I dunno if I did or did not write to you the day after that letter to
Calypso. We've had a good few days lately when 6 o'clock parade (6
o'clock a.m. you understand) and dusk were linked up by a day's work
and march so that no letters were written, and I dare swear the censor
was correspondingly rejoiced.
Our days spent trench digging (special communication trenches we
dig, pour chercher les blessées not for wicked men with arms or what
would the Geneva convention say?), our days spent trench digging are
a great source of enjoyment--curious, because they involve a bolted
breakfast--a seven o'clock start, an hour's jog in a hard, springless,
G.S. waggon, a halting, single-file march of a couple of miles and a
day of back breaking work at pick and shovel followed sometimes by
march and G.S. waggon back, sometimes by a long march and _no_ G.S.
waggon. The secret of their charm is the feeling of doing something
actual compared with the messing about cleaning waggons for inspection
and everlastingly tidying up camp to get it dirty again. Those trenches
may never be used but if ever it is necessary to bring in wounded from
the fire trenches to the aid posts under anything of a bombardment
they will mean endless lives saved. It's a pleasant thought. I haven't
seen the Lloyd George speech you mention.--I didn't know he'd written
anything lately. Do you know--coeval with his rise in popularity I
am getting a bit sick of him. He strikes me as being all enthusiasm
and no judgment--no sense of fitness. On the tide and with the tide
of universal approval is not the best place for a Welshman. I prefer
the "brave man struggling with adversity" to this popular idol playing
with his admirers, being rude to them just to show how well he can
apologise, etc., etc.
Books--yes, I want a pocket Browning mit everything in it! Is such a
thing to be had, I wonder? Of course I've got sizable pockets. Still
it's a tall order.
Anyway I want "Paracelsus" and "Men and Women" particularly. I am on
guard and writing letters for the next two or three days (I may only
send off one a day). Our supply of corporals is not quite adequate to
the demands made upon it and this will be my fourth night on guard in a
fortnight.--Rather fatiguing work, involving a night of cat naps fully
dressed and booted and a final rise at a little after 4 a.m. to call
the cooks and "duties," hoist the flag and remove the lamps and finally
(at 5 a.m.) to call the camp in general.