n. It took half a dozen casualties to impress firmly on
the Asterisks the need of keeping cover. Shell casualties have an
extremely ugly look, and some of the Asterisks felt decidedly squeamish
at sight of theirs--especially of one where the casualty had to be
collected piece by piece, and removed in a sack.

For an hour before dawn the battalion 'stood to,' lining the trench
with loaded rifles ready after the usual and accepted fashion,
shivering despite their warm clothing and mufflers, and woollen caps
and thick great-coats in the raw-edged cold of the breaking day. For
an hour they stood there listening to the whine of overhead bullets and
the sharp 'slap' of well-aimed ones in the parapet, the swish and crash
of shells, the distant patter of rifle fire and the boom of the guns.

That hour is perhaps always the worst of the twenty-four. The rousing
from sleep, the turning out from warm or even from wet blankets, the
standing still in a water-logged trench, with everything--fingers and
clothes and rifle and trench-sides--cold and wet and clammy to the
touch, and smeared with sticky mud and clay, all combine to make the
morning 'stand to arms' an experience that no amount of repetition ever
accustoms one to or makes more bearable.

Even the Asterisks, fresh and keen and enthusiastic as they were, with
all the interest that novelty gave to the proceedings, found the hour
long-drawn and trying; and it was with intense relief that they saw the
frequently consulted watches mark the finish of the time, and received
the word to break off from their vigil.

They set about lighting fires and boiling water for tea, and frying a
meagre bacon ration in their mess-tin lids, preparing and eating their
breakfast. The meal over, they began on their ordinary routine work of
daily trench life.

Picked men were told off as snipers to worry and harass the enemy.
They were posted at loopholes and in various positions that commanded a
good outlook, and they fired carefully and deliberately at loopholes in
the enemy parapet, at doors and windows of more or less wrecked
buildings in rear of the German lines, at any and every head or hand
that showed above the German parapet. In the intervals of firing they
searched through their glasses every foot of parapet, every yard of
ground, every tree or bush, hayrick or broken building that looked a
likely spot to make cover for a sniper on the other side. If their eye
caught the flash o