he score,
And I don't seem the least bit astounded,
Though I never have done it before!
At last a glad chorus of yelling,
Proclaims my dream-fox has been viewed--
But somewhere some stove smoke is smelling
Which accounts for my feeling half stewed--
And somewhere the F.A.N.Y.s are talking
And somebody shouts through the din:
"What a horrible habit of snoring--
Hit her hard--wake her up--the train's in."

CHAPTER XV

CONVOY PETS, COMMANDEERING, AND THE "FANTASTIKS"

We took turns to go out on "all-night duty"; a different thing from
night guards, and meant taking any calls that came through after 9 p.m.
and before 8 a.m. next morning.

They were usually from outlying camps for men who had been taken ill or
else for stranded Army Sisters arriving at the Gare about 3 a.m. waiting
to be taken to their billets.

It was comparatively cheery to be on this job when night guards were in
progress, as there were four hefty F.A.N.Y.s sitting up in the
cook-house, your car warm and easy to crank, and, joy of joys, a hot
drink for you when you came back!

In the ordinary way as one scrambled into warm sweaters and top coats
the dominant thought was, would the car start all right out there, with
not a hand to give a final fillip once the "getting loose" process was
accomplished?

Luckily my turns came round twice during night guards, and the last time
I had to go for a pneumonia case to Beau Marais. It was a bright
moonlight night, almost as light as day, with everything glittering in
the frozen snow. Susan fairly hopped it! After having found the case,
which took some doing, and deposited him in No. 30 hospital, I sped back
to camp.

As I crossed the Place d'Armes and drove up the narrow Rue de la Mer,
Susan seemed to take a sudden header and almost threw a somersault! I
had gone into an invisible hole in the ice, two feet deep, extending
half across the street. For some reason it had melted (due probably to
an underground bakery in the vicinity). I reversed anxiously and then
hopped out to feel Susan's springs as one might a horse's knees. Thank
goodness they had not snapped, so backing all the way down the street
again, relying on the moon for light, I proceeded cautiously by another
route and got back without further mishap.

Our menagerie was gradually increasing. There were now three dogs and
two cats in camp, not to mention a magpie and two canaries, more