plastered from head to foot with mud, and
dirty water streamed over my beautiful features. Well, after a week of
this night duty we were sent eight miles back to "Rest Billets"--here
we got a bath--which I assure you was very welcome--also some clean
clothes, but we didn't succeed in shaking our friends the
"cooties";--like the poor, they were always with us. While on rest we
were quartered in some frame huts, and these extended for a quarter of
a mile on either side of the road. Between the huts and the road there
was an immense ditch, and this usually contained a couple of feet of
muddy water; the boys had planks leading from their huts to the road.
One night one of the boys came home loaded and he attempted to cross
one of these planks--in the darkness he missed his footing and _flop_!
he went into the water; he found himself sitting in about two feet of
slushy mud and he put down his hands to push himself up, but the mud
was sticky and he only succeeded in going in deeper. We heard him
calling for help, and when we got to him only his head and toes were
above water; the air around looked very blue, but I don't believe the
Recording Angel put down everything he said. He looked so funny we
could hardly help him for laughing.

Well, our week's rest was over all too soon for us, and we were sent
back to the front lines. This was the routine that we followed that
winter; one week in the trenches, one at the supports, and one on rest.
We had been up to the trenches three times before we had our first
brush with Fritzie; the Battle of Loos was being fought to the
southward, but things had been comparatively quiet with us. However,
one evening when we were "standing to," just at sunset, suddenly the
ground that we were standing on began to rock--we pitched too and fro
like drunken men--and farther down the trench the earth opened and a
flame of fire shot up into the air. It looked more like a volcano in
eruption than anything else, and we couldn't imagine what was
happening. Someone yelled, "The Germans are coming!"; but our officer
said, "Don't be frightened, boys; a mine has been exploded." The
German artillery then opened up a terrific bombardment, and they were
answered by our guns, and for about an hour it certainly seemed as if
hell had been let loose. We were afraid to take shelter in our
dugouts, for we thought that Fritzie might come over any moment, and
sure enough, as soon as their gun fire slackene