I hadn’t got a chance to _monjay_ all day and my belly was pretty weak ’bout that time. It sure was an awful stink. “There was dead Americans, dead Frenchmen, and heaps of stark Boche corpses linin’ the route—just like so many yard stones. Couldn’t help but feel good when we would pass a big bunch of them swollen-up Germans, all blue in the face from dyin’ like they did. “Our column was halted in Château-Thierry for ’bout three hours. We had to wait for some trucks to _encore_ the drive with. Poor old _chevaux_ were down for the count. “I had already lost _beaucoup_ stuff. Thought I’d hunt ’round some of the near-by houses, or what was left of houses. Needed some underclothes pretty bad. In one place I found a closet full of mademoiselle’s underclothes. You know that kind of stuff all full of holes and ribbons. I was up against it for underwear. As it was, I didn’t have on any drawers. I grabbed two suits and gave two to George Neil. Damn stuff nearly choked me to death after I got it on. The girl who wore it was smaller than me in a good many places. Four days after I got the stuff Neil and I hit a little stream and thought we’d try to take a bath. Funny as a crutch, the way we looked gettin’ out o’ the mademoiselle’s riggin’s. Neil got one arm caught in some lace and got a cramp before he could get loose again. “Just before daybreak we got orders to move ahead. Most of the hikin’ was right down alongside the Marne—river looked like a big red, open sewer. Never hope to see so much filthy water in my life again. Bodies, wreckage of all kinds, clothes, empty ammunition cases. A hundred things else, I guess. All floatin’ down the stream. The tide washed lots of bodies to shore. Most of them you couldn’t recognize, as the water and fishes had eaten their faces and hands off. Only way we could tell what army they belonged to was by parts of equipment and uniforms. Water had faded most of the uniforms, though. “The woods and river sent up an awful smell. When we came to a windin’ road that looked like a brown snake crawlin’ up a hill the column turned up it and pretty soon we was in position with the old pieces boomin’ away at the flyin’ Boches. “Boche prisoners was pourin’ in like smoke pours out of a factory smoke-stack. Some of ’em tried to be friendly. There was damn few smiles they got from us, I can tell you. We were darn tired of their ways of yellin’ ‘_Kamerad!_’ and then throwin’ them hand grenades at a man.