I saw the solitary Tommy walk right on to within a few yards of the German entanglements and pause a minute; then a boche's head could be seen. At this, Tommy picked his way over the entanglements very cautiously. My heart was in my mouth! I could scarcely keep from shouting when he reached the edge of the enemy parapet and--disappeared! By this time our regiment was practically all on the fire-step, breathlessly watching and ready for what might happen after the disappearance of this "madcap." Five minutes more elapsed. Then a head bobbed up at the same spot we had been watching, and out of the trench came--the selfsame Tommy. He was carrying something in his hand. My eyes kept steady on him until he reached his own parapet, where he stood a moment flourishing this article; then, clasping it to him as if prizing it, he got down into the trench. While he had stood there for a moment, his fellow trench-mates threw out their arms to take his precious bundle from him, but as I say, he seemed to hold tightly on to it. When I looked back at the place he had just left, the Germans were waving their helmets, with heads above the parapet. It was Christmas all right! and we certainly got a Santa Claus surprise in watching these unusual proceedings. They were getting bolder on both sides at this part of the line, and a few men began walking on their parapets, finally coming closer and then meeting men from the enemy trench. Then followed a football match with regimental shirts tied up. To see those Tommies charging with their shoulders and explaining the game to the Germans, who were not so well acquainted with it, was a Christmas festival in itself that will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. [We found out afterward that "Spud" Smith--who had just received a lovely "currant bun" from home and was overjoyed with it--was jumping round and making so much noise about it, that the fellows dared him to take it over to the Germans and wish them "A Merry Christmas." He at once threw off his equipment and made toward them, where he received his Christmas present in the form of a bottle of "schnapps." "Spud" Smith was the madcap of his regiment.] A few minutes after midnight, we were brought back to war again by the Germans shelling us all along the line.