we stumbled
across a tiny isolated farm. As usual the voice of the inevitable
Tommy could be heard from within. They were tending cavalry horses,
which filled every available nook and corner behind the lines at a
period when cavalry was considered useless in action. Having learned
that one of these men had been body servant to a cousin of mine, who
was a V.C. at the time that he was killed, I asked him for the details
of his death. The Germans had broken through on the left of his
command, and it was instantly imperative to hold the morale while help
from the right was summoned. Jumping on the parapet, my cousin had
stood there encouraging the line amid volleys of bullets. At the same
time he ordered his servant to carry word to the right at once.
Suddenly a bullet passed through his body and he fell into the trench.
Protesting that he was all right, he declared that he could hold out
till the man should come back. On his return he found that my cousin
was dead. But help came, the line held, and the German attack was a
costly failure. His servant had collected and turned in all the little
personal possessions of any value which he had found on the body.

"I think that you should have got a Military Cross," I said.

"I did get an M.C.," he answered.

"I congratulate you," I replied.

"It was a confinement to barracks. A bullet had smashed to pieces a
little wrist watch which the captain always carried. It was quite
valueless, and I had kept the remnants as a memento of a man whom
every one loved. But a comrade got back at me by reporting it to
headquarters, and they had to punish me, they said."

It is true, "strafing" was at a low ebb at the time that I arrived in
France; but even I was not a bit prepared for the amount of leisure
time that our duties allowed us. There were in France hundreds of sick
and wounded for every one in the lonely North; but in Labrador you are
always on the go, being often the only available doctor. Our Unit had
at the time only some five hundred beds and a very strong staff, both
of doctors and nurses. In spite of lending one of our colonels and
several of our staff to other hospitals, we still had not enough beds
to keep us fully occupied. It gave me ample time to help out
occasionally in Y.M.C.A. activities, and to do some visiting among the
poor French families and refugees in Boulogne, close to which city our
hospital was located. I could also visit other Units, and give lantern
sh