they give us is not ideal, but so long as it is hot and wet it goes down all right.  For dinner it’s stew—­stew—­stew, but it’s not bad.  Of course, some day I get all gravy and no meat, another day meat and no gravy.  Tea is quite all right.  We have plenty of bread, butter, jam, and cheese.  All food is fetched in dixeys (large boilers), and tea, stew, and bacon are all cooked in turn in these, so if the orderlies don’t wash them clean at dinner time we have greasy, stewy tea.

“I am getting a bit used to the marching, especially when there is anyone singing.  The favourites are ‘John Peel,’ ‘Cock Robin,’ ‘Oh, who will o’er the downs so free?’ ’John Brown’s Body,’ ‘Hearts of Oak,’ and ‘Annie Laurie.’  We all have little books of Camp Songs, and we learn them at night; it makes all the difference to the marching.  One of the songs is:—­

          “Oh, Mother is the leader of society, and
          You can see her name is in the papers every day. 
          She was presented at the court
          For fighting Mrs. Short
          Down our way.

     “Not an exactly edifying song, but it goes with a swing.  I
     can hardly keep my eyes open as I write this.”

On the whole and considering everything—­a wide phrase covering many things unspoken—­Sydney Baxter enjoyed his camp life, but Christmas was certainly a hardship.  He writes: 

Christmas Day, 1914.

“All day yesterday I was on fatigue work, and did not finish until 7.30 to 8.  We started the morning by building a hedge with bushes gathered from the Heath, and then we unloaded trucks of hay and straw and built them in a stack.  I got several stray pieces down my neck.  After that we had to unload a traction load of coal in one-cwt. sacks, and oh, they were dirty and awkward too.  We had sacks over our heads like ordinary coalmen, and you ought to have seen our hands and faces when we had finished.  We could not get any tea, as we were expecting three more trolleys.  After about two hours the trolleys came, and we unloaded some meat; it took three of us to lift some of the pieces.  Then after that bacon, oats, tea, jam, and about 1,000 loaves of bread.  We were proper Jacks-of-all-trades and were thoroughly tired out.

“This seems a funny sort of Christmas Day, but it will be all right after five o’clock.  Of course I’d rather be in London and see you all.  Still, all the same I’m rather enjoying myself this afternoon.  I have a big box of chocs. by the side of me, and they are gradually diminishing.  And now I feel in a better mood.”

The Y.M., as it is now always called by the men at and from the front, played a very important part, an invaluable part, in Sydney Baxter’s camp life.  He writes: