myself into my kit bag at
night, we both felt very snug. The only trouble was that visitors kept
coming at all hours to ask for engineering materials, not knowing that
the character of the abode had changed. Early one morning, an officer
came in a great hurry, and waking me up, asked if there were any
winches there,--he pronounced the word like wenches. I sat up in bed
and looked at him sternly, and said, "Young man, this is a religious
establishment, I am the Senior Chaplain, and there are no wenches
here." He did not know quite what to make of the situation. "I mean
wooden ones," he said. I replied, "Young man, there are no wenches
here, either wooden or any other kind; the engineers have gone
forward." He apologized and left. On another occasion, in the darkness
of middle night, an Imperial soldier who had lost his way came down
the steps and put his head into my door and began to stammer and hiss
in such an extraordinary way that Alberta was roused and barked (p. 175)
furiously. I woke up with a start and asked what the matter was, but all
I could get from the poor man was a series of noises and hisses. I
turned on my flashlight, and a very muddy face covered with a shock of
red hair looked in at the door of my little room, and with many
contortions and winkings, emitted a series of incomprehensible noises.
What with the stammering man and the barking dog, I was at my wits end
to find out the trouble. At last by a process of synthesis, I pieced
the various sounds together and found that the man wanted the location
of a certain British battery. I gave him the best information I could.

Not far from me, at Arriane Dump, the Chaplain's Service established a
coffee stall, and there men who were going up to or coming from the
line could get coffee, biscuits and cigarettes at all hours. The
neighbourhood had now become so safe that little huts were being run
up in various places. I asked our C.R.E. to build me a church, and, to
my great joy, an officer and some men were detailed to put up a little
structure of corrugated iron. At one end, over the entrance door,
there was a belfry in which was hung a good sized German gas bell
found in the trenches on our advance. Surmounting the belfry, was a
cross painted with luminous paint. Inside the church, I had an altar
with crucifix and candlesticks, and the Union Jack for a frontal. I
also had a lectern and portable organ. The oiled linen in the windows
let in a sufficient q