Several runners had been despatched from the forward position with urgent messages for Headquarters, and all had suffered the common fate of these intrepid fellows. One Cockney named Sweet, and known as "Toot-Sweet" for obvious reasons, had distinguished himself upon various occasions in acting as a runner. A volunteer runner was called for to cover a particularly dangerous piece of ground, and our old friend was to the fore as usual. "But," said the company officer, "I can't send you again--someone else must go." Imagine his astonishment when "Toot-Sweet" said, "Giv' us this charnce, sir. I've got two mentions in dispatches now, an' I only want annuvver to git a medal." He went, but he did not get a medal.--_E. V. S. (late Middlesex Regt.), London, N.W.2._ Applying the Moral Before we made an attack on "The Mound of Death," St. Eloi, in the early part of 1916, our Brigadier-General addressed the battalion and impressed upon us the importance of taking our objective. He told us the tale of two mice which fell into a basin of milk. The faint-hearted one gave up and was drowned. The other churned away with his legs until the milk turned into butter and he could walk away! He hoped that we would show the same determination in our attack. We blew up part of the German front line, which had been mined, and attacked each side of the crater, and took the position, though with heavy losses. On the following day one of my platoon fell into the crater, which, of course, was very muddy. As he plunged about in it he shouted "When I've churned this ruddy mud into concrete I'm 'opping aht of it." This was the action in which our gallant chaplain, Captain the Rev. Noel Mellish, won the V.C.--_"Reg. Bomber," 4th Royal Fusiliers, 3rd Division._ Spelling v. Shelling An attack was to be made by our battalion at Givenchy in 1915. The Germans must have learned of the intention, for two hours before it was due to begin they sent up a strong barrage, causing many casualties. [Illustration: "'Ow d'yer spell 'delightful'?"] Letters and cards, which might be their last, were being sent home by our men, and a Cockney at the other end of our dug-out shouted to his mate, "'Arry, 'ow d'yer spell 'delightful'?"--_H. W. Mason (late 23rd London Regt.), 26 Prairie Street, Battersea, S.W._ Too Much Hot Water We were taking a much-needed bath and change in the Brewery vats at Poperinghe, when Jerry started a mad five minutes' "strafe" with, as it seemed, the old Brewery as a target. Above the din of explosions, falling bricks, and general "wind-up" the aggrieved voice of Sammy Wilkes from Poplar, who was still in the vat, was heard: "Lumme, and I only asked for a little drop more 'ot water."--_Albert Girardot (late K.R.R.), 250 Cornwall Road, Ladbroke Grove, W.11._ "Ducks and Drakes! Ducks and Drakes!"