n for, we are continuing our out-door
life. Consequently, we are now sitting on our saturated haunches
awaiting sunshine above, smoking our pipes, and wondering when the war
will come to a genuine end. What a number of officers have gone home
sick--of it! Our friends the Fifes are awfully good fellows, and the
best managed Yeomanry Squadron I have seen out here. Yesterday evening
we were guests at a little sing-song round their fire, and partakers of
their hospitality in the way of hot cocoa. Alas, the rain speedily
brought what promised to be an enjoyable evening to an end, and it was
every man to his own tent, booby hutch, or cloak and blanket. I was
actually the recipient of two letters and a parcel yesterday evening,
thanks undoubtedly to a mistake somewhere or other. The making of a
correct declaration of the contents of a parcel and their approximate
value, as required by the postal authorities, and the sticking of the
same on the parcel which is to gladden the heart of the man in khaki far
away, is, I fear, a dangerous thing to do. Take, for example, a package,
the contents of which are veraciously announced on the affixed slip as
"Tobacco, cigarettes, chocolate, pipe, and shirt; value L1 10s."--your
friend's chances of getting it are about 50 to 1 against; but the same
parcel with the brief announcement "Shirt and socks; value 5s." would
probably reach him some day. A Fife friend tells me he now and again
gets a large medicine bottle of--well, what would it be for a Scotchman?
well-corked and marked "Developing Solution."

Saturday, October 27th. Still at the above address. Nothing of note to
record. Flies an awful nuisance on us and everything. Fellows would not
believe that the jam ration has been so reduced in bulk by flies. Some
people won't believe anything--fortunately I had my share first, and
perhaps I did take a _leetle_ too much. No news of possibility of
getting home by Christmas or the New Year. I feel vicious, and somebody
must suffer, so here goes.

N.B.--I hold the late Alfred Lord Tennyson partly responsible.

THE YEOMAN.

(Dedicated to the Fife, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, and Sussex
Imperial Yeomanry Squadrons.)

"The War has grown flat, stale, and unprofitable as a topic for
conversation."--_Extract from Editorial Notes in "Black and
White," September 20th._

We came from many a town and shire,
From road, and street, and alley,
And, filled with patrioti