f and tender. No doubt my behaviour made the Turk
think I was a superior officer and worth a shell or two. With my
glasses I had examined very carefully the whole length of the lines,
then stepped into a half-filled-in trench and sat on the edge for some
time, watching operations at the gully I have mentioned. The second
shell was so near that I felt certain the third would have me. A
fourth shell followed and burst, but by this time I had picked myself
up and was at full gallop, and paid no heed to its whereabouts. The
whole four were fired in five or six seconds. (I got the fright of my
life; I felt that they were determined to have me, but the fright was
entirely due to the fact that I was alone. Never before or afterwards
did shells, however near, cause me the slightest discomfort.)

A camp story has it that a mule had to be shot the other day because
its cry was so confoundedly like the sound of an approaching shell and
caused needless alarm. This is presumably only a story, but it is
extraordinary how often one fancies one hears the song of a shell. One
day just before tea we were treated to a Jack Johnson, and during our
meal in the tent those of us who had not made off to our funk holes
ducked at every sound under the table, or behind a biscuit tin or any
other flimsy object utterly useless to give cover. Each time we raised
our heads we had a good laugh at our stupidity.

Those in the firing line are pitying us at the base to which nearly
all the shells are directed. Padre Hardie (afterwards V.C., D.S.O.,
M.C.) told me he had a major to tea the other day when the Jack
Johnsons started, and he bolted in the middle of tea, saying he could
not stand the life here, and made off to the firing line which he
thought much safer.

I asked a man to-day if he kept a diary. "No," he said, "there's
naething to say, I dee naething bit sleep, jink shells, and rin to the
Beach." It is amusing to see the "Beach Subdivision" move off when the
shells start, all pretending they are off for a quiet stroll, and
saunter away with their hands in their pockets.

_May 20th._--Still in reserve and absolutely idle. I was up early,
being requested by an officer of the 88th Field Ambulance to view his
tent which one of our water-carts had backed into and upset a number
of boxes of breakables, which he was terrified to look into,
especially one which contained several bottles of whisky. This gave me
a long day, and as a heavy cannonade