She expressed her horror
and forthwith produced a second!

"Soon 'ave a bloomin' aviary at this rate," he remarked as he handed
the second one over! No more appeared, however, and the two little
birds, both presumably dead, twittered and sang merrily the length of
the "cues."

As the better weather arrived so our work increased again, and in March
the Germans began a retreat in the west along a front of 100 miles. We
worked early and late and reached the point of being able to drive
almost asleep. An extraordinary sensation--you avoid holes, you slip the
clutch over bumps, you stop when necessary, and go on ditto, and at the
same time you can be having dreams! More a state of coma than actual
sleep, perhaps. I think what happened was one probably slept for a
minute and then woke up again to go off once more.

I became "Wuzzy's" adopted mother about now and, whenever I had time,
combed and brushed his silver curls till they stood out like fluff. He
could spot Susan miles away, and though it was against rules I sometimes
took him on board. As we neared camp I told him he must get down, but he
would put on an obstinate expression and deliberately push himself
behind my back, in between me and the canvas, so that I was almost on
the steering wheel. At other times he would listen to me for awhile,
take it all in, and then put his head on my shoulder with such an
appealing gesture that I used to risk being spotted, and let him remain.
He simply adored coming out if I was going riding, but I disliked having
him intensely, for he ran about under the horses, nibbling at them and
making himself a general nuisance. He would watch me through half shut
eyes the minute I began polishing my riding boots; and try as I would to
evade him he nearly always came in the end.

He got so crafty in time he would wait for me at the bottom of the drive
and dash out from among the shrubs just as I was vanishing. One day we
had trotted some distance along the Sangatte road, and I was just
congratulating myself I had given him the slip, when looking up, there
he was sitting on a grassy knoll just ahead, positively laughing and
licking his chops with self-satisfied glee. I gave it up after that, I
felt I couldn't cope with him, and yet there were those who called him
stupid! I grant you he had his bad days when he was referred to as my
"idiot son," but even then he was only just "peculiar"--a world of
difference.

One job we had was termed "l