r way through at whatever cost.

[Illustration: The P. M. C.]

[Illustration: Tigris Salmon.]

[Illustration: The Palm Creeks.]

That evening the Colonel gave a dinner party and the powers of the
Mess President were taxed to the utmost limit. Nearly 40 sat down, the
Mess staff rose to the occasion, and the cook turned out things we had
never seen before. The next day the Commanding Officer remarked at
dinner "Really, P.M.C., I don't at all know why when we have 2 or 3
Generals to dinner you can give us nice white table cloths but at
other times it is only bare boards", "Well Sir," he hesitatingly
replied, "they were two of Stewart's sheets." Sundays were usually
fairly slack days. I sometimes thought that they could have been even
slacker, it being so absolutely necessary to have one day's rest a
week. Church Parade would be held in the early morning, and another
service at 6 in the evening after the sun had set. These evening
services were very impressive; we would form round in a half circle
sitting on the grass, or what formed a substitute for grass, with the
Padre in the middle. The Commanding Officer would sit at one end of
the half circle either amongst his officers or at the other end
amongst the men, and the Padre knowing well the limits of human
endurance and the severe test that the great heat was putting us to,
never preached too long a sermon. We all loved him, and as he had been
with the Regiment for a dozen years he knew everyone and about
everyone, and when he went sick after the great advance on Baghdad,
all felt that they had temporarily lost a friend. We were miles away
from any village and still further from any town, so there was no one
to visit on Sundays and no social life; unlike our comrades in
France we were unable to enjoy the hospitality of a friendly
population or look forward to going home on leave. We were out here
and we knew it meant for months or may be years. Leave in a restricted
form was granted to India during the 1916 summer, but that is going
from one hot country to another and, though appreciated, could not be
compared to going home. We knew two or three days in advance, the day
that we would go up to the trenches for our spell, and we usually went
in at the commencement of the month, so had the advantage, or
disadvantage as it sometimes proved, of having a full moon. The
distance to march was about three miles before we reached the end of
the communication trench and we neve