were quartered had at one time been a small restaurant, but the
village had several times been shot up. The walls almost to the
ceiling were plastered with blood. There was hardly a house in the
village without several shell holes in the roof. Terrible tragedies
had been enacted here. The gardens had a full crop of black and white
crosses.

Colonel Meighen had a very swell house, the windows looking south
towards Hooge and Hill 60. He came over and welcomed me to St. Julien
and showed me his trench diary and plans of the trenches. Colonel
Meighen was a very thorough and painstaking officer, very much loved
by his men. Several companies of his battalion were French Canadians
and they fairly worshipped him. He was a model trench commandant,
never tired of strengthening the works, and always ready himself to do
anything that he asked of his officers or men. He had made an
excellent battalion out of his corps, and as we had alternated with
them in the trenches until this turn, we knew their worth. His second
in command, Colonel Burland, was also a keen and efficient officer.
The commandant of the 14th was not a "fusser." He was always cool and
collected and his example permeated his whole staff and officers.
Captain Holt, his adjutant, was one of the hardest working officers in
the division, cheerful, obedient and alert. He was a model staff
officer.

Major Leckie turned over the trench diary to my adjutant. He reported
that the 16th were hard at work fixing up the trenches which were in a
very poor condition. His brother, Colonel Leckie, was down at
commandant headquarters in the supporting trenches. Major Marshall
went down to take over from Colonel Leckie, and I stayed at report
headquarters to report back as quickly as possible that the trenches
had been taken over. The 16th Battalion did not take very long to get
out, and one by one our Captains reported their companies in place.

The battalions in the trenches reported that the front was quiet, and
it was added that there had not been a casualty in our section among
the French troops for a month.

My sleeping bag was placed in a corner of the only room with a sound
roof in the house, and I slept soundly in spite of the blood-bespattered
wall which told of a desperate struggle in this room during the great
battles of the previous November.

In spite of the fact that the French had not had a casualty for a
month, the map told me we were in the hottest corner in