ere also many victims of the prevailing epidemics of trench-fever
and rabid influenza. The clearing station was thus hard put to it to
make room for all newcomers by means of evacuation. For our batch this
happened next evening. A long train drew up on the single-line railway
near the hospital, the stretcher cases were borne to special Pullman
cars, and the walking cases followed, each docketed in his button-hole
by a card descriptive of wound or ailment.

You can have no idea of the comfort of a modern R.A.M.C. train as used
at the Front. During the first few months of war, when the small amount
of available rolling stock was worth its weight in man-power, the
general travel accommodation for the wounded was the French railway
truck, with straw strewn over the floor. In these the suffering sick
were jolted, jerked, and halted for hours at a time, while the scorching
sun danced through the van's open sides and the mosquito-flies bit their
damnedest. But nowadays one travels in luxury and sleeping-berths, with
ever-ready nurses eager to wait upon every whim.

A sling-armed Canadian was one of the party of four in our compartment.
Great was his joy when a conjuring trick of coincidence revealed that
the jolly sister who came to ask what we would like to drink proved to
be not only a Canadian, but actually from his own little township in
Manitoba. While they discussed mutual friends the rest of us felt highly
disappointed that we also were not from the township. As evidence that
they both were of the right stuff, neither of them platitudinised: "It's
a small world, isn't it?"

The smooth-running train sped northward from the Somme battlefield, and
we betted on each man's chances of being sent to Blighty. Before
settling down to sleep, we likewise had a sweepstake on the Base of
destination, for not until arrival were we told whether it was Rouen,
Boulogne, or Etaples. I drew Boulogne and won, as we discovered on being
awoken at early dawn by a nurse, who arrived with tea, a cheery
"Morning, boys," and bread-and-butter thin as ever was poised between
your slim fingers.

The wounded and shell-shocked New Zealander had pegged out during the
journey. May the gods rest his troubled spirit!

From Boulogne station a fleet of ambulance cars distributed the train's
freight of casualties among the various general hospitals. At three of
the starry morning I found myself inside a large one-time hotel on the
sea front, being intro