This first visit to the wood was the most unpleasant time we have had, in some ways, which is consoling-now it's over!! Our casualties, owing to the vigorous digging which the men put in, were quite small. One rather tragic figure, though he was brave enough, and only rather badly shaken, was Wallis, our comic singer, who had certainly had as bad a time as most others among the men. It was in the recreation room at Arras, in the ------- , that he first came out strong as a humorist; and to see the poor fellow scared badly-and no wonder-during these later days of our trip, was sad for anyone who remembered his impersonation of that irate husband in search of the Toreadoror, or his song 'Leetle by leetle, and beet by beet' :- 'I am not fishing, though here I sit: I'm only drowning a worm in it Little by little, and bit by bit.' All of which, of course, was reproduced at ----------, at that quite memorable starlit concert in the orchard. Still, a rest will no doubt revive him. . . . << less