the Battalion horses were
entered, and did not disgrace us, though we could hardly expect a win
against the pick of the Anzac, Yeomanry, and Gunners' mounts. Several of
the Battalion managed to be present at the meeting, which was a great
success. Meanwhile rumours that something was going to happen kept
coming in, and Colonel Morrison was away for several days reconnoitring
the country to the east and north-east. All our surplus stores were
dumped and a guard of the bootless left with them, and we moved off from
Sheikh Zowaid on the morning of the 25th of March, reaching Rafa about
midday. Here a halt was made, and tea was issued. At five o'clock the
Division moved on and crossed the frontier into Asia as dusk was
falling. It was rather an impressive moment and the pipers, rising to
the occasion, played "Blue bonnets o'er the Border." Behind was the
sunset in a sky of brilliant crimson. In front stretched great uplands
of a dim green, while we, the new Crusaders, crossed over to the lilt of
the pipes, whose music astonished Palestine now heard for the first
time; and with us in great columns moved guns and cavalry, camels and
transport, half seen in a haze of hanging dust. These of course are
after thoughts, at the time one's point of view was rather different.
One asked oneself whether two mobiles in one day was fair, one wondered
where the devil we were going to, and one cursed the dust and the weight
of one's pack. Suddenly we found ourselves moving between hedges up what
might well have been a dusty country lane at home--for the kindly
darkness hid the unfamiliar leaves of the cactus which bordered it.
Mysterious, silent figures loomed up on either side to watch us pass.
Another mile and we turned through a gap and received orders to bivouac
in a real field, and heard that we were at Khan Yunis--"John's Inn."

The spell of home was soon broken for those who were detailed to unload
the camels. The drivers were tired and had "barracked" their charges in
a careless mass instead of in proper lines. The camels were tired too,
and a tired camel stretches its long neck down to the dust. Then comes
an angry private and falls over the neck in the dark and camels and men
hate each other, each giving audible expression to their emotions after
their kind.

We waked at dawn on the 26th to the noise of heavy firing in the north,
and found a green and pleasant world blanketed in mist. The 53rd and
54th Divisions, with the cavalr