lish, a new one to him and
incomprehensible, but he submitted at once to the inevitable. He gave up
all idea of cleaning the carriage and Thompson went to sleep again. The
boy slept soundly through the whole business.

At half-past seven--the train had been jogging along since six--Thompson
woke and said he thought he'd better shave. The proposal struck me as
absurd.

"We can't possibly shave," I said, "without water."

Thompson was quite equal to that difficulty. The next time the train
stopped--it stopped every ten minutes or so--he hopped out with a
folding drinking cup in his hand. He returned with the cup full of hot
water. He had got it from the engine driver. He and I shaved. The boy
still slept, but, as Thompson pointed out, that did not matter. He was
too young to require much shaving.

"Nice boy that," said Thompson. "Son of an archdeacon; was at Cambridge
when the war broke out. Carries a photo of his mother about with him.
Only nice boys carry photos of their mothers. He has it in a
little khaki-coloured case along with one of the girl he's going to
marry--quite a pretty girl with tously hair and large eyes."

"Oh, he's engaged to be married, is he?"

"Of course he is. That sort of boy is sure to be. Just look at him."

As he lay there asleep his face looked extraordinarily young and
innocent. I admitted that he was just the sort of boy who would get
engaged to the first girl who took him seriously.

"Girl's out here nursing," said Thompson. "V.A.D. Evidently has a strong
sense of duty or she wouldn't be doing it V.A.D.-ing isn't precisely a
cushy job. He's tremendously in love."

"Seems to have confided most of his affairs in you," I said.

"Told me," said Thompson, "that the girl has just been home on leave. He
hoped to get back, too, to meet her, thinks he would have got a week if
he hadn't been ordered off on this course, bombing or whatever it is."

Thompson washed while he talked. It could scarcely be called a real
wash, but he soaped his face, most of his neck and his ears with his
shaving brush and then dipped his handkerchief in the drinking cup and
wiped the soap off. He was certainly cleaner afterwards; but I felt that
what was left of the water would not clean me.

Later on Thompson secured some rolls of bread, two jam pastries and six
apples. The bread and pastry I think he bought The apples I am nearly
sure he looted. I saw a large basket of apples in one of the waggons of
a train