ogue there,--a large
number of donkeys, and each time a donkey passed my charger, it would
stop dead and wag its ears much after the fashion of a Hebrew
gesticulating with his hands in selling a suit of clothes. This was
repeated every time we met one of the little donkeys, and each time I
had to get off and back the brute for some distance, until it again took
the notion to go forward; it was a case of one step forward and two back
before I reached my destination.

The most ridiculously funny instance connected with the meeting of the
mule and the donkey was the manner in which each indulged in its muleism
and donkeyism; the little donkey would shoot its head straight forward,
stick its ears out sidewise, at right angles, and commence its song of
greeting, which sounded exactly like a man sawing wood, and the mule
would warble its well-known lyric of sweetness,--"Hee-Haw! Hee-Haw!
Hee-Haw!" keeping time with the flapping of its long lugs.

When I got to Poperinghe Square the mule and myself were all in; save
for the ride on the Parson's charger to the wagon lines, I had not been
riding for the space of a month, and my legs were so chafed I was
compelled to walk like an aged rheumatic for three or four days; but I
had company,--the other fellows were similarly affected.

We made our way to the bath in a rush, as every man wanted to be in
first. The bath contained 200 men at a time, and 200 tubs; there was no
pool in which to bathe; every man had to do his swimming and slopping
and washing in a tub; and the sight of the women and girl attendants was
a welcome one, as it had been a couple of months before anything
feminine had come within the range of our vision. We had to take our
turn in going through the routine of the bath.

When I was next, the woman attendant handed me a shirt; a little further
along I got a pair of socks, then drawers. Thus equipped, I entered the
bathroom; there were about 100 men in there, splashing each other like
mad in their wild joy. In stepping along the water-soaked boards, I
happened to slip and fall in the wet, and my dry garments were soaked
with the water slopped on the boards, assisted by the splashing showers
the men were throwing around.

It so happened that one of the fellows had been particularly well
splashed by a chum and he was watching for a chance to get even; he
determined to wait until his chum had put on his clothes, so that he
could execute his vengeance with all the