be like
angels coming and going. Effort will be intensified. The lives of the
poor must be happier, because everyone will be more ready to give and
take.

It won't come all at once. But there'll be a difference. The war will
have made a difference. Thank God for the war!

_December 25._

[Sidenote: CHRISTMAS 1916]

Never talk about the "idle" staff. Yesterday we were working absolutely
solid without any break at all except an hour for lunch and an hour for
dinner (tea? away frivolous thought!) from 9 a.m. till 11.30 p.m. Most
interesting; but let's hope this first day's experience won't be a fair
sample, or I shall simply melt down like a guttered candle. None of the
Generals and people seemed to think it unusual. At least they never said
so. Personally I found it quite kolossal.

_12.30 a.m._

Such a funny Christmas Day! I've been fixing on a large map all the gun
positions on the corps front. There are a very great many, and the
positions must be marked very exactly. I was quite nervous lest there
should be a mistake. It has taken since about two o'clock till now. And
I think it is accurate at last.

At about 10 p.m. I found out an awful mistake. One of the heavies quite
100 yards wrong, which might have meant that it would be ranging on the
wrong place, and probably do no damage whatever. Desperate thought!

Well, the staff is the most hard-working body of men I've ever seen.
They don't appear ever to get any exercise. And, really, the work is all
so vital that I don't see how they ever can expect to get any exercise.

About leave. Possibly on the way up to the other corps a side-slip to
Blighty will be allowed.

Don't depend on anything. There seems to be a dearth of people who can
do this work, and so it would be unwise to count on getting away. The
thing is, however, conceivable--that is all.

_December 27._

First of all about current affairs here.

Captain G---- is probably going to Army, so it is suggested that I shall
take his place here. He runs all the plotting of the aeroplane
photographs, etc., for the corps. It's a most awful and alarming
responsibility, and I don't feel that I can do it yet. May he not get
taken away just for a little while, or I'm lost.

The corps commander sends for him (he has been doing the job for nine
months), and says: "Now, where is our line at the present moment? Has
so-and-so trench been repaired, and where is so-and-so German battery
that was shelling