wood on the outskirts of
the town, and awoke great interest on all sides. At that time we were
doubtful how far they would be able to fulfill the hopes that were
entertained of them. Some of them had already been knocked out near
Courcelette. One lay partly in the ditch by the road. It had been hit
by a shell, and the petrol had burst into flames burning up the crew
within, whose charred bones were taken out when an opportunity
offered, and were reverently buried. The tank was often visited by our
men, and for that reason the Germans made it a mark for their
shell-fire. It was wise to give it a wide berth.

Our chaplains were working manfully and took their duties at the
different dressing-stations night and day in relays. The main
dressing-station was the school-house in Albert which I have already
described. It was a good sized building and there were several large
rooms in it. Many is the night that I have passed there, and I see it
now distinctly in my mind. In the largest room, there were the tables
neatly prepared, white and clean, for the hours of active work which
began towards midnight when the ambulances brought back the wounded
from the front. The orderlies would be lying about taking a rest until
their services were needed, and the doctors with their white aprons on
would be sitting in the room or in their mess near by. The windows
were entirely darkened, but in the building was the bright light and
the persistent smell of acetylene gas. Innumerable bandages and
various instruments were piled neatly on the white covered tables; and
in the outer room, which was used as the office, were the record books
and tags with which the wounded were labelled as they were sent off to
the Base. Far off we could hear the noise of the shells, and
occasionally one would fall in the town. When the ambulances (p. 141)
arrived everyone would be on the alert. I used to go out and stand in
the darkness, and see the stretchers carried in gently and tenderly by
the bearers, who laid them on the floor of the outer room. Torn and
broken forms, racked with suffering, cold and wet with rain and mud,
hidden under muddy blankets, lay there in rows upon the brick floor.
Sometimes the heads were entirely covered; sometimes the eyes were
bandaged; sometimes the pale faces, crowned with matted, muddy hair,
turned restlessly from side to side, and parched lips asked for a sip
of water. Then one by one the stretchers with their human bur