nee-deep with mud, was scandalous in the eyes of our neighbors
of the Imperial army, as the troops from the British Isles are known.
Quite frequently we were subjected to the most scathing tongue-lashing
from officers of the old school, but we won the astonished admiration
of the Tommies by our disregard of instructions and advice. I well
remember one day when a party of us were going out through the P. & O.
communication trench and, finding the mud too deep, we climbed out and
walked across the open, whereat an old Colonel of some Highland
regiment gave us a "beautiful calling." His discourse was a
masterpiece of fluent soldier talk and, as a Scot usually does when
excited, he lapsed into the "twa-talk" of his native Hielans. I can
remember his last words, which were to the effect that: "Ye daft
Cany-deens think ye're awfu' brave but I tell ye the noo it's no
bravery; it's sheer stupidity." Of course he was right, but we could
not allow the small matter of a bullet or two to stand in the way of
our getting out in time for tea, and finally they gave it up in
disgust and allowed us to "go to hell in our own cheerful fashion," as
they said.

With the assistance of the engineers, we finally succeeded in
constructing a new line, slightly in the rear of the old one which was
abandoned except for a couple of machine-gun positions and a listening
post. We also managed to get out a fairly good barbed-wire
entanglement along most of the front. Fritz appeared to be having his
troubles, too, so did not bother us much at night. We always got a few
shells every day and usually quite a number of rifle grenades and
"fish-tail" aerial torpedoes, but they did very little damage. Here
was where the mud was our friend, for, unless a shell dropped squarely
on the top of you, it would do no harm.

CHAPTER VII

SNIPER'S BARN

Just as streets and roads must have their names, so must all trenches
have official designations. This applies also to localities, farms,
cross-roads, woods and such places which have no "regular" names or
which possess Flemish or French names difficult of pronunciation by
the soldiers.

Front-line trenches are usually designated by letters or numbers,
running in regular order, from right to left in each sector. Certain
important points may have special names. Communication trenches are
always given distinctive names. Probably the majority of these names
are those of prominent streets and roads in England