l on either side, and take in additional
houses.' This was exactly what we had done and, unattractive as it was,
the place drew crowds of men. At the Dickebusch Y.M.C.A. we were
provided with shrapnel and gas helmets and instructed in the use of the
latter. A two-mile trudge across a duck-walk over 'b----y meadow'
brought us to the famous Ridgewood Dug-outs. It was here that the
Canadians lost their guns in the early days of the war, and afterwards
so gloriously regained them. We entered the wood at midnight. A huge rat
crossed our path, and as we entered the first of the Y.M.C.A. dug-outs
where free cocoa was being dispensed in empty jam tins, we remembered a
yarn told us the day before by one of our workers. He had come to
Ridgewood as a special speaker, and after the evening meeting lay down
on the floor of the dug-out to sleep, but as he was beginning to feel
drowsy, a huge rat ran over his legs, and later one passed across his
face. With an electric flash-lamp he scared them away, but soon getting
used to it they came on 'in close formation.' He lit a candle, and a few
minutes later the rat ran away with the candle--so he said! From the
Ridgewood we went on to the Bois Carre. Shells were screaming overhead
all the time, but it was not a long walk though it provided many
thrills. For a couple of hundred yards we were on open ground, and
within easy reach of the Hun snipers. Only two of us were allowed to
pass at a time, and my guide and I had to keep fifty yards apart, and
when a 'Verey' light went up, had to stand absolutely still until it
fell to earth, and its light was extinguished. Weird things those star
shells! They shoot up to a good height like rockets, burst into
brilliant light, poise in mid-air and gradually shimmer down and out. A
few minutes brought us to the shelter of a ruined _brasserie_, and from
its further side we entered the communication trenches, and thus passed
to the Bois Carre. Standing back to visualise the scene, the orderly
caught my arm and pulled me into the shelter of the dug-out--a second
later came the patter of machine bullets on the sand-bags where we had
stood not ten seconds before. There was something fascinating about that
little dug-out Y.M.C.A., with its caterer's boiler, urns and stores, and
it is sad to think that since then it has been destroyed by shell-fire,
even though other dug-outs have been opened to take its place.

[Illustration: A GREAT BOON TO BRITISH TOMMY--A Y.