LETTERS TO HELEN


_June 6, 1916._

Well, here we are in the slowest train that ever limped, and I've been
to sleep for seven hours. The first good sleep since leaving England.
And now, as we've got twenty-eight hours to go still, there's time to
write a letter. The last three days' postcards have been scrappy and
unintelligible, but we departed without warning and with the most
Sherlock Holmes secrecy. Not a word about which ports we were sailing
from or to.

However, I'll tell you what I can without disclosing any names of
places.

After moving off at midnight from among the Hampshire pine-trees, we
eventually reached our port of departure. Great fun detraining the
horses and getting them on board. The men were in the highest spirits.
But how disgusting those cold rank smells of a dock are.

We sailed the following evening. Hideously rough, and it took seventeen
and a half hours. The men very quiet indeed and packed like sardines.
It was wonderful to think of all those eager souls in all those ships
making for France together over the black deep water. Some had gone
before, and some came after. But the majority went over that night. I
felt decidedly ill. And it was nervous work going round seeing after the