It was "clearing day" at the 56th General Hospital, Wimereux. Nurses
and orderlies were having a busy morning getting ready the patients who
were going to Blighty. Nearly all of them had been taken out to the
waiting ambulances except my Cockney friend in the bed next to mine,
who had just had an arm amputated and was very ill.
Two orderlies came down the ward bearing a stretcher with an oblong box
fixed on to it (to prevent jolting while travelling). They placed it
beside my friend's bed, and, having dressed him, put him in the box on
the stretcher. Then a nurse wrapped him up in blankets, and after she
had finished she said: "There you are. Feeling nice and comfortable?"
"Fine," said he, "but don't put the lid on before I have kissed the
orderly good-bye."--_E. C., Hackney, E.8._