hutting
the door and fastening the shutters; this marked the house, and she
had not been gone 20 minutes when four shells landed together and blew
the place to pieces, just missing the observation post! Of course she
was a spy for the Germans, who watched from a church some distance off
through a telescope, and so were shown where the station was. Then the
guns opened on our cooks, but passed them, knocking down a wall
alongside. Curious that we are not allowed to intern these people; but
the French authorities object. Probably many messages are sent to the
Germans by underground wires.

G.B.L.

_P.S._--The last of this note is rather disjointed, but that is
because I have been giving a learned dissertation on the best means of
circumventing a German sap approaching us.

IN BILLETS.
_December 4th, 1914._

We left our trenches yesterday without regret, and retired some six
miles way to a little country town about the size of Newry, where we
are quartered, or rather billeted, for a couple of days before we go
back again to our diggings. The exchange had to be done in the dark,
and I got the regiment away without casualties, which was better than
the night we went in, when I lost two men killed. It is strange being
out of fire for the first time for three weeks, and nobody being
killed or wounded beside one at present! Also it seems funny to see
people walking again in the streets, and to hear children's voices,
instead of only soldiers dodging from house to house whilst these
latter are falling to pieces about their ears and all around them.
Your things duly arrived, and are at this moment being distributed to
the men, and are much appreciated by them, excepting the chest
protectors, which I suspect they will not wear! I am glad you have
done so well with the plum-pudding fund for the Regiment. Your
Mother's offering was _most_ generous, and Aunt E----'s too. We came
out of the trenches by creeping down ditches, and then assembled at a
place a mile away in the moonlight, and we stole cautiously along,
leaving gaps between us, so that if we were shelled we should only
lose a certain number. Many of the men could hardly stand, their feet
were so numbed with the cold of the trenches, but we got them safely
in about 10 p.m., and they are sleeping in all sorts of queer places.