At Dunkirk seven Taubes flew overhead and dropped bombs, killing twenty-eight people.  At Pervyse shells are coming in every day.  I can’t help wondering when we shall clear out of this.  If the bridges are destroyed it will be difficult to get away.  The weather has turned very wet again this evening.  We have only had two or three fine days in as many months.  The wind howls day and night, and the place is so well known for it that “vent de Furnes” is a byword.  No doubt the floods protect us, so one mustn’t grumble at a sore throat.

[Page Heading:  SHELLS AT FURNES]

1 January.—­The station was shelled again to-day.  Three houses were destroyed, and there was one person killed and a good many more were wounded.  A rumour got about that the Germans had promised 500 shells in Furnes on New Year’s Day.

In the evening I went down to the station, and I was evidently not expected.  Not a thing was ready for the wounded.  The man in charge had let all three fires out, and he and about seven soldiers (mostly drunk) were making merry in the kitchen.  None of them would budge, and I was glad I had young Mr. Findlay with me, as he was in uniform, and helped to get things straight.  But these French seem to have very little discipline, and even when the military doctors came in the men did nothing but argue with them.  It was amazing to hear them.  One night a soldier, who is always drunk, was lying on a brancard in the doctor’s own room, and no one seemed to mind.

3 January, Sunday.—­I have had my usual rest and hot bath.  I find I never want a holiday if I may have my Sundays.  I spent a lazy afternoon in Miss Scott’s room, she being ill, then went to Mr. Streatfield’s service, dinner, and the station.  A new officer was on duty there, and was introduced to the kitchen.  He said, “Les anglais, of course.  No one else ever does anything for anybody.”

I believe this is very nearly the case.  God knows, we are full of faults, but the superiority of the British race to any other that I know is a matter of deep conviction with me, and it is founded, I think, on wide experience.

6 January.—­I went to Adinkerke two days ago to establish a soup-kitchen there, as they say that Furnes station is too dangerous.  We have been given a nice little waiting-room and a stove.  We heard to-day that the station-master at Furnes has been signalling to the enemy, so that is why we have been shelled so punctually.  His daughter is engaged to a German.  Two of our hospital people noticed that before each bombardment a blue light appeared to flash on the sky.  They reported the matter, with the result that the signals were discovered.

[Page Heading:  THE SHELLING GETS WORSE]

There has been a lot of shelling again to-day, and several houses are destroyed.  A child of two years is in our hospital with one leg blown off and the other broken.  One only hears people spoken of as, “the man with the abdominal trouble,” or “the one shot through the lungs.”