e of the
latest to join our battalion. His equipment was practically new. I was
given his shoes; they were much too big for me, but nevertheless I was
grateful for them.

That night I helped to carry back more of the wounded, and, with the rest,
assisted the engineers to fix up the barbed wire. This, coupled with the
fighting of the day, well nigh exhausted me, but I didn't get the rest
which I so much desired and expected, as I was detailed as one of our
company ration party, comprising six men and a non-commissioned officer.

Owing to occasional shell fire, we were obliged to crawl close to the
ground while on our way to the supply station. When we were coming back,
the boches used flare lights which made us visible to them. I had a box of
biscuits on my head. It made a fine target, and when I reached our
trenches I found that bullets had pierced it.

CHAPTER NINE

For a day or two after this we had comparative quiet. Only bursts of shell
fire threatened us, but these were so common as to be hardly noticed. The
stench of the dead was terrible--worse than we had yet experienced. Men
turned sick and were positively useless for hours, many being sent to the
base hospital for treatment for their violent nausea. Others developed
rheumatic fever from sleeping in the mud and water.

Shortly after this, during the night time, we were relieved by an English
regiment, composed of men who had not yet seen the worst of the fighting.
They were fresh and inclined to be jovial. They asked rather carelessly
about conditions as we had found them; we told them plainly what they had
to expect. That seemed to sober them somewhat but not greatly. So we
extended to them the conventional wish for the "best o' luck" and left
them to find out for themselves that they were in a campaign which could
only be called one of present desperation and ultimate sacrifice.

Upon passing through an unidentified village, we found it deserted and
nothing but a heap of ruins. The surrounding country as far as the eye
could see resembled the lid of a pepper box, being full of shell holes.
Many an oath came from the fellows, in the dark, as they stumbled into the
shell holes full of water.

At last we reached our billets. Here, at least, there were signs of life.
Troops and transports were passing us continuously, but we knew
nevertheless that we were near the firing line, for we could hear the
bursting of shells and see the flashes. The countr