I am allowed up for a little this afternoon, so to-morrow I hope to be
about again.
Two great guns have been brought up near this camp. Two of the
patients are about again. Dr. Atkinson will not let me go back to work
again until my temperature has been normal for forty-eight hours. The
work is very hard and there is no end to it. I hear we are to be sent
for a few days' rest to another unit. We constantly have members of
other units coming over for two or three days' rest here; it is so
nice being friendly with all the other different units out here.
Dr. Dearmer has gone to Salonika to fetch the members of the new unit;
they arrive to-morrow.
We have heard that the _Saidieh_ has been torpedoed, and seven of the
crew are lost. The Germans have been after this boat for a long time.
We should have been torpedoed coming out if it had not been for the
rough weather and the sea-fog on Easter Sunday.
The _Saidieh_ had just returned to England under sealed orders by the
Government. I am thankful that our nice captain was saved--John
Reginald Ryall. We are anxious to hear about the chief officer and
chief engineer.
I have a Serbian to take my place while I am away from work in the
patients' kitchen; he is a splendid cook. He amuses us with his
moustache; he keeps it pressed in a frame in the early morning. I
think if it got burnt with his cooking it would be the death of him.
We started working this camp two months ago this Friday. We hear that
Dr. May left England on the 18th with a fresh unit.
The baby belonging to the poor woman who was wounded by shrapnel died
this morning; it is a blessing as the poor little thing had been so
neglected. But the dear nurse that was looking after the baby was
heartbroken. We called her Copper Nob, because she had such lovely red
hair.
Most of the wounded soldiers have quite lost their nerve. When they
hear that aeroplanes are coming they are quite panic-struck. We were
to have had practice this morning with balloons; one man fled.
We have such a number of hooded crows here, and some birds called
golden oriole.