We have so much work here we seldom know the day or the date. We have
just had tent drill, as we may move on soon, then we shall have to
pull down our tents ourselves. We have lost several of our stores
coming out: all the bacon and lots of other things. Some of the men
look dreadful and half starved; they seem to like our food. I have
five Austrian prisoners working for me. It is difficult to get much
work out of them, as they say, "No pay, no work"; but I said then
there will be no food, and now they cannot do enough for us; they are
not bad on the whole. I have a funny man who buys for me in the
market. He is too fat to fight, and he is always telling me, with his
arms in the air, that he works only for me. We slept outside on our
camp beds last night; it began to rain and the night nurses had to
carry us in. It is lovely to see how the wounded enjoy this camp life;
they are so happy. When they arrive they have a paraffin bath and
their clothes baked. We brought a lot of clothes with us from England.
Four officers came to see us this morning, and they lent us their
horses for half an hour for us to ride. I am to go next time.
[Illustration: Mrs. Stobart and part of the unit going out to
Serbia on the _Saidieh_, having Swedish drill.]
[Illustration: Hospital at Nish. When captured by the
Bulgarians, contained 1,500 patients.
_Face page 32_]
One of the doctors and I went for a lovely evening walk; the frogs
were singing to each other, quite a different noise to what we heard
before. This morning I took all my kitchen orderlies to have a bath,
five of them.
Mrs. Stobart took our photos and I gave the men their new clothes. I
managed to get them each a blanket and they were all very happy. They
built themselves a hut to sleep in. They are all Austrian prisoners.