ickling down my cheek, and after the boys fixed me up as well
as they could I went to the dressing-station. One of the boys in the
trench had been killed by the shell that I got a piece of; and I was
out at the dressing-station for a day or two, and then had orders to
report to my unit. On my way back I met Rust and Tommy Gammon, and we
sat and chatted about old times. "Come with me and join the Stokes
gun," said I; "it's lots better than the infantry." "Nothing doing,"
said Tommy, "you're a poor advertisement;" and I suppose I did look
funny with a big bandage around my head. "No, we are not looking for a
quick funeral yet awhile," said Rust. Well, I left the boys and went
on to my new unit. Some time in the next day or so Harry Foster got
hit through the shoulder; and he went off looking as pleased as a dog
with two tails. My, how we envied him as he walked out smoking a
cigarette! But, poor chap, he died in London, and we never heard what
took him off.

Shortly after this we started off for the Somme, and before we went we
exchanged our Ross rifles for Lee-Enfields. We had a great time going
down, we rode in cattle cars part of the way and marched the rest.
Most of the roads we passed over were lined with apple trees, and gee!
they did look good. When we were getting near the lines we met a
division of Australians coming out from the Somme battlefield, and what
sights they were! They were covered with white chalk and most of them
had their trousers cut off at the knee. We asked them what it was like
and they said, "Oh, you won't want a rifle, all you need is a shovel to
dig yourself a hole"--cheerful, wasn't it?

Well, we went into reserves and for a couple of days we did nothing but
lounge around. We took a walk through Albert to see the statue of the
Madonna and the infant Jesus. It hung right over the road, and it is
marvellous how long it stayed there without being hit. The French
people used to say that when it fell the war would end, but it has been
down some time and the war is not over yet. They put us on fatigues
and working parties for a few days and then we were moved up to the
supports. We were told that we were going over the top early next
morning assisted by tanks. Now, tanks had not been used up to this
time and they were the surprise of the war. We hadn't heard one word
about them and we were crazy to know what they were like, so our
officer told us where we would find one, and a