Near Albert,
February 1915.
Over the spine of the ridge a horned moon of reddish hue peers through
the splintered, hag-like trees. Where the trenches are, rockets are
rising, green and red. I hear the coughing of the Maxims, the peevish
nagging of the rifles, the boom of a "heavy" and the hollow sound of its
exploding shell.
Running the car into the shadow of a ruined house, I try to sleep. But a
battery starts to blaze away close by, and the flame lights up my
shelter. Near me some soldiers are in deep slumber; one stirs in his
sleep as a big rat runs over him, and I know by experience that when one
is sleeping a rat feels as heavy as a sheep.
But how _can_ one possibly sleep? Out there in the dark there is the
wild tattoo of a thousand rifles; and hark! that dull roar is the
explosion of a mine. There! the purring of the rapid firers. Desperate
things are doing. There will be lots of work for me before this night
is over. What a cursed place!
As I cannot sleep, I think of a story I heard to-day. It is of a
Canadian Colonel, and in my mind I shape it like this: