ting J.J.'s off one man in the middle,
with a candle to see by. His blanket, I found, was swarming, and it was
ours, not his, one of a lot taken on at Rouen as "disinfected"! (For one
ghastly moment I thought it might be the compartment where I'd spent a
good half-hour doing up their feet, but it wasn't.) I had the blanket
hurled out of the window, and they then slept. But they weren't going to
complain about it.

There was one jovial old boy of 60 with rows of ribbons. He had three
sons in the Army, and when they went "he wasn't going to be left
behind," so he re-enlisted.

_Sunday, January 10th._--Woke up at Bailleul, sun shining for once, and
everything--floods and all--looking lovely all the way down. Loaded up
early and got down to B. by 4 P.M. to hear that we are to go on to
Rouen--another all-night touch. We have put off the fourteen worst cases
at B., and are now on our way to R. This is the first time we have
shipped Canadians, P.P.C.L.I., the only regiment as yet in the fighting
line. They are oldish men who have nearly all seen service before, many
in South Africa.

Lots more wounded this time. Some S.L.I. got badly caught in a wood;
they've just come from India.

When I took the Devonshire toffee round, a little doubtful whether the
H.A.C.'s would not be too grand for it, one of them started up, "Oh, by
George, not really!"

We have a boy on board with no wound and no disease, but quite mad, poor
boy; he has to have a special orderly on him.

_Monday morning, January 11th, Rouen._--The approach to Rouen at six
o'clock on a pitch-dark, wet, and starlight morning, with the lights
twinkling on the hills and on the river, and in the old wet streets, is
a beautiful sight.

My mad boy has been very quiet all night.

_Tuesday, January 12th._--At S. all day. By some mistake it hasn't
rained all day, so we took the opportunity to get on with painting the
train. We worked all the morning and afternoon and got a lot done, and
it looks very smart: huge red crosses on white squares in the middle of
each coach, and the number of the ward in figures a foot long at each
end: this on both sides of the coaches. We have done not quite half the
coaches, and are praying that it won't rain before it dries; if it does,
the result is pitiable. The orderlies have been shining up the brass
rails and paraffining the outside of the train, and have also played and
won a football match against No. 1 A.T.

_Wednesday,