" ...  How I long to be within the walls of our dear old church!  Some of the fellows can’t realise or understand when I tell them my church life and work are so much to me.  I owe all my happiness to God through my home and to the associations and work at the church.  I hope it will be His Divine Will to spare me for fuller activities and to make up for the sins of omission.

" ...  Don’t imagine for a minute we learn French out here.  We rarely see a civilian, and when we do we say, ’Avez vous du pain?’ and the reply is generally ‘How many do you want?’ They know more English than we do French.”

Later.

“The fight for Hill 60 and the struggle with the Canadians against the Hun at St. Julien has weakened our division, and we are to be transferred further south to a quieter part of the line.

“We are not sorry, for we feel sadly in need of a rest, and Ypres and its environments are literally a shell-swept area of countless graves.  The H.A.C. has relieved us, and we marched back the other night to huts a few miles behind the line.  The following evening we marched still farther back, crossing the Franco-Belgian border to the rail-head.  We are having a few days’ rest, spending many hours cleaning up, not only our clothes and equipment, but our ceremonial drill and exercises.”

One Young Man’s Sunday

CHAPTER VIII

ONE YOUNG MAN’S SUNDAY

July 25th, 1915.

“To tell you that I am at present on this Sunday afternoon lying on the grass watching a cricket match no doubt seems strange.  But that is what I am doing—­and with quite an easy conscience.

“We are some miles from the firing line in a fair-sized French town.  It’s a treat to be away from the noise of battle, and from sleepless nights, and in a civilised place again.  We are only here for a day or two, however, and then on we go—­or at least that is the rumour.

     “We had Church Parade at 10 o’clock this morning, followed
     by a route march, and so we are free this afternoon.

“Two matches are now in full swing, 13 and 15 v. the transport, and 14 and 16 v. the new platoons.  The platoons have licked them by 30 runs, 61 to 31 runs.  I may say my interest keeps wandering from the letter, although no slight to you is meant.

“Now please don’t think that Sunday is taken up entirely with cricket matches and things of that sort.  When the Padre can get round to our battalion there is always a service on the Sunday.  Sometimes a full-blown Church Parade, like this morning, but these are not what we call Sunday services.  The real Sunday services are voluntary ones, either in the open or in a Y.M.C.A. hut.  The fellows that go—­and