uilt modern
English house.

War makes men, and hardships breed content!

I will pass over our life in the trenches in this part of the line,
but an incident worth recording occurred while we were marching back
after five days amongst the rats and mud of the trenches facing
Gommecourt Wood.

It is interesting, by the way, to watch the men leaving the trenches
for their rest billets, for, in addition to their packs, they carry
many an additional article of private belongings to add to their
comfort during these tedious days of duty, and they emerge with all
kinds of curious packages and extra articles of clothing strapped or
tied to their equipment. They were covered with mud and clay before
they left the front-line trenches, but the long journey along endless
communication trenches on their way out, gathered up an additional
covering of clay and mud through their bulky attire, until they
resembled a curious assembly of moving debris.

But the incident I have referred to occurred just as we were
approaching a village.

An observation balloon was being drawn down, but when within a hundred
feet of the ground suddenly broke away and began to rise rapidly and
drift towards the German lines.

I halted the men, and we watched in breathless suspense the tragedy
which was about to take place before our eyes. There was some one in
the basket of the balloon.

It rose higher and higher. Nothing could save it! Presently the
occupant was seen to lean over the side and throw out a quantity of
books and papers.

Still upward it went, and seemed to reach a great height before the
next sensation caused us to thrill with amazement.

Something dropped like a stone from the basket and then, with a sudden
check, a parachute opened, and a man was seen dangling from it. When
he dropped, the balloon must have been many thousand feet in the air,
and both balloon and parachute continued to drift towards the German
lines.

Then a flight of four or five British aeroplanes went up and soared
around the balloon, evidently bent on its destruction.

As we watched we saw a flash and a puff of smoke! A bomb had struck
the balloon, but seemed to have no effect.

The aeroplanes withdrew, and a minute later we heard the boom of the
anti-aircraft guns.

The second shot was a dead hit, for we saw a flash of fire clean
through the centre, a volume of blue smoke, and then it buckled in the
middle. The flame spread, and the blue smoke increase