_la bas_.

One man to whom I had sent a parcel wrote me the following letter. I
might add that in Hospital he knew no English at all and had taught
himself in the trenches from a dictionary. This was his letter:

"My lady" (Madame), "The beautiful package is safely
arrived. I thank you profoundly from all my heart. The shawl
(muffler) is at my neck and the good socks are at my feet as
I write. Like that one has well warmth.

"We go to make some cafe also out of the package, this
evening in our house in the trenches, for which I thank you
again one thousand times.

"Receive, my lady, the most distinguished sentiments on the
part of your devoted

"JEAN PROMPLER,
"1st Batt. Infanterie,
"12th line Regiment."

I remember my first joy-ride so well. "Uncle" took Porter and myself up
to St. Inglevert with some stores for our small convalescent home, of
which more anon.

Before proceeding further, I must here explain who "Uncle" was. He
joined the Corps in 1914 in response to an advertisement from us in the
_Times_ for a driver and ambulance, and was accepted immediately. He was
over military age, and had had his Mors car converted into an ambulance
for work at the front, and went up to Headquarters one day to make final
arrangements. There, to his intense surprise, he discovered that the
"First Aid Nursing Yeomanry" was a woman's, and not a man's show as he
had at first supposed.

He was so amused he laughed all the way down the Earls Court Road!

He bought his own petrol from the Belgian _Parc d'Automobiles_, and,
when he was not driving wounded, took as many of the staff for joy-rides
as he could.

The blow in the fresh air was appreciated by us perhaps more than he
knew, especially after a hard morning in the typhoid wards.

The day in question was bright and fine and the air, when once we had
left the town and passed the inevitable barriers, was clear and
invigorating, like champagne. We soon arrived at St. Inglevert, which
consisted of a little Church, an _Estaminet_, one or two cottages, the
_cure's_ house, and a little farm with parish room attached. The latter
was now used as a convalescent home for our typhoid patients until they
were strong enough to take the long journey to the big camp in the South
of France. The home was run by two of the F.A.N.Y.s for a fortn