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 For, if he proved not to be dependable, back he went—returned to duty! As long as he was dependable he slept under a table in a warm room, his toilette arrangements and washing in a bully-beef case near his head, a billy full of tea always stewing for him on an always burning stove A paradise No! Not a paradise: the paradise of the Other Ranks He might be awakened at one in the morning. Miles away the enemy might be beginning a strafe He would roll out from among the blankets under the table amongst the legs of hurrying N.C.O.'s and officers, the telephone going like hell He would have to manifold innumerable short orders on buff slips on a typewriter A bore to be awakened at one in the morning, but not unexciting: the enemy putting up a tremendous barrage in front of the village of Dranoutre: the whole nineteenth division to be moved into support along the Bailleul-Nieppe road. In case

Tietjens considered the sleeping army That country village under the white moon, all of sackcloth sides, celluloid windows, forty men to a hut That slumbering Arcadia was one of  how many? Thirty-seven thousand five hundred, say for a million and a half of men But there were probably more than a million and a half in that base Well, round the slumbering Arcadias were the fringes of virginly glimmering tents Fourteen men to a tent For a million Seventy-one thousand four hundred and twenty-one tents round, say, one hundred and fifty I.B.D.'s, C.B.D.'s, R.E.B.D.'s Base depots for infantry, cavalry, sappers, gunners, airmen, anti-airmen, telephone-men, vets, chiropodists, Royal Army Service Corps men, Pigeon Service men, Sanitary