I saw yesterday a letter picked up on the battlefield--it was from an
Australian private. "Dear Mother, sisters, brothers and Auntie Lill," it
said. "As we are about to go into work that must be done, I want to ask
you, if anything should happen to me, not to worry. You must think of
all the mothers that have lost ones as dear to them. One thing you can
say--that you lost one doing his little bit for a good cause.

"I know you shall feel it if anything does happen to me, but I am
willing and prepared to give my life for the cause."

Such lives hang from hour to hour on the work that is done in the
British factories.




CHAPTER XX

THE NEW FIGHTING

_France, August 20th._


It is a month this morning since Australians plunged into the heart of
the most modern of battles. They had been in many sorts of battle
before; but they had never been in the brunt of the whole war where the
science and ingenuity of war had reached for the moment their highest
pitch. One month ago they plunged into the very brunt and apex of it.
And they are still fighting there.