Читать книгу England, Their England онлайн

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"I don't know," replied Davies, puffing away at a huge black pipe. "We had an English subaltern once in our battery who used to run and extinguish fires in ammunition-dumps."

Cameron dropped his cigarette. "He used to do what?"

"Used to put out fires in shell-dumps."

"But what ever for?"

"He said that shells cost five pounds each and it was everyone's duty to save Government money."

"Where is he buried?" asked Cameron.

"In that little cemetery at the back of Vlamertinghe."

"I know it."

Donald Cameron lit another cigarette and asked:

"Why do the English always laugh when Aberdeen is mentioned?"

"Heaven knows," replied Davies. "Why do they have a Welsh Prime Minister and a Scotch——"

"Not Scotch. Scots. Or Scottish."

"Sorry.—A Scottish Commander-in-Chief and a Scottish First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, and think it funny?"

"Lord knows."

"And here's another thing, Cameron. The English pride themselves on having always beaten the French except at Hastings."

"Yes."

"Then why is it that the French Army is so much more successful in this War than the English?"