M.C.A. WELL UNDER
SHELL-FIRE]

[Illustration: THE CAMBRIDGE DUG-OUT]

A year later we revisited that old _brasserie_. There was little of it
left. The central hall remained, and the Red Triangle was on it,
marking it out as a centre for walking wounded. A dressing station had
been rigged up in the cellar underneath. A distinguished preacher
serving with the Y.M.C.A. conducted a memorable Watch-night service in
the Ridgewood. Two or three hundred men gathered round and listened with
marked attention. A shell burst quite close during the prayer, and every
man instinctively glanced up to see the effect on the padre. He carried
on exactly as if nothing had happened, and won his way to every heart.

[Illustration: A REFUGE FOR THE WALKING WOUNDED]

CHAPTER XII

STORIES OF 'LE TRIANGLE ROUGE'

It is with very great pleasure I send a small
contribution (3s.) to the Y.M.C.A. funds, and only
wish it could match my inclination. Few things
have brought so much comfort to the parents at
home as the knowledge of the splendid work done by
your organisation. As one boy puts it, 'When we
get inside the Y.M.C.A. hut, we feel as if we are
home again.'

AT the close of a Y.M.C.A. Conference held in the Hotel McMahon in
Paris, a French lady came timidly forward with a lovely bouquet of red
roses, and in a pretty little speech presented them as a thankoffering
for the war work of the Y.M.C.A. It was the gift of a mother who had
four sons serving with the Army. Those flowers have long since faded,
but the kind thought that prompted them will always remain a gracious
memory.

* * * * *

A soldier home on leave brought an interesting souvenir of the first
'Threapwood' hut, which did such good work in the Ploegsteert Woods, but
was ultimately destroyed by shell-fire--a 2 franc and a 50 centimes
piece which had become welded together in the heat of the conflagration.
Another Tommy saw a fierce fight take place between British and Germans,
actually inside the hut at Neuve Eglise. The incident that seemed to
have appealed most strongly to his imagination was the fact that the
pictures were still hanging on the walls. It is interesting to notice
the curious freaks of dud shells. Outside the hut at Tilloy we saw one
which had pierced its way through the trunk of a tree without
exploding--the nose of the shell protrude