e
second line--the first line consisting of "listening posts" somewhere in
that watery waste beyond, where the men wore waders reaching well above
their knees. We squelched along a narrow strip of plank with the
trenches on one side and a sort of cesspool on the other--no wonder they
got typhoid, and I prayed I mightn't slip.

We could walk upright further on without our heads showing, which was a
comfort, as it is extremely tiring to walk for long in a stooping
position. Through an observation hole in the parapet we looked right out
across the inundations to where the famous "Ferme Violette," which had
changed hands so often and was at present German, could plainly be seen.
Dark objects were pointed out to us sticking up in the water which the
sergeant cheerfully observed, holding his nose the meanwhile, were
_sales Boches_! We hurried on to a bigger dug-out and helped the doctor
with several _blesses_ injured that afternoon, and later we helped to
remove them back to the village and thence to a field hospital. Just
then we began bombarding with the 75's. which we had seen earlier on.
The row was deafening--first a terrific bang, then a swizzing through
the air with a sound like a sob, and then a plop at the other end where
it had exploded--somewhere. At first, as with all newcomers in the
firing line, we ducked our heads as the shells went over, to a roar of
delight from the men, but in time we gave that up. During this
bombardment we went on distributing our woollies all along the line, and
I thought my head would split at any moment, the noise was so great. I
asked one of the officers, during a pause, why the Germans weren't
replying, and he said we had just got the range of one of their
positions by 'phone, and as these guns we were employing had just been
brought up, the Boche would not waste any shells until they thought they
had our range.

Presently we came to the officer's dug-out, and, would you believe it,
he had small windows with lace curtains! They were the size of pocket
handkerchiefs; still the fact remains, they _were_ curtains. He showed
us two bits of a shell that had burst above the day before and made the
roof collapse, but since then the damage had been remedied by a stout
beam. He was a merry little man with twinkling eyes and very proud of
his little house.

Our things began to give out at this point and we were not at the end of
the line by any means. It was heart breaking to hear one man sa