sixteen in the inner room, who spoke French, and that she would go and
fetch her. The niece appeared at this moment and was dragged forward;
all she would say, however, was "_Tiens, tiens!_" to whatever we asked
her, so we came to the conclusion that was the limit to her knowledge of
French, very non-committal and not frightfully encouraging. So with much
bowing and smiling we departed on our way, after distributing the
remainder of our buns among the group of wide-eyed hungry looking
children who watched us off. The old man had stayed in his corner the
whole time muttering to himself. His brain seemed to be affected, which
was not much wonder considering what he had been through, poor old
thing!

On our way back to Ramscapelle we had the bad luck to slip off the
"bloomin' pavee" while passing an ammunition wagon; a thing I had been
dreading all along. I got out on the foot board and stepped, in the
panic of the moment, into the mud. I thought I was never going to "touch
bottom." I did finally, and the mud was well above my knees. The passing
soldiers were greatly amused and pulled me to shore, and then, stepping
into the slough with a grand indifference, soon got the car up again.
The evening was drawing in, and the land all round had been flooded. As
the sun set, the most glorious lights appeared, casting purple shadows
over the water: It seemed hard to believe we were so near the trenches,
but there on the road were the men filing silently along on their way to
enter them as soon as dusk fell. They had large packs of straw on their
backs which we learnt was to ensure their having a dry place to sit in;
and when I saw the trenches later on I was not surprised at the
precaution.

Mysterious "Star-lights" presently made their appearance over the German
trenches, gleamed for a moment, and then went out leaving the landscape