_eiress. After this our orderly ceased
from troubling--for a time.

Amongst the many sad cases I have come across, here is one which strikes
me as being particularly pitiable. A poor fellow of the 2nd Lincolns is
the patient I am thinking about. He is deaf, deaf as a stone wall, is
sickening for enteric, cannot read, and is at times delirious. The tent
the poor fellow is in is not a very good one, and he seems quite
friendless. There he lies in his bed, never uttering a word or hearing
one, and as helpless as a child. Some mornings back I saw him eating his
porridge with his fingers, the man who had handed it to him having
forgotten to give him a spoon. His utter loneliness seems too awful. I
wonder what his poor mind thinks about. When told that he would
probably be sent home, he said he did not want to go. Surely somewhere
in God's sweet world there is somebody who cares for and thinks about
him. I cannot half express to you the sadness of his solitude.

SOUTHWARD HO!

NO. 2 HOSPITAL TRAIN,
_Monday, February 18th._

On Friday I had my sheet marked with those magic words "For base,"
paraded on Saturday morning before the P.M.O., and a few hours later was
told to go to the pack store, draw my kit, and be ready to entrain at
five. So I had to rush about.

It was soon time to parade for the station, and I had to rush through as
many leave-takings as possible. Good-bye to Sister Douglas, Sister
Mavius, Sister O'Connor; to an Australian Bushman friend with injured
toes, who hobbles about on his heels; to poor old Scotty, the New
Zealander, as game as they make them, who is to have his right arm off
on Monday (to-day); to a big, good-natured gunner of No. 10 Mountain
Battery, whose acquaintance I had only just made; to a Piccadilly
Yeoman; to our day orderly, and dozens of other good fellows, and I had
said farewell, or perhaps only _au revoir_, to the I.Y. Hospital
Arcadia, with the doctor of our ward, Dr. Douglas, one of the cleverest
and best, the Sisters with their albums, and all its tragedies and
comedies. Perjuring my soul beyond redemption by cordial promises to
write to all and sundry, so I left them.

* * * * *

Once aboard the lugger, I should say train, our berths were allotted to
us, and we soon settled down. The whole thing is very much like being on
shipboard, save that there the authoritie