with me.  Why they were “liers” instead of “sitters” I can’t think, as there was not much wrong with them. A propos I remember asking one night when an ambulance train came in in the dark, “Are you liers or sitters in here?” and one humorist scratched his head and replied, “I don’t rightly know, Sister, I’ve told a few in my time!” To return to our long convoy journeys:  once we had deposited our patients it was not unnaturally the desire of this “dismounted cavalry” unit to try the speed of its respective ’buses one against the other on the return journey; to our immense disappointment this idea was completely nipped in the bud, for Boss rode on the first car.

Permission however was given to pass on hills, as it was considered a pity to overheat a car going down to second gear when it could easily have done the hill on third!  That Boulogne road is one of the hilliest in France, and Susan was a nailer on hills.  I remember arriving in camp second one day.  “How have you got here?” asked Boss in surprise, “I purposely put you nineteenth!”

Heasy, Betty, and I in celebration of two years’ active service had permission to give a small dance in the mess at the beginning of the new year.  We trembled lest at the last moment an ambulance train might arrive, but there was nothing worse than an early evacuation next morning and all went off excellently.  I was entrusted to make the “cup,” and bought the ingredients in the town (some cup), and gravely assured everyone there was absolutely “nothing in it.”  The boracic powder was lifted in my absence from the Pharmacie to try and get the first glimmerings of a slide on that sticky creosoted floor.  The ambulances, fitted with paper Chinese lanterns, were temporarily converted into sitting out places.  It was a great show.

There was one job in the Convoy we all loathed like poison; it was known as “corpses.”  There was no chance of dodging unpopular jobs, for they worked out on an absolutely fair system.  For instance, the first time the telephone bell went after 8 a.m. (anything before that was counted night duty) it was taken by a girl whose name came first in alphabetical order.  She rushed out to her car, but before going “warned” B. that when the bell next went it would be her job, and so on throughout the day.  If you were “warned,” it was an understood thing that you did not begin any long job on the car but stayed more or less in readiness.  If the jobs got half through the alphabet by nightfall the last girl warned knew she was first for it the next morning.

To return to the corpses.  What happened was that men were frequently falling into the canals and docks and were not discovered till perhaps three weeks later.  An ambulance was then rung up, and the corpse, or what remained of it, was taken to the mortuary.

One day Bobs was called on to give evidence at a Court of Enquiry with regard to a corpse she had driven, as there was some mystification with regard to the day and hour at which it was found.  As she stepped smartly up to the table the Colonel asked her how, when it occurred some ten days ago, she could be sure it was 4.30 when she arrived on the scene.