"Thank you so much for your inspiring and encouraging letter. I hope I am being useful out here. I sometimes doubt if I am very much use--not as much as I should like to be. Possibly I help to keep C Company officers more cheerful! I am very sorry they have taken me off machine guns for the present, I hope it may not be long. "Great happenings are expected here shortly and we are going to have a share. We are resting at present and have been out a few days now. We had only two periods of three days each in the trenches last time in.... "Our last two days in the trenches were appallingly wet. My conduct would have given me double pneumonia at home. My rain-coat was soaked, so I had to sleep in shirt sleeves under my tunic, and the knees of my breeches were wet. "The next day the rain was incessant, and presently I found the floor of my dug-out was swimming--the water having welled up through the ground below and the sandbags. "I didn't have to sleep on it luckily, because we were relieved that night. But before we went I had to turn out with fifty men and work till midnight in water up to one foot deep. So at 8.30 p.m. I got my boots full of cold water and sat out in them till 12, then marched some eight miles. After nine hours' rest and some breakfast we came here, another three or four. It was nice to get a dry pair of boots and our valises and a tent. "That night I rode into Poperinghe with Captain Taylor, and we had a really good dinner there--great fun. "We have a full set of parades here unfortunately, otherwise things are all right.... "Alec has very kindly had a 'Molesworth' sent me. Most useful. "I would like a motor paper now and then, I think! _The Motor_ for preference--or _The Autocar_. Aren't I young? "Captain Taylor has sprained his ankle by falling from his horse one night, and has gone to a rest home near. So I am commanding C Company at the moment. Hope not for long. Too responsible at the present time of crisis. "_9 September, 3.30 p.m._ "Must just finish this off for post. "We have just had an inspection by the Army Corps Commander, Lieut.-General Plumer [Sir Herbert]. "I am still in command of C Company, and had to call them to attention and go round with the General, followed by a whole string of minor generals, colonels, etc. He asked me a good many questions:-- "First.--How long had I had the Company? Then, how long had I been out? I said since March. He then asked if I had been sick or wounded even, and I said no! "Then he said, 'Good lad for sticking it!' at least I thought he was going to. "We are kept very busy nowadays. I must try and write a proper letter soon. I do apologise. "A box of cigarettes has arrived from, I suppose, Alec. Virginias, I mean, and heaps of them.