long stretch of gumbo on the way back to the horse lines.
When the gun crews had ceased firing, therefore, the cannoneers went to
the drivers' assistance. The latter lay, dead asleep, on top of the
caissons, while the horses munched in the bushes at the roadside. By
much shouting and more pushing, the men at last got the caissons past
the wallow of gumbo to the hard road, where pulling was easy for the
horses.

On the night of the 27th the battery moved to the front edge of the
woods. It was another struggle against heavy mud, and morning came ere
the second platoon was finally in position. The two platoons were about
half a kilometre apart, Lieutenant Leprohon commanding the first, and
Lieutenant Lombardi the second. Brush and trees had to be cut down to
permit firing without danger of a shell bursting prematurely in the tree
tops in front of the guns. Gun pits were commenced, proving a difficult
task in the sticky clay full of wiry roots. But these were not finished
by us. After three days here, the battery was relieved by artillery of
the 89th Division, and started on the cross country hike to the Argonne,
whence had come a hurry call for the tired veterans of the 42nd Division
to aid the troops held up at one part of the line by terrific resistance
on the part of the Germans.

The horse lines, near Nonsard, occupied one of the many elaborate camps
which the Germans had constructed in the vicinity. Boughs had been used
with the lavishness of a millionaire building an elaborate rustic
garden. Walks, roads, fences, shacks, ornamental gateways, were all of
this material, in camps covering acre after acre. Piles of empty
hogsheads, and wicker tables and benches, gave evidence that the enemy
troops had not lived an overhard life while they had been here.

The battery pulled out of the horse-lines at 8 p. m., October 1, and
hiked without stop till after midnight. After covering thirty
kilometres, the battalion pulled in at an old German remount camp, near
Ambly, alongside the canal. The following night the distance was
shorter, but progress was slow and waits were long--during which the
drivers fell asleep on their horses with blankets over their shoulders,
and the dismounted men dozed in the grass at the side of the road,
mindless of cold and damp. At 6 in the morning came the climb up the
hill into the Camp du Bois de Meuse, where the whole 67th Brigade
encamped.

Spending the day of September 3 there, we made the ne