oos, destroyed by a direct hit. The latter was approached by a
long communication trench, and was fitted up in the ordinary way--a few
tables and chairs, reading and writing materials, games, pictures on the
walls, and, of course, the inevitable and always appreciated piano. A
few days before we were there a dud shell from one of the German
'heavies' fell only two or three yards in front of the divisional
secretary's car. The cellar was immediately under a ruined _brasserie_,
and in the grounds of the latter was a solitary German grave. The story
goes that in the early days of the war enemy patrols passed through
Meroc, and a shot alleged to have been fired from a window of the
_brasserie_ found its billet in one of the Huns. In revenge, the
Germans killed every man, woman, and child in the _brasserie_. In
striking contrast was the story told us by the matron of one of our
British hospitals: 'Every one in this ward is desperately wounded, and
too ill to travel. All in that row,' said she, pointing, 'are Germans.
Yesterday a man occupying one of those beds lay dying, and could not
make his head comfortable. I went into the next ward, and said to the
Tommies "There's a German dying, will one of you lend him your pillow?"
Without a moment's hesitation,' said she, 'every one of those
dangerously wounded Britishers whipped out his pillow to help his dying
enemy.' That is the spirit of our men, and that accounts, quite as much
as their valour, for the fact that they have won the respect even of an
enemy trained from infancy to regard the British soldier as an object of
scorn and derision.

CHAPTER XI

CAMEOS FROM FRANCE

The work of this Young Men's Christian Association
has sunk so deep into the minds and into the lives
of our fellow countrymen that its work in the
future can never be diminished, and must be
extended. And it is going to do more to my mind,
than simply minister to the wants of the men in
camp; it is going to be a bond between this
country and the Great Englands beyond the
sea.--THE RT. HON. THE EARL OF DERBY, K.G.,
G.C.V.O.

A STRIKING feature of the war work of the Y.M.C.A. has been the
promptness with which a new situation has been seized and a new opening
entered. There has been an utter absence of red tape, and freedom of
action has been given to all accredited representatives of the
Associat