It's not quite three weeks to-day since I came to England, and it seems
ages. The first week was spent on leave, the second I passed my exams in
gun drill and gun-laying, and this week I have finished my riding. Next
Monday I start on my gunnery.
Do you remember Captain S. at the Camp? I had his young brother to
dinner with me last night-he's just back from France minus an eye. He
lasted three and a half weeks, and was buried four feet deep by a shell.
He's a jolly boy, as cheerful as you could want and is very good
company. He gave me a vivid description. He had a great boy-friend. At
the start of the war they both joined, S. in the Artillery, his friend
in the Mounted Rifles. At parting they exchanged identification tokens.
S.'s bore his initials and the one word "Violets"--which meant that they
were his favourite flower and he would like to have some scattered over
him when he was buried. His friend wore his initials and the words "No
flowers by request." It was S.'s first week out--they were advancing,
having driven back the enemy, and were taking up a covered position in a
wood from which to renew their offensive. It was night, black as pitch,
but they knew that the wood must have been the scene of fighting by the
scuttling of the rats. Suddenly the moon came out, and from beneath a
bush S. saw a face--or rather half a face--which he thought he
recognised, gazing up at him. He corrects himself when he tells the
story, and says that it wasn't so much the disfigured features as the
profile that struck him as familiar. He bent down and searched beneath
the shirt, and drew out a little metal disc with "No flowers by request"
written on it.
I don't know whether I ought to repeat things like that to you, but the
description was so graphic. I have met many who have returned from the
Front, and what puzzles me in all of them is their unawed acceptance of
death. I don't think I could ever accept it as natural; it's too
discourteous in its interruption of many dreams and plans and loves.
Yours with very much love,
Con.