landlady told me that in the room in which
I slept a German Prince Este had slept the night before he was killed
by the British near Caestre. This was very cheerful news, and I am
thankful I did not have his luck.

[Illustration: TRENCHES AT NEUVE CHAPELLE]

The night before we marched we chopped down a tree at my headquarters
and had a bone-fire and singsong. The Germans east of Ypres must have
thought Cassel was on fire. The tree was an old dead one and burnt
beautifully, but next day the owner put in a demand for one hundred
francs. I agreed to settle for twenty francs cash, or a requisition
for one hundred francs. The shrewd old Fleming chose the gold. We had
the worth of the money.

Early the next morning the battalion paraded again and marched to
Abeele, where thirty-eight motor busses that had been brought over
from England carried the men with their kits to the eastern outlet of
Poperinghe, where we alighted and marched down the famous road to
Ypres along which thousands of Canadians marched never to return.

We crossed a stone bridge over the Yperlee Canal, passed by a large
basin for ships with docks and warehouses, and found our billets in
the north section of the city. My billet was at an old gas works by
the railway and the house, which was a modern brick, had previously
been shelled, as a large hole through the wall and floor of the parlor
showed. The chimney of the old gas plant made an excellent mark. The
man of the house, his wife and nine children, were living in the
house. I took the front dining room as an office, put the telephones
up in the back parlor and took down the half inch steel plates that
were over the windows to keep out the shrapnel and let in the light of
day.

It is wonderful what fatalists we become in the trenches. This war is
not like any other modern war. In previous wars if a man was under
fire once a month he was doing well. Here on the western front of
Flanders in the British section if he gets out of rifle and shell fire
one day in a month he is doing well.

The effect upon the men is very evident. They sobered up as it were.
They were very happy and cheerful, but every man that goes in the
trenches soon makes his peace, with past, present and future. The
Protestants attend service every time they get a chance. There was a
great service in Estaires before we left for Cassel and every man
attended. The Roman Catholics attend Mass regularly and there is very
little at