Triangle' was ready and waiting for us, and had a large
canteen, run entirely by ladies, on the station. Here we
were able to provide for our journey, fill our water-bottles
with tea and our haversacks with ham, rolls, and fruit. This
was the best refreshment room I have been into, and it was
our last glimpse of English ladies for many months. These
ladies are doing a splendid and most self-sacrificing work,
for their hours are long and their duties heavy. I wonder if
it has ever occurred to them how much their presence meant
to us boys? For many they were the last seen of the
womanhood of our race."

I wonder too. Will any of those ladies read these lines? I hope
so--I'd like them to know what their presence meant to just one of the
boys they have been serving so well. They will have their reward. I
should like them to have just one word of a Tommy's thanks now. He
continues:

"In our little compartment of six two were killed within a
month and one wounded; the other three survived until the
first of July, when one was killed, one was taken a prisoner
of war, and I was wounded and rendered unfit for further
service. When at last our train started, amid rousing cheers
for the ladies and a fluttering of white handkerchiefs from
the little group on the station platform, we seemed to leave
the last of civilisation behind.

"Before midnight we were under shell-fire in the Infantry
Barracks of Ypres."