nothing out of the usual, for the 'Association of the Red
Triangle' was ready and waiting for us, and had a large
canteen, run entirely by ladies, on the station. Here we
were able to provide for our journey, fill our water-bottles
with tea and our haversacks with ham, rolls, and fruit. This
was the best refreshment room I have been into, and it was
our last glimpse of English ladies for many months. These
ladies are doing a splendid and most self-sacrificing work,
for their hours are long and their duties heavy. I wonder if
it has ever occurred to them how much their presence meant
to us boys? For many they were the last seen of the
womanhood of our race."

I wonder too. Will any of those ladies read these lines? I hope
so--I'd like them to know what their presence meant to just one of the
boys they have been serving so well. They will have their reward. I
should like them to have just one word of a Tommy's thanks now. He
continues:

"In our little compartment of six two were killed within a
month and one wounded; the other three survived until the
first of July, when one was killed, one was taken a prisoner
of war, and I was wounded and rendered unfit for further
service. When at last our train started, amid rousing cheers
for the ladies and a fluttering of white handkerchiefs from
the little group on the station platform, we seemed to leave
the last of civilisation behind.

"Before midnight we were under shell-fire in the Infantry
Barracks of Ypres."

He writes to his mother:

"My word we _were_ tired at the end of the journey. We are
stationed in the military barracks of the city, and have had
a chance of looking round the town. The buildings,
especially the cathedral, are very much damaged. The only
discomforts are the lack of food and the absence of money to
buy it. Both G. and I landed here without a penny, but
managed to borrow enough to buy a loaf. We know now what it
is to be hungry; we have 1/4 lb. of bread a day only, and no
milk in the tea, so you can see that what you want you must
buy, and it's terribly expensive here, 6_d_. for a loaf,
etc. But we shall be paid in a day or so. The only things
which are really necessary, and which we cannot get here,
are candles and Oxo cubes. Although I don't want to be a
burden to you