ing rain again.

My kitty is getting very bad and spends all her nights out. She has
grown to be just a common ordinary cat now, but she caught a rat the
other day, so has become useful instead of ornamental.

March 20, 1916.

I am left in charge of the Ambulance for a time and am a bit nervous,
having French, English, American, Canadian and Australian nurses under
me.

We had quite an exciting time yesterday watching a German being chased
by four French machines. They all disappeared in the clouds so we do not
know what happened. To-day I counted eleven aeroplanes in the air at
once as well as three observation balloons. One aeroplane came so close
over the barracks that we could wave to the pilot.

We had a lot of patients out of doors to-day, some on stretchers, others
on chairs, and others had their beds carried out--they enjoyed it so
much. We take advantage of all the good weather.

It is pouring again to-night and the guns are booming in an ominous
manner.

One day last week I went to Poperinghe with Mrs. C----. We heard there
was some Canadian troops there and I was hoping to find some friends,
but the Canadians had been moved; however, we talked with some Tommies,
gave them cigarettes and chocolate and had a very interesting time.

March 29, 1916.

Just a week ago a French general was brought in wounded in the leg while
he was inspecting the Belgian trenches. We were rather overwhelmed at
first, but I arranged a corner of one of the wards and he spent one day
and night there while we fixed up an empty ward for him. The next day
his wife arrived and she is camping quite contentedly in another corner
of the ward. She, poor woman, has suffered much from the war but is very
brave. Her eldest son was killed, her second son is ill at Amiens, and
this is the second time the general has been wounded. The first time he
was in a hospital for three months. Her nephew, who is like a second
son, has also been killed, and his wife, a young woman of twenty-two,
taken prisoner by the Germans, and they have had no news of her since
September, 1914. The general's home was in the Aisne district and is, of
course, in the hands of the Germans. There is nothing left of the house
but the four walls; everything has been packed off to Germany, all the
wood work and metal has been taken for the trenches. The day