Page:Soldiers' Pay.pdf/7

 ain't been the same since. On to Berlin! Yeh, sure, we're on to Berlin. I'm on to you, Berlin. I got your number. Number no thousand no hundred and naughty naught Private (very private) Joe Gilligan, late for parade, late for fatigue, late for breakfast when breakfast is late. The statue of liberty ain't never seen me, and if she do, shell have to 'bout face."

Cadet Lowe raised a sophisticated eye. “Say, whatcher drinking, anyway?"

“Brother, I dunno. Fellow that makes it was gave a Congressional medal last Chuesday because he has got a plan to stop the war. Enlist all the Dutchmen in our army and make ’em drink so much of his stuff a day for forty days, see? Ruin any war. Get the idea?"

“I'll say. Won't know whether it's a war or a dance, huh?"

“Sure, they can tell. The women will all be dancing. Listen, I had a swell jane and she said, Tor Christ's sake, you can't dance.' And I said, like hell I can't.' And we was dancing and she said, ‘what are you, an)ways?' And I says, ‘what do you wanta know for? I can dance as well as any general or major or even a sergeant, because I just win four hundred in a poker game,' and she said, ‘oh, you did?' and I said, ‘sure, stick with me, kid,' and she said, ‘where is it?' Only I wouldn't show it to her and then this fellow come up to her and said, ‘are you dancing this one?’ And she said, ‘sure, I am. This bird don't dance.' Well, he was a sergeant, the biggest one I ever seen. Say, he was like that fellow in Arkansaw that had some trouble with a nigger and a friend said to him, ‘well, I hear you killed a nigger yesterday.' And he said, ‘yes, weighed two hundred pounds.' Like a bear.” He took the lurching of the train limberly and Cadet Lowe said, “For Christ's sake.”