There may be days of solid marching without a sight of the enemy. One may form part of a flanking force whose business is to march from point to point, fighting but seldom, but always presenting a threat to the enemy or his lines of communication, and thus ever on the move, with very little time for sleep or eating; again, one may be placed with a force which has to march half a day to come in contact with the enemy, and to fight the other half of the day; or yet again, it may be necessary to march all night in order to take a position--or be shot in the attempt--at dawn. In time of peace and on manœuvres, officers take care that compensating time is allowed to men, so as to give them the normal amount of rest; on active service, the officer commanding a force spares his men as much as he can, and gives them all the rest possible, but he has to be guided by circumstances, or to rise superior to circumstances and cause himself and his men to undergo far more than normal exertions. War, as carried out to-day, requires all that every man has to give in the way of staying power, and now, as in the days of the battle-axe and long-bow, physical endurance is the greatest asset a man can have on active service. The hard drinker in time of peace and the man who has been looking for “soft jobs” all the time of his peace service soon “go sick” and become ineffective; they may be just as brave as the rest, but they lack the staying power requisite to the carrying on of war. Men’s impressions of being under fire vary so much that every account is of interest. “My principal impression was that I’d like to run away, but there was nowhere to run to, so I stuck on, and got used to it after a bit.” “I felt cold, and horribly thirsty--I never thought to be afraid till afterwards.” “It was interesting, till I saw the man next to me rolled over with a bullet in his head, and then I wanted to get up and go for the devils who had done that.” Thus spoke three men when asked how they felt about it. My own impression was chiefly a fear that I was going to be afraid--I did not want to disgrace myself, but to be as good as the rest. One man, who came back wounded after the day of Mons, described how he felt at first shooting a man and knowing that his bullet had taken effect--for in the majority of cases, with a whole body of men firing, it is difficult to tell which of the bullets take effect. This, however, was a clear case, and the man could not but know that he was responsible for the shot.