THINGS AND PEOPLE

I believe you that we rested...

Seeing you in military garb, I guessed that you were a soldier. Are you a hunter?

Military salute: — 5th Battalion, in the Ruhr, sir.

"Did you come to Paris for the Revue?"

— Which didn't happen, thank God! We were really too tired from the trip.

"And then you rested?"

— I believe you! Leaving on the morning of the 14th with two days of perm, we first went to Joinville-le-Pont to canoe all day on the Marne.

- And the night?

— In the evening, we returned to Panam. I went to Porte de Versailles to have dinner with my mother, then I went to see the fireworks at the Buttes Chaumont.

- And after?

— Afterwards, I ran to the Place de la Bourse where I tagged, one-stepped, foxtrotted until three o'clock in the morning.

- And after?

- After? it makes you thirsty to dance in 35 degree heat. We went for a walk with some friends. I don't know how it happened: having fallen asleep on a bench at Porte Maillot, I woke up on another bench in the Bois de Vincennes!

"There, you rested.

— I believe you! Guys from Ivry, anti-militarists, seemed to make fun of my uniform. They deserved a lesson. I ran after one of them all morning as far as the Porte Saint-Ouen. And there, what he got as a beating…

- And after?

— I rented a bicycle and went to Meaux to kiss my aunt, who is also my godmother. Ah! I put some! Paris-Meaux and return in an afternoon...

“And in 35 degree heat.

—— But I got home in time to make my little cousin dance at the ball in the Place du Commerce.

- And now?

— I am joining the battalion, barracks of the Pépinière.

- Nothing rested!

- Ah! I believe you! No, this idea of a review of the 14th... Fortunately, the oils understood that we were tired of the trip...

S. Lep