[Sidenote: ARCHIE]

Yesterday some Hun aeroplanes got across and came right above this camp,
a comfortable way behind the front line. Heavily strafed by our Archies.
The blue sky was dotted all over with the pretty little white clouds of
shrapnel.

Sergeant Pritchard and I were standing close to Flannagan (one of the
men's horses), and the men were at stables. We were all looking up and
longing to see a Hun aeroplane hit, when suddenly "s-s-s-swish, plop!"
just behind me. It was one of the Archie shrapnel cases. It buried
itself deep in the ground 3 yards from where we were standing. We dug it
up, and I'll bring it home for you. If it isn't too tediously heavy.

Of course, Archie shrapnel cases all come down, and you see hundreds of
them lying about; but I've never had one so close before. They sometimes
fall broadside on, and sometimes end on, in which case they bury
themselves fairly deep. All the Hun aeroplanes got away, alas!


_October 26._

Once more I'm going up to the strange dead village of ----. In many ways
I shall be sorry to go back to comfort and billets, because the
material for pictures here is very wonderful. You shall see several
small things (the powers that be call it waste of time!), and it's
infuriating to think that more can't be done.

I tell you, if you were here, and if I could paint a bit every day, I
should be quite happy. The "subjects" are endless, and in particular I