bath mats was the trail of the poor boy's blood. He was only nineteen
years of age, and had done splendid work and won the admiration of all
the men in his company. I had a short prayer with him, and then saw
him carried off to the dressing station, where not long after he died.
The sergeant who was with him was exceedingly kind, and looked after
the boy like a father. As the war went on, the men were being (p. 106)
united more and more closely in the bonds of a common sympathy and a
tender helpfulness. To the enemy, until he was captured, they were
flint and iron; to one another they were friends and brothers.

It always took a long time to pass down the trenches. There were so
many men I knew and I could not pass them without a short
conversation. Time, in the line had really no meaning, except in the
matter of "standing to" or "changing guard". On fine days, the life
was not unpleasant. I remember, however, on one dark rainy night,
being in a trench in front of Wulverghem. The enemy trenches were at
that point only thirty-five yards away. I was squeezed into a little
muddy dugout with an officer, when the corporal came and asked for a
tot of rum for his men. They had been lying out on patrol duty in the
mud and rain in front of our trench for two hours.

Dandy was still the envy of our men in the transport lines, and one
day I nearly lost him. I rode up to Hill 63. Just behind it was an
orchard, and in it there were two batteries of British Artillery,
which were attached to our Division. I was going up to the trenches
that afternoon, so I gave the horse some oats and tied him to a tree
near the officers' billet. I then went up over the hill down to Ration
Farm, and from thence into the line. It was quite late in the
afternoon, but walking through the trenches was easy when it was not
raining. I was returning about 10 o'clock, when the second in command
of the 16th Battalion asked me to wait for him and we would come out
together over the open. It must have been about midnight when I
started with the Major, and another officer. The night was dark and it
was rather a scramble, but the German flare lights would go up now and
then and show us our course. Suddenly a machine gun opened up, and we
had to lie on our faces listening to the swish of the flying bullets
just overhead. I turned to the officer next to me and asked him how
long he had been at the front. He said he had only arrived that
afternoon at four o' c