in telegraph office
informs us of the battle today resulting in defeat of White Guards, the
volunteers of Pinega who were supporting the hundred Americans. Bad
news. It is desperately cold. No more sleeping. The river road is bleak.
We arrive at last--3:00 a. m. In the frosty night the hulks of boats and
the bluffs of Pinega loom large. So endeth diary of the remarkable
march.

No group of healthy men anywhere in the world, no matter what the danger
and hardships, will long forego play. It is the safety valve. It may be
expressed in outdoor sports, or indoor games, or in hunting, fishing or
in some simple diversion. It may be in a tramp or a ride into some new
scenery to drink in beauty, or what not, even to getting the view-points
of strange peoples. What soldier will ever forget the ride up to the old
three-hundred-year-old monastery and the simple feed that the monks set
out for them. Or who will forget the dark night at Kodish when the
orator called out to the Americans and they joshed him back with great
merriment.

Often the soldier on the great line of communication duty whiled away an
hour helping some native with her chores. "Her" is the right word, for
in that area nearly every able-bodied man was either in the army,
driving transport, working in warehouses, or working on construction, or
old and disabled. Practically never was a strong man found at home
except on furlough or connected with the common job of the peasants,
keeping the Bolo out of the district.

For a matter of several weeks in weather averaging twenty-four degrees
below zero three American soldiers were responsible for the patrol of
seven versts of trail leading out from a village on the line of
communication toward a Bolo position which was threatening it. One or
all of them made this patrol by sleigh every six or eight hours,
inspecting a cross-trail and a rest shack which Bolo patrols might use.
Their plan was never to disturb the snow except on the path taken by
themselves, so that any other tracks could be easily detected. One day
there were suspicious signs and one of the men tramped a circle around
the shack inspecting it from all sides before entering it.

Next morning, before daylight, another one of the trio made the patrol
and being informed of the circle about the shack, saw what he took to be
additional tracks leading out and into the shack and proceeded to burn
the shack as his orders were, if the shack were ever visited and