r in the least.

I must tell you of a funny incident. That night when we were
sleeping on the heath, which I referred to in a previous letter
(p. 149), our Medical Officer was awakened at 2 A.M. by a frantic
signaller, that is, one of the R.E. motor-cycle dispatch riders.
It was pouring rain at the time and bitterly cold. The signaller
solemnly handed the M.O. an envelope marked "Urgent and Special."
The M.O. opened it, his mind full of visions of men mortally
stricken awaiting immediate attention and of other tragic things.
Judge his astonishment when he found inside the following note
from his O.C.: "Kindly render your monthly inoculation return to
Headquarters before the end of the week." What the M.O. said is
unprintable, as this return had already been sent in, and, in any
case, is just a formality of no importance to anybody.

My affection for the British soldier deepens the more I know of
him. To a student of human nature it is an everlasting joy to get
Tommy to tell you his experiences in his own inimitable language,
interspersed with all sorts of gory adjectives. It is so
different from and better than the sort of thing you read in the
Society papers. Human nature as it really is comes out strongly
in these splendid men at the Front. A talk with Tommy is of
intense interest to a chap as keen as I am on psychology.

_November 5th, 1915._

Still much occupied; out almost all day and every day, either on
horseback or in a motor. Much interest has been displayed in
these parts in the visit of the King. I have passed the chateau
where he is staying almost every day this past week.

The district where we are now quartered is filled with refugees,
among them some orphans from Loos. Some people about here have
been terribly hit by the war, but some are reaping enormous
profits out of it. Such is the caprice of fortune. All over this
neighbourhood you see the names of Life Guards, Royal Horse
Guards, Grenadiers, etc., carved on doors and panels. We are
close to a large town which is an important point in the scheme
of things.

Events seem to be taking a remarkable turn. Who, at the start of
the war, would have thought that we would have been able to land
a military force in the Balkan Peninsu