en spent on this camp since those days and
it is now a _nursery_ for the recruits who have volunteered three years
late and need the enticement of feather beds to induce them to leave
mother. It has been thoroughly drained and terraced, and comfortable
huts have been erected, but _we_ simply rolled in blankets on bare
Mother Earth and sheltered from sun and rain in tents that were
supposed to be water-proof, and generally _were_ unless you happened to
touch them when wet. If you did accidentally happen to rub against the
sides, there would be a stream of water pouring down on you all night.
There was no escaping this, for there was not an inch of ground inside
the tent that was not covered by man. In fact, with ten in a tent, one
of us had to lie three-quarters outside, anyway, which was the chief
reason why I was never last in. Dressing was a problem, for every one
must needs dress at the same time, and from the outside the tent must
have looked something like a camel whose hump was constantly slipping.
Perhaps that is why every one used safety-razors after a while, for
although our faces would frequently look as though they had been mixed
up in barbed wire, there was really not much danger of cutting one's
throat, for even though you received a forty-horse-power jolt at a
critical moment, the razor-guard prevented your life being actually
imperilled.

In this camp we received our uniforms and equipment, but it was only
after a lot of exchanging had been done that our uniforms made us look
soldierly. Oh, Lord! what caricatures many of us were after the first
issue. There were practically no out-sizes in tunics, but plenty of
the men were not merely out-size, but odd-sized. Some little fellows
looked as if they were wearing father's coat, and there were others who
looked as if they were wearing that of baby brother. Some had to turn
back the cuffs two or three times, while others had at least a foot of
wrist and forearm showing. But the breeches! Oh, my Aunt Sarah! Some
were able to tuck the bottoms into their boots, while others had to
wind puttees above their knees. There were men who couldn't bend
comfortably, while others had room to carry a couch about with them.
However, the orders were that we were to keep on exchanging until we
got something like a fit, but as there were varieties in the quality of
the cloth, there were those who preferred a misfit to poor material, so
that there were always a number