mode of life is
the absence of the "sweet" course at luncheon or dinner. Perfectly
ridiculous! Just the same as washing, but one misses it somehow, that
is all, even when one is eating covered with mud. I received your
letter of February 3rd last night; usually these letters only take 2
days to come. Thanks for sending Bryant and May's matches. I hope they
will arrive shortly via Southampton. Tell Blanche I am sorry for her
troubles with her teeth: I am trying to see a dentist myself. I hear
there is one at a little distance away, and I propose to ride over to
see him to-morrow, if possible. We go across to a canal, and follow
that for 8 miles, and then he, the dentist, is to be found somewhere
in an ambulance. A very good thing to be able to get away from under
shell fire even for a short time. We had rather a doing yesterday, for
the Germans shelled us heavily, and finally concentrated on two
houses. Curiously enough, I had pointed out to the authorities how
very visible some works the Engineers had constructed were to the
enemy from their aircraft, and I stated that the woodwork ought to be
painted earth colour, and sent out a party of men in the meantime to
cover the wood with mud. Unfortunately, however, the mud dried,
leaving the wood still rather light, and the aircraft came along all
right, as I suspected, saw it, and signalled to their gunners where to
fire. By some good luck, the 2 houses alongside, though they were full
of my men, had also shelters erected to protect them from shell fire.
These they ran into, and so escaped; only Major W---- was hit on the
head by a splinter, which did not hurt him, as his skull is fairly
resisting! The few remaining rafters were blown off the houses and the
walls fell down. It was most unpleasant to stand by helplessly and
watch it; I could not turn on our gunners, for a very heavy
bombardment was going on to our right at the usual place which I have
mentioned to you before. The shells we captured were French, and
exploded well. Coming out of the trenches, the company that came my
way had one corporal killed and one wounded. The poor man was shot
dead just before leaving the trenches. I quickened our pace up, I can
tell you, when we suddenly found ourselves walking along in the line
of a hot fire fight in front of us; though it was a mile and a half
away in the darkness, one bullet struck beside me, and another went
over my head. The shell which struck this house was evident