ing on an air-cushion. When I got tired of this and leaned
against my angular friend on the other side, the jolting of the
carriage scraped my ear against his ribs. I spent the night by leaning
first on one companion, and then on the other. The morning found us
still travelling, and finally at half-past ten the train drew up once
more at our starting point in Abbeville station. Having been eighteen
hours without food or drink or the opportunity of a shave, I thought
it was about time to retire, and told my companions that life was too
short to spend it in railway journeys of that description. So, with a
feeling of superiority and independence which made the others green
with envy, I bid them good-bye. I never heard any more of my friends,
but, although the war has long since ended, I have a sort of dim
impression in my mind that they are still travelling round and round
and coming back to Abbeville again. I went over to the officers' club
and had a good wash and luncheon, and there meeting a very nice
engineer officer, I asked him if he could tell me where I could find
any lorries going North. I told him my railway experience, and it so
moved him that he very kindly sent me off in his own car to St. Pol,
where I was picked up by one of our staff cars and taken home in time
for dinner. Railway journeys in France were not things to remember
with pleasure, and if they were bad for the officers, what must they
have been for the poor men in the crowded third-class carriages?

At the end of January, our pleasant life at Bruay came to an end, and
we moved off to Barlin which was to be our headquarters for a (p. 162)
month and a half. It was while we were there that I had an attack of
trench-fever, which, like being "crummy," is really part of a complete
war experience. Barlin was not a bad place of residence. There were
many men within easy reach, and I had an upper room in the Town Hall
for use as a chapel. The presence of a well equipped British hospital
also gave one opportunities of seeing our wounded men. We had come to
know by this time that the first task which lay before us in the
opening of spring was the taking of Vimy Ridge, and our life became
filled with fresh zest and interest in view of the coming attack.

On the 15th of March our Division moved up to a place called Ecoivres,
where we were billeted in the old Chateau. The Count who owned the
Chateau kept some rooms downstairs for himself, but we occupied al