an hour. He had done considerable work as a
translator of German documents and in the examination of captured
Germans. I feel sincere sympathy for Mr. Cohn, but there is
little use in words of condolence in the case of such tragedies.
It is the price of the game.

To a large extent, the Pater's deductions about the work in Tanks
on hot days are correct. Still, you can wear practically what you
like when on duty, so one works in a shirt, shorts, puttees and
boots. Although we are for the time being out of the battle line,
I am really very busy; there is no slacking in the H.B.M.G.C.;
but I am enjoying life hugely.

I manage to get a good deal of bathing these days, as there is a
beautiful little river about a stone's throw away from our
billets. By the way, I hope you are continuing as keen as ever on
your swimming. As to leave, it has again vanished into the limbo
of futurity. I am not particularly sorry. Leave is such a
fleeting joy. Just as one is beginning to get into the way of
things at home one has to go back again to the Front. I would
much prefer to get the War completely over than get leave. After
all, in my present job I am not worried by monotony, and I find
the work of absorbing interest. Moreover, I have many friends in
this battalion, and, above all, in our own Company, which
contains some really splendid fellows. What I miss most is music.

_June 10th, 1917._

There are few opportunities of writing, and the busy period is
likely to last for a space, so I fear my correspondence for some
time to come will be but scanty. Our northern push has been a
first-rate success. The simultaneous explosion of those mines on
the Messines Ridge must have created a terrific din, though I
myself never heard a sound, being at the time wrapped in the
sleep of the just.

I do hope things are going well in the old school, but I fear
that in existing conditions it is a difficult period for all
public schools. Owing to the War, boys leave so much younger now,
and you do not have fellows of eighteen and nineteen to set the
tone; and at that age they have unquestionably a far greater
sense of responsibility than at sixteen or seventeen, or, I
imagine, in the first years at the 'Varsity after leaving