d, we saw them coming.
It was an exciting moment when we got our first sight of them, and I
know I trembled from head to foot; but we opened fire on them and as
soon as I began shooting, all fear left me--they never got farther than
their own wire entanglements--the rapid fire from our rifles and the
support of our guns was too much for them. No doubt they expected to
find us all dead after the explosion and the shelling they had given
us, but we showed them that we were still very much alive. We "stood
to" all that night, but nothing further happened. Just at dawn I
peeped over the parapet, and it looked as though some one had been
hanging out a wash; their wire entanglements were full of German
uniforms. Of course we were not allowed to leave our post during the
night in case of another attack, but when morning came we looked around
to see what damage the mine had done; we found that about fifty of our
brave boys were either killed or wounded--this was the first break in
our ranks, and it made us feel very sore--you could put a good-sized
house in the crater made by the explosion, and it was to occupy this
that the Germans had come over. The crater was immediately organized
as a listening-post and ever afterwards it was known as the "Glory
Hole." It was always the hottest part of our trench, and many a night
I spent in it. The German trench was only thirty yards away, and they
could lob bombs in on top of us. To improve matters, old "Glory"
always contained at least two feet of water, and on a cold rainy night
it was "some job" standing at listening-post, two hours at a stretch,
up to the knees in water. When relieved, you had four hours off, and
you would huddle up on the firing-step with your feet still in the
water, and either smoke or try to get a little sleep. But, often it
rained, snowed, and froze all in the same night, and I have had my
clothes frozen so stiff that in the morning I could scarcely move.

But, to come back to our story. Next morning the killed and wounded
were taken back of the lines, and things went on as before, only now we
did not feel nearly so comfortable, knowing that at any moment the
earth might open and up we would go. We were in the trenches one day
when _shuz-z-z-shiz-bang_! the dirt flew, not far from us, but we
couldn't see what had done it. Later we heard the same noise, and
coming tumbling through the air was something that looked like a big
black sausage; the moment