They threw off their coats and tightened their belts, making themselves comfortable for what time there yet remained.

One man saw a soldier sitting under a tree, leaning against the trunk, his knees high in front of him, his pipe between his lips.

Getting no answer to his request for the loan of the pipe, he snatched it without leave, and then, discovering the truth, went on none the less to enjoy the luxury of a smoke, it seeming to him desirable to compass this while it yet remained among the possibilities of life.
At last there came a continued, hoarse, deep cheering, a roaring wave of menace made up of little sounds.

An officer sprang up to the top of the breastworks and waved his sword, shouting out something which no one heard or cared to hear.

The line in the trenches, boys and veterans, reserves and remnants of the columns of defence, rose and poured volley after volley, as they could, into the thick and concealing woods that lay before them.