it--cheer up, old chap." He, like the rest of
us, didn't know what to say. But old Chappie didn't "go west" after
all. He was ill for a long time, but was finally invalided home to
Canada.

While we were worrying over old Chappie a call came for volunteers to
dig out some men that had been buried. McLeod and I grabbed shovels,
and away we went in the direction pointed out. There was smoke
everywhere and shells were continually coming. We went down the trench
for quite a distance, and, turning a corner, what a sight met our eyes!
There, sitting around on the firing-step of a bay, were nine of our
boys, dead. The shell must have burst just above them, for they were
full of holes, and their clothes were on fire. I turned to Mac:
"Nothing for us to do here, old boy," and we started back. Just then I
stumbled over something, and looking down, I saw that it was a body
almost entirely buried in the dirt and wire netting. I scraped away
some of the dirt and found that the man still breathed, so I got busy
and tried to get him out. He was covered with the wire that is used to
keep our trenches from caving in, and it was an awful job getting the
wire and dirt off. We dug with our shovels, and tore at the wire until
finally we got him extricated. We couldn't see a wound, but we thought
it might be concussion, but when we lifted him up there was a hole in
his back that I could put my fist in. Poor fellow, I saw that it was
no use, but I threw some water in his face, and he opened his eyes, and
tried to speak, and then quietly "went west." I went back to the boys
feeling mighty blue, and their only greeting was, "Where in hell have
you been? Don't you know your place is here?" but I just cursed back,
and explained.

The Germans had stopped coming over by this time, but they still held
portions of our front line. Out of the five hundred men who took over
our portion of the front trenches, only one or two came out, and this
is what they told us. They had been shelled for hours and their
casualties were very heavy, as their only protection was shell holes.
Then Fritzie started to come over, but they gathered in a bunch and
bombed him back, and then the mines went up and that finished them.
When Fritzie came over the few that were left were half buried and
dazed, and had lost their rifles, so they were taken prisoners.

In the second line there were about a hundred of us left. Spud Murphy,
our officer, fought till