gone
home. They counted it a desirable thing to be employed still, since
actual fighting was impossible, somewhere in touch with fighting men.

I wonder how much Balaam divined of the greatness which, no doubt,
was in "the uttermost part" of the host when the king showed it to
him. I suppose he understood something of it, for once again, to the
indignation of Balak, he blessed instead of cursing. I am sure that
any one who has lived long among the men at our bases will feel as I
do, that his pride in what is great there far outweighs his
disappointment at the other things he saw. I never saw the fighting
or the actual front, but even if I had seen nothing else but the
fighting I could scarcely feel greater admiration for our officers
and men or more love for them.

I have, of course, no tales of adventure to tell. Perhaps I am too
old for adventuring, or never had the spirit which makes adventures
possible. Yet I own to a certain feeling of disappointment when the
doctor who examined me in London told me with almost brutal frankness
that he would not allow me to be sent to the front. To France I might
go, and even that permission, I think, was a concession. But in
France I must remain in places where hardship is not extreme. Doctors
are powerful people in the army and in certain matters their word is
the supreme law. But fortunately there are always other doctors. And
I think I could in the end have managed to get to the very front, in
spite of that first man, though he held high rank and was much
be-tabbed. But by the time I found out how to get round his
prohibition I had become so much interested in my work that I did not
want to leave it and even felt grateful to that doctor for sending me
to France in the position of a man marked P.B., letters which stand
for Permanent Base, and mean that their bearer will not be asked to
go where fighting is.

For one other thing I am thankful to the doctor who examined me. He
did not ask me to be vaccinated, inoculated, or half-poisoned in any
other way. If he had demanded such things of me before I held my
commission, I might have had to yield, and I should have disliked the
business greatly. Afterwards I remained an unpersecuted heretic and
never underwent any of these popular operations. For months, I know,
a form was constantly filled up about me and sent to the medical
staff of the base at which I was, stating the awful fact that I had
escaped the safeguards provided for