"How I got back to the barn that night I do not know. I
certainly was not my natural self, and it was more a stagger
than a march. It was impossible to realise that I should see
George no more. And on the following day I had to face the
still harder task of writing to his parents and to the girl
he had left behind."

To this, written by Sydney Baxter, I add nothing. Not to me has it
come to dig a shallow, shell-swept grave for my chum. What words,
then, have I?




One Young Man Receives a Letter




CHAPTER VI

ONE YOUNG MAN RECEIVES A LETTER


George's stepfather wrote to Sydney Baxter as soon as he received the
heartbroken letter telling of his chum's death. To this letter from
the father I devote a chapter. It must stand alone. In all the
glorious annals of the war it is, to me at least, unique. Nothing that
I can write can add to its pathos or increase its heroism or enhance
its beauty. I leave it to speak for itself--this letter which will