I wanted very much to examine one of these wheeled cook wagons at close range.

An officer--the same who had first approached us to examine our papers--accompanied me to explain its workings and to point out the various compartments where the coal was kept and the fuel, and the two big sunken pots where the stew was cooked and the coffee was brewed.

The thing proved to be cumbersome, which was German, but it was most complete in detail, and that, take it, was German too.

While the officer rattled the steel lids the cook himself stood rigidly alongside, with his fingers touching the seams of his trousers.

Seen by the glare of his own fire he seemed a clod, fit only to make soups and feed a fire box.