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Dec. 7th, 2009 05:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
titusnowl"We really must do something for Christmas. There's not a conifer for miles who's fit to be drafted into the service, so I dare say we can't put up a tree, but a few loose branches here and there would enliven the barracks considerably, and those we may gather from the more shot-up specimens with which we are so bounteously supplied. I've a red flannel muffler I'm willing to donate to the cause as well - we can part it out into an approximation of festive ribbons. It's no good looking at me like that, sweetness, there's no question at all of wearing it. Looks a bit too much, from a distance, as though one's gone and sprung a leak about the jugular or something. Highly unsettling under current circs. We'll have to scrounge about a bit and see if we can't find some more of that cocoa, and if we're lucky enough to be let alone for a bit I wouldn't be surprised if a bottle or two of rum fell into the punch-bowl at some point during the festivities. It's a frightful shame they don't let us invite Jerry and Fritz to our holiday parties anymore these days, you know; we've all heard one another's stories-for-cocktail-hour before, and I'm sure they've a few new ones."
"I was at the Christmas truce," Davies interjected, very softly.
Ponce turned to him in surprise. "But there's no way you've been in the service that long, dearest, or you'd be sitting where I am right now - or, properly, being yourself, you'd be up in the officers' mess with the rest of the regimentals; but the point remains that I'm here because I had seniority, and unless I glanced at the wrong calendar the day I joined up or something that puts you safe in Cardiff in '14."
"No, you're right. I joined up in fall of '15, and I came over just before Christmas. I was on my way to join the battalion, and passed through Vosges on Christmas Eve, and the Frenchies there did a truce for it."
"There was a truce? Like, they just stopped the war?" Cuddles clearly did not believe this, and wouldn't have bought it for an instant had it come from Ponce's mouth, but Davies was not known for telling tales, so he did not outright protest the idea.
"You never heard? The one in '14 was tremendously celebrated, you know, and I should have thought it would be in all the papers even in America. Although," Ponce conceded, "that would scarcely guarantee you to have heard of it anyway. I don't suppose you young folk make a habit of scouring the news, particularly for foreign wars. Did you make any friends across the line, Davies old dear?"
The lieutenant shook his head. "I wasn't in with the French Army, you know. I did get to have a bit of a ham sandwich that someone got off a kraut, but that was it."
"Didn't even get to play Left Needle in a footy game or something? Poor darling - "
"I thought that was cricket."
"It is indeed a cricket position, angel, but they could have been playing Cricket Rules Football. One doesn't really expect the German to have a full understanding and respect of English sport, after all."
Cuddles cast about for something to throw.
"I was at the Christmas truce," Davies interjected, very softly.
Ponce turned to him in surprise. "But there's no way you've been in the service that long, dearest, or you'd be sitting where I am right now - or, properly, being yourself, you'd be up in the officers' mess with the rest of the regimentals; but the point remains that I'm here because I had seniority, and unless I glanced at the wrong calendar the day I joined up or something that puts you safe in Cardiff in '14."
"No, you're right. I joined up in fall of '15, and I came over just before Christmas. I was on my way to join the battalion, and passed through Vosges on Christmas Eve, and the Frenchies there did a truce for it."
"There was a truce? Like, they just stopped the war?" Cuddles clearly did not believe this, and wouldn't have bought it for an instant had it come from Ponce's mouth, but Davies was not known for telling tales, so he did not outright protest the idea.
"You never heard? The one in '14 was tremendously celebrated, you know, and I should have thought it would be in all the papers even in America. Although," Ponce conceded, "that would scarcely guarantee you to have heard of it anyway. I don't suppose you young folk make a habit of scouring the news, particularly for foreign wars. Did you make any friends across the line, Davies old dear?"
The lieutenant shook his head. "I wasn't in with the French Army, you know. I did get to have a bit of a ham sandwich that someone got off a kraut, but that was it."
"Didn't even get to play Left Needle in a footy game or something? Poor darling - "
"I thought that was cricket."
"It is indeed a cricket position, angel, but they could have been playing Cricket Rules Football. One doesn't really expect the German to have a full understanding and respect of English sport, after all."
Cuddles cast about for something to throw.
