The Fighting Scouts

LIEUTENANT BAXTER was writing letters home and, at the moment Cornish came into the mess-hut, was gazing through the window with that fixed stare which might indicate either the memory of some one loved and absent or a mental struggle after the correct spelling of the village billets he had bombed the night before.
Cornish, who looked sixteen, but was in reality quite an old gentleman of twenty, thrust his hands into his breeches pockets and gazed disconsolately round before he slouched across to where Baxter sat at his literary exercises.
“I say,” said Cornish in a complaining voice, “what the devil are you doing?”
“Cleaning my boots,” said Baxter without looking up; “didn’t you notice it?”
Second-Lieutenant Cornish sniggered. “Quit fooling. I say, what are you writing letters for? Good Heavens, you are always writing letters!”
Baxter withdrew his gaze from the window and went on writing with marked industry.