that is the tune to which we "march past."

I was now initiated into the use of the hand grenades. The kind we got
were later termed the "hair-brush." Now and again, the Germans would take
a mad turn and lob a few of their grenades over at us, and in turn, we
returned the compliment. This form of fighting was then in its infancy,
and we nearly all had our own ways of doing it. I used to tie two or three
of the bomb handles together with a rope; get hold of the end of it,
which was knotted; and, in the same way as an American athlete throws the
hammer, I would swing the bombs over my head and let go in the direction
of Fritz. In this way I could accomplish a few yards more than anyone who
threw in the ordinary way. Sandbags were piled about three feet high on
top of the parapet with loopholes through which we fired our rifles. When
I wanted to throw the grenades in the fashion I have just described, I
would go to the more level ground at the back, throw them, and jump back
into the trench where I always had ample room, as the others, with varying
criticisms of my enterprise, gladly cleared the way before I started
operations. They fully expected me at some time to make a mistake and land
the grenades among them instead of in the boches' trench.

As we did not have one common system of throwing these grenades, a few of
the non-coms and men were selected to practise--a little way behind the
lines--the proper method. Our Acting-Colonel, J. T. C. Murray, and three
men were killed when a lance-corporal, in swinging a grenade,
accidentally struck the ground with it, causing it to explode.

At times we were treated to some lyddite shells by the boches (at least we
believed them to be lyddite, though I have since learned that they were
gas shells). I was never caught in the fumes myself, but I saw many men
who had been. This particular gas simply snuffed the life out of the men
without their even knowing what had happened. As they lost consciousness,
they turned a yellow-brown colour, and never made any attempt to
stir--just went to sleep and did not awaken--while those who got just a
slight touch of it, would stagger about, as if deeply intoxicated.

Volunteers were asked, one day, to go to a V-shaped sector where the
British and the German lines were so close that grenades could be easily
thrown from one trench to another--and they were! Thinking that it would
be an easier job than what I had been doing, I gave in my name. I