French lessons from him, although
it must be admitted that they suffered many interruptions in good old
plain English from the Tommies, provoked by the jolting of the train.
They nicknamed this huge French dictionary the "Doomsday Book," because
it was their doom to have its contents thrown at them every day.

THE LAST STAGE.

The weather set in very cold and snowy, and as the cracks in the bottom
of the truck measured three inches in width, it can be guessed what a
draught there was. But in spite of everything and the general discomfort
of things, jam and biscuits were "lowered" in plenty. I amused the boys
by making sketches on biscuits and throwing them out of the window at
the various stations we passed through to the crowds of French
civilians, soldiers, and Red Cross nurses. Perhaps some of my comrades
will find some of these biscuit souvenirs at their homes--if they ever
get there--for not a few were kept to the end of the journey and posted
to friends in England.

We passed over several bridges which the Germans had destroyed, but
which had been made temporarily good again by the French engineers. Over
these our train had to travel gingerly. As we neared the fighting zone
the booming of the guns could be heard, and a little further on things
became more warlike. We noticed the devastated stations, villages, and
large shell holes in the embankment of the line.

All this seemed to bring to the surface our fighting spirits, and we
only wanted to be out and at the Huns.

On arrival at Etaples, after a rest of two hours or so in the station
yard and street adjoining same, we marched in full pack and kit,
including blankets and our waterproof sheets, to a fishing village,
where we struck a camp and turned in for the night. We were under canvas
for four days--the only four days under canvas during the whole time I
was in France. The Colonel gave orders that all the men's heads were to
be shaved, as we were proceeding to the trenches.

LADY ANGELA FORBES'S SOLDIERS' HOME AT ETAPLES.

[Illustration: LADY ANGELA FORBES'S SOLDIERS' HOME AT ETAPLES.]

A never fading recollection of Etaples will be that of the kindness and
hospitality we received at the hands of Lady Angela Forbes and the "very
gallant gentlewomen" who assisted her in the management of her Soldiers'
Home there. The warmest of welcomes and the best of cheer awaited every
soldier who crossed its threshold. Nothing that thoughtfulness could
sugges