alect. At the station they
had to have another "wet" in the refreshment room, and by the time the
train was due to start a good many were "canned up."

Boozy voices yelled out--

"'S long way... Tipper-airy..."

"Good-bye, Bill... 'ave... 'nother swig?"

"Don't ferget ter write, Bill..."

"Aw-right, Liz... Good-bye, Albert..."

We were locked in the carriage. There was much shouting and
laughing.... And so to Aldershot.

CHAPTER II. A LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY

Aldershot was a seething swarm of civilians who had enlisted. Every
class and every type was to be seen. We found out the R.A.M.C. depot and
reported. A man sat at an old soapbox with a lot of papers, and we had
to file past him. This was in the middle of a field with row upon row of
bell-tents.

"Name?" he snapped.

I told him.

"Age?"

"Religion?"

"Quaker."

"Right!--Quaker Oats!--Section 'E,' over there."

But my old postman knew better, and, having found out where "Section E"
was camped, we went off up the town to look for lodging for the night,
knowing that in such a crowd of civilians we could not be missed.

At last we found a pokey little house where the woman agreed to let us
stay the night and get some breakfast next day.

That night was fearful. We had to sleep in a double bed, and it was
full of fleas. The moonlight shone through the window. The shadow of a
barrack-room chimney-pot slid slowly across my face as the hours dragged
on.

We got up about 5.30 A.M., so as to get down to the parade-ground in
time for the "fall in."

We washed in a tiny scullery sink downstairs. There was a Pears' Annual
print of an old fisherman telling a story to a little girl stuck over
the mantelpiece.

We had eggs and bread-and-butter and tea for breakfast, and I think the
woman only charged us three shillings all told.

Once down at the parade-ground we looked about for "Section E" and found
their lines in the hundreds of rows of bell-tents.

Life for the next few days was indeed "hand to mouth." We had to go on
a tent-pitching fatigue under a sergeant who kept up a continual flow of
astoundingly profane oaths.

Food came down our lines but seldom. When it did come you had to fetch
it in a huge "dixie" and grope with your hands at the bits of gristle
and bone which floated in a lot of greasy water. Some one bought a box
of sardines in the next tent.

"Goin' ter share 'em round?" said a hungry voice.

"Nah blooming fear I ain't--w