and we rejoiced over the discovery of soap and tablecloths and stray
knives and forks, just as though we had been cast on a desert island.
Bass did the cooking and I laid the table and washed up and made the
beds, which were full of fleas. But we had been sleeping on chairs and
on the floor for a week so we did not mind much.

The second day we were awakened by cannon and you can imagine our joy
and excitement. We had it all to ourselves for eight hours, as it took
the other correspondents that long to arrive. It was an artillery and
infantry battle and about 20,000 men were engaged on both sides. The
Greeks fought from little trenches on the hills back of the town and
the Turks advanced across a great green prairie. It was very long
range and only twice did they get to within a quarter of a mile of our
trenches. Bass and I went all over the Greek lines, for you were just
as safe in one place as in another, which means that it wasn't safe
anywhere, so we gave up considering that and followed the fight as best
we could from the first trench, which was the only one that gave an
uninterrupted view of the Turkish forces. It was a brilliantly clear
day but opened with a hail storm, which enabled the Turks to crawl up
half a mile in the sudden darkness. It also gave me the worst attack
of sciatica I ever had. Fortunately, it did not come on badly until I
reached Volo, when it suddenly took hold of me so that I could not
walk. The trenches were wet with the rain and we had no clothes to
change to, and two more showers kept us more or less wet all day. We
had a fine view of everything and I learned a lot.

We were under a heavy fire for thirteen hours and certainly had some
very close escapes. At times the firing was so fierce that if you had
raised your arm above your head, the hand would have been instantly
torn off. We had to lie on our stomachs with our chins in the dirt and
not so much as budge. This was when the Turkish fire happened to be
directed on our trench. At such times all the other trenches would
fire so as to draw the attack away, and we would have to wait until it
was over. The shells sounded like the jarring sound of telegraph wires
when one hits the pole they hang from with a stone; and when the shells
were close they sounded like the noise made by two trains passing in
opposite directions when the wind is driven between the cars. The
bullets were much worse than the shells as you could alway